22 Mar 2023

Kebonyetsala Samoka, a local artist popularly known as Mogaka wa koma in the music industry has appreciated Batswana for supporting traditional music.

The genre, he said was growing fast and doing well in the industry due to support and encouragement from Batswana which inspired many other young talented artists to join the movement to explore their singing abilities.

The Gumare based artist is one of the pioneers of traditional music particularly Dikhwaere.

“We are enjoying an overwhelming support from Batswana as they book us for their events such as weddings, parties, birthdays and other community activities and thus helped our music to trend,” said Samoka in an interview.

Though artists, he said decried lack of support from the locals, he acknowledged that things had changed for the better as they were getting support.  

He acknowledged that Batswana had realised that music had its own cultural value and make a huge impact in shaping people’s behaviour and desires.

Samoka is not just a musician but he is also a composer, poet, stage performer and also plays Afro-jazz pop music. 

He was one of the nominees for Botswana Music Union (BOMU) in 2021.

Currently, he is working on his fourth album entitled Go bua ka batho. 

The eight track album is expected to be launched in August this year and Samoka noted that all dikhwaere songs carried strong message depicting real life situations in the society.

Some of the songs in the album includes; Chalebeke; Mechoba and the lead song, ‘Go bua ka batho’, which he said discouraged people from being negative. 

Chalebeke, he said was a love song as it narrated a story about a stranger who was accommodated by a married woman and later fell in love with. The two lovers were deeply in love, something he said dented the woman’s marriage.

Through the song Samoka tries to warn men and women to make be careful of their actions and decisions.

“The message of the song is to encourage couples to respect each other and uphold to their marital vows,” he added

Samoka is optimistic that all the songs would hype his support base as usual. 

He called on government institutions and private sector to make use of local artists especially for national events, adding that musicians were best placed to spread messages on socio-economic issues.

While he appreciate that some companies supported musicians, he said it was not adequate and believed that using them more often would inspire more young people to explore their talent and take their music career to another level.

 He also encouraged artists to stay focused and work as a team to grow the music industry despite the challenges they encounter. Ends