04 Oct 2017

Former diplomat, Edwin Matenge says the Domboshaba festival has become a model for many cultural festivals around the country.

Culture enthusiasts descended on Domboshaba cultural centre recently for the annual Domboshaba cultural festival to enjoy and appreciate Bakalanga history and culture. Conforming to the norm, the 17th edition kick started with a tour to the Liswingo site popularly known as Domboshaba monument.

The festival, Matenge said recognised and appreciated the fact that Bakalanga had a long established unique and rich history and culture of their own in Southern African context.

He added that the festival cemented the Domboshaba Cultural Trust (DCT) objectives to revive and promote culture for the benefit of present and future generations.

Again, he said language acted as a critical tool for self-identification and self-expression and thus needed to be embraced and shared.

However, he noted that there was a problem with the running of the festival due to lack of commitment by some board members.

Therefore, he suggested that board members should not be allowed to serve for too long because they tended to lose interest along the way.

A representative from the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development, Phinias Kgare stated that culture united people and also gave one some sense of belonging.

Kgare added that culture can be displayed in many ways be it dance, food, song or language.

He stated that Batswana, with all other nationalities around the world, were living in a global village that had its own culture influenced by technology and other trends.

That, he said might affect one’s culture in many ways hence it was important to ensure culture did not disappear.

Kgare highlighted that one way of preserving or documenting culture was through publishing of books. ENDS