23 Jul 2025

As part of fundraising for their journey to the World Dance Festival billed for South Korea in September, Mophato Dance Theatre will from tomorrow until Saturday showcase a special double bill production at Maitisong theatre.

The group and Kreative Koncept Kola will present a double bill performance which features two shows shown one after another, Borwa and Inyaya. The shows are previous productions done by Mophato Dance Theatre, directed and choreographed by Andrew Kola and Kalima Mipata.

“Inyaya addresses issues of ritual murders that are happening and have happened in our country, while Borwa focuses on migrant labour when fathers went to South Africa to work in the mines for better opportunities,” said director of the productions Kola.

Kola further said Borwa is about broken families as research showed that fathers left families in Botswana and ended having new families in South Africa. 

“It is a production that showcases how life was back in the days around the 1960s or beyond that,” Kola said adding the production also highlighted  the rite of passage for men in some villages of Botswana such as Molepolole. 

“Working in the mines was the new initiation for boys and eventually the traditional initiation was somehow erased,” he said.

Putting together a theatre production takes a lot of time and resources, however Kola explained that they prepared in a month because these were productions which have been there and only needed to be developed to make it more appealing to the audience. 

“We did research before on these productions, and we reinforced our research again as we developed them, because these are historic events which happened and they are historic performances that need to be documented and shown to people,” said Kola adding that they are factual and not fictional showcases.

Mophato Dance Theatre did not open cast for this double bill, but used in-house. The production has a crew of almost 35 people who are hired. 

“In terms of job creation, this production can create more jobs if it was consistent but it is only a once off two months’ preparation production for the Korea World Dance Festival. And in this production, some of the crews are paid and some are raising funds for the festival,” Kola said.

He encouraged people to attend the show and appreciate ‘the new modern way of documenting history, because most of the history was not documented. Kola said with these productions, people will appreciate what influenced Botswana music, language, dress code and culture. 

“People went and travelled for better opportunities for their families and they came back home with a different feel of music, language, dress and culture," said Kola, adding that the labour migration influenced Botswana culture in more ways.

Tickets for the Friday and Saturday showcases. are sold for P250 single ticket and P400 double while tomorrow’s show is corporate night. ENDS