The passion play gripping
Monday, April 16, 2012
It is a different theatrical experience not previously performed in Botswana. It begins at the parking lot of Westwood International School. That's the departure point for the play. The ticket holders embark on a bus that takes the audience to the venue at Diphiring, about 15 minutes drive past Phakalane. The bus ride is also interactive thanks to the "man with the sweets and fruit". He talks and interacts with the passengers on the way there.
The venue is nature's own stage on property loaned to the production by women's rights activist and former High Court judge Unity Dow. It's a beautiful landscape; Botswana bush with outcrops and boulders hugged by the roots of fig trees. The audience walks as a group at a slow pace from the gate led by a young shepherd. He doesn't say much but points with his stick at different items at three "stations" on the way to the first "performance stage"; umbrellas, a small stool (a drink crate with a cushion) and a bottle of water are picked up by each and everyone.
The chieftainship spats between Seretse and Khama’s uncles have purely degenerated into a permanent elephant in the room and it does not seem anyone cares to ensure this hurdle is dealt with promptly for the attainment of peace for GammaNgwato’s bogosi.Just as the proverbial, when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers aptly suggests, and so is the state of the institution of bogosi in GammaNgwato.Such is the case because the...