The power of song, dance in electioneering
Ryder Gabathuse | Monday July 24, 2023 06:00
Thaga uses songs to win public attention and generally appeals to a large number of people as music and politics are often interconnected. It is common that politicians and singers craft pertinent lyrics to drive home their targeted political messaging through song and dance. Whatever messaging they want can be summed up through certain songs to enunciate some patterns of thoughts and moods about politics.
Thaga could not agree more when he recently led his party, the Botswana Patriotic Front (BPF) into a massive campaign song in Serowe on July 7, 2023 on the eve of the Serowe-West by-election, which his party won. The star rally was held at the Morning Star grounds in the village.
A staunch member of the Zion Christian Church (ZCC) male choir, otherwise known as mokhukhu, in Serowe, Thaga was excited as he explained his ability to package songs for political gains. The song went on and on with the whole space at the Morning Star grounds literally on fire as black and yellow-kitted partisan party diehards joined in song and dance.
“We use songs during electioneering seasons to woo the masses and win the hearts and minds of the people. To me, music in politics has the ability to set our political rallies on fire,” Thaga told Mmegi.
His emphasis is that well-packaged songs and dance at political rallies are other important tools that attract masses to the rallies and might include direct commentaries on targeted political subjects. Political music if well packaged in an appealing manner and laced up with certain political subjects can be a killer.
Full of energy, Thaga led a partisan song that was also used as a commentary to appeal to the masses that are pro former president Ian Khama who is also the BPF patron. The name Khama was used in a song to a large extent to bamboozle the beleaguered BPF president Biggie Butale who did not feature anywhere as trust was that for the by-election, Khama was the right man to anchor the song as he has massive appeal to the constituents. The BPF mass choir spewed out factional sentiments. In fact, other leaders representing political parties aligned to the BPF like Botswana National Front (BNF) and Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) president, Duma Boko, Alliance for Progressives (AP) vice president Wynter Mmolotsi and others also used Khama’s name as a trumpcard for the last by-election.
The song, “...Yoo tshwanang le Khama ke mang...(Who is like Khama?)” is a corrupted version of a hymn that speaks to Jesus Christ emphasising that there is no one like Him. The chorus further goes and answers, “Ga a yo yo o tshwanang nae! (There is no one like Him).” “Ga ke ise ke mmone (I am yet to see him!)”
Momentarily, the star rally went crazy, perhaps, to the chagrin of Butale, who as the party president was not featured anywhere in the song lyrics. Normally, party songs are tailor-made with the party president in mind. The song went on and on with the whole space at the Morning Star grounds literally on fire as black and yellow partisan diehards joined in song and dance.
The belief is that, with the ruling Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) breathing fire on the neck of the BPF in the by-election campaigns, Khama who is currently on self-imposed exile in South Africa, was seen as the Messiah who the belief is that has the wherewithal to take the BPF out of any possible quagmire and help it retain the parliamentary seat.
Thaga had a field day as the masses easily congealed with his controls as the choirmaster. The masses from around five marquee tents and surrounding, stomped the ground systematically, singing and dancing in a well co-ordinated fashion. His song was really suitable for the partisan masses that never disappointed as they shouted Khama as if he was contesting the by-election. Thaga, who describes himself as a singer by birth, is adamant that he chose to sing the song on Khama as part of his party’s electioneering ahead of the by-election. He is adamant that no one in the BPF can sing the song better than him hence he was the lead singer on the final campaign day.
“Even Khama can tell you that no one can sing the song better. I have this thing about singing that I can’t explain,” he said in a recent interview. He believes that there is no one influential in politics like Khama.
“Khama might be fallible like anyone of us, but he is a good man. He did a good thing during his tenure as the State president to balance the north-south divide. I only sing this song when it refers to Khama and no other political leader and not even Butale,” he said without explaining his bias.
Due to Khama’s appreciation of his presentation of the song, he would request him to sing the song again at the rally. He concedes that the song threw the party masses into political spirits. Thaga does not think a song like the one he led on Khama really has tribalism connotations nor can it promote cult within the party.
“I am not tribalistic in nature. I sang the song in reverence to Khama,” he insisted. To him, music possesses a unique power to inspire, motivate and energise a political campaign as they did. USA-based Nigerian scholar, Associate Professor Uche T. Onyebadi of Texas Christian University has aptly demonstrated the power of music in politics in his paper entitled: “Music and messaging in the African political arena.”
“...That music can be used to attain political goals as music in politics has entrenched the democratic trend towards pluralism and tolerance where the foci is not on sameness but on paying constructive attention to differences,” said Onyebadi.
He added: “Political music may be a parody of a popular song with new lyrics or simple substitution of names and variations of text; an old song assuming new meanings based on current realities that are different from the time it was first composed or changing the tunes of an already existing song. Popular political music allows voters to be involved in the political process, and offers them the platform to appreciate the things happening around them.”