12 Oct 2017

Ethiopian Minister of Culture and Tourism says she is impressed with the strides being made by Thapong Visual Arts Centre in nurturing and growing the creative arts industry in Botswana.

Speaking in an interview after the tour of the centre, Hirut Mariam Teketel said Botswana and Ethiopia would sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to bind and foster relations between the two nations in the areas of cultural cooperation.

“We are here in Botswana for the inaugural session of the Botswana/Ethiopia Joint Ministerial Commission (JMC),” she said.

She noted that Botswana and Ethiopia signed a general framework agreement on cooperation in 2012 which provided a platform to explore and promote bilateral cooperation between the two countries.

The JMC was subsequently established on July 2, 2017 with a view to further deepen and broaden the scope of cooperation between the two countries.

When meeting some of the artists at Thapong, the minister said she was impressed with the artworks and hoped to have exchange programmes that would allow both artists from the divide to go in opposite directions.

“Sharing of different ideas between artists from Ethiopia and Botswana would go a long way in making sure that we preserve, understand and share each other’s culture,” she said.

The coordinator of Thapong Visual Arts Centre, Reginald Bakwena said the centre and its artists were ready to work with their counterparts from Ethiopia.

“We need to push the creative dream as a team as different experiences always birth new ideas that bring a fresh and unique perspective to the different disciplines of art that we have,” said Bakwena.He informed the minister that Thapong relied on NGOs, the private sector and government for funding.

“Government has done a lot in supporting us and we want the private sector to help out as much as they can to move us forward,” he said.

He said platforms such as the JMC were important as they encouraged dialogue, cooperation and sharing of ideas on how both countries could grow their cultural identity together.

“More of such should happen and this will afford the two countries an opportunity to further enhance cooperation in critical sectors of the economy,” stated Bakwena.ENDS