15 May 2017

 Romeo Balebetse was crowned The Last Kgori Standing during Culturati mhele challenge over the weekend.
Balebetse won a trophy after defeating David Manenye in an electrified mhele challenge, which had 28 participants. The event was made even more interesting by the performance of Poetic Mob, Mafitlhakgosi Traditional Group and Julia Ross with her Poetry-Jazz lines.

Culturati Magazine combined mhele game with Kori Bustard bird known as Kgori in Setswana to mark the beginning of their annual cultural conservation event.
Culturati managing director, Virginia Masole said as a magazine they realised that mhele was slowly disappearing as most Batswana have lost interest in playing the game.
“We chose to combine mhele with Kgori because most people are not aware that Kgori is a national bird,” she added.

Masole said Botswana has signed UNESCO agreement on convention for safeguarding of intangible cultural heritage in 2003, hence the move to conserve mhele.
She noted that mhele has been classified as intangible culture because the skill of mastering it was more on the use of brains and knowledge.
She said Culturati aimed at selling and conserving intangible culture by encouraging transmission of cultural knowledge from parents to youth.
“Imagine if our parents are to be buried with this rich culture.
A nation without culture is dead,” she added.

Masole further said Culturari would partner with Botswana Traditional Games Association (BOTGA) in building mhele by forming clubs and seeking funding for mhele competitions.
She said it would be ideal if the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development included mhele in Presidential competitions in an effort to revive and preserve it. For his part, BOTGA chairperson, Evans Kesiilwe said they were trying to conserve mhele as a game and its original name.

“There are names used to identity mhele in our region being mmele, molabalaba and morabaraba, but they mean the same thing,” he added
Kesiilwe cited that mhele needs coordination because the player uses brains just as they woulkd in chess and math.
He further said for one to play mhele effectively they need to take calculated risks.ENDS