28 Jul 2025

Mophato Dance Theatre’s three-day double bill of Inyaya and Borwa took the audience down the memorylane at Maitisong theatre. 

Borwa, set in the times of migrant mine labour tells the story of young men who left the dusty villages of Botswana to the industrial might South Africa to chase better livelihood and improve their families’ economic status. 

The play shows how this rite of passage influenced the discourse in Botswana through culture, language, music as well as fashion.

Borwa showcases lives of migrant workers through scenes that range from realistic everyday experiences to dream sequences with mimed working scenes. 

While the play beautifully displayed the excitement of transitioning from a boy to a ‘lebozo’ arriving in the mines and experiencing a different life from home with long hours underground and a life of parties at the end of laboured week, it did not showcase struggles and impact left on families behind, women and children.

It also did not give the holistic picture of the everyday struggle of race inequalities, poverty, broken families of the hands that built the mine cities of South Africa. 

Narration by Brando Keabilwe only interpreted excitement and entertainment that came along with migrant mine labour.

However, true to its antique setting, Borwa had some great vintage fashion and nostalgic music. 

The set design was slick with the obvious Mukhukhu house structure, and the production went beyond to display a mineshaft, making the story real.

And Inyaya was one of Andrew Kola’s plays that would make a viewer think and took the viewers to the 1994 Segametsi Mogomotsi students’ riots. 

With captivating music and the leading actress Kese Ramsden, emotions were displayed and the story told through Kese’s emotional intense solo performance.

Kola has really done much research for this production and the historical content was evident. 

He displayed depth of the torture, the pain that Segametsi went through and brought in the anger of students as they rioted in protest. 

“I am excited and inspired to see new talent taking over roles which I once acted. 

Seeing what we built from the grassroots is an inspiration and it makes me proud and we need to cultivate this and nurture this new talent to grow our industry,” former Mophato Dance Theatre and lead on Inyaya Lone Motsumi said in an interview.

She said new talent was a proof that Mophato Dance Theatre was growing, and that theatre was also gaining momentum in Botswana despite not being given the support it deserves. ENDS