23 Nov 2016

They are united as an uncommon group playing an uncommon music, borrowed from the past.

Each member of the band, which is made up of about 31 men and a few women has a duty to blow the pipe to produce a sound.

The more each man blows the pipe, the more the disjointed sounds harmonise to create an intriguing musical piece, while the women will usually ululate or sings.

Simple as it may sounds, Balete Ditlhaka Traditional Group has grown from 2003 to master the sophistication of turning disjointed pipe sounds into something worth listening to.

According to the group leader, Sialala Mooketsi, Balete Ditlhaka Traditional Group exists to promote and preserve Balete Culture.

“The existence of the band serves to preserve the language of the musical idiom and the culture of Balete”, explained Mooketsi.

As such, majority of their songs are made up of folk songs that members learnt from childhood.

During the yesterdays, Balete elders would blow the reeds, known as letlhaka hence the group opted for the name Ditlhaka although they have improvised for reeds today.

He said the band, which is made of elderly people seek who to teach young people how to play reeds and protect Balete culture.

“It is important for us to teach our young ones how to play reeds, to pass to them the knowledge from our elderly and protect our culture from dying”, said Sialala.

He said the band used to perform at University of Botswana around 2009, promoting and educating students about the importance of culture.

Among other noteworthy performances, the band performed at Cape Town and Gantsi Cultural shows.

The Balete Ditlhaka Traditional Group is now a common feature at traditional events in Ramotswa and they recently captivated the audience during the golden jubilee at the Ramotswa Kgotla.

He added that the band is sometimes hired to share their cultural experience at weddings and other celebrations to give people the taste of their musical.

Despite the love they share in the band, they face some challenges as sometimes band commitments clash with their schedule, as grown up people, they have families and other band members are working which make it difficult for the band to come together at times.

Mooketsi furthers recalls that even though they are elders they have been cheated in the industry as a person they engaged in 2014 to shoot their DVD disappeared with their money.

Nonetheless, Balete Ditlhaka Traditional has an eight track album titled Mma Jong, which was released in 2014. BOPA