Bangwaketse showcase their culture
Mpho Mokwape | Monday October 12, 2015 16:23
The three-day event started on Friday with bonfire and performances by many artists who kept the audience up throughout the days. There were dikhwaere, poetry, dikgafela, borankana and other cultural activities. Dikhwaere groups such as Dipilara from Moshupa and Matebele from Phitshane Molopo also performed at the event.
Recording artists, Kgokgonono and Kgagaripa rendered some of their dikhwaere and borankana hits which were well-received by the festival govers. It was testimony to the fact that indeed traditional music can also be mainstream and become a source of income.
Polka dance, practised by Afrikaans-speaking people in Botswana, also took its place at the Bangwaketse cultural extravaganza. While watching entertainment, spectators at Mmakgodumo Dam sampled traditional food such as kabu, logala, dinawa, seswaa and bogobe jwa lerotse. Apparently, Bangwaketse have joined other tribes such as Bakwena and Bakalanga who celebrate their culture annually through their name tags: Dithubaruba and Domboshaba.
Another notable aspect of the Mmakgodumo event was that most women adorned themselves with leteisi, lending credence to the theme: “My culture, my pride” with a smorgasbord of colours Perhaps the highlight of the festival’s first day was when Kgosi Malope II of Bangwaketse arrived on horseback leading his regiment.
His was a demonstration of how successive generations of dikgosi used horses during special ocassions and in wartime. It was beautiful spectacle as all the horses moved in tandem with that of the kgosi. The cultural show ended with a jazz festival on Sunday.