Kuminda Farm hosts cultural celebration
Pini Bothoko | Thursday January 21, 2016 11:37
The event organiser, Lucy Hinchliffe said Zhizha is all about celebrating traditional cuisine and culture.
The theme for this year’s event is ‘Ko Gwiligwa’ meaning ‘Let’s go back’.
“With this theme, the idea is for all Batswana to go back to their roots to learn about and know their culture, their background, the history of their tribes, villages and Setswana culture in general,” Hinchliffe said.
She said preparations are underway for the cultural feast and calls for everyone’s presence to discover and taste amazing wholesome food that is not normally found in daily meals.
She said like in the past, they are going to have a wide variety of delicious dishes both Setswana and iKalanga prepared in the traditional way. “Every year we make sure that we introduce new dishes that we never offered hence a calling on revellers to attend this year’s new offering to be revealed at this year’s event,” said Hinchliffe.
She said that as usual they expect the day to be characterised by fun traditional music and games. “Like in the past we will allow revellers to compete in traditional games like Diketo, Mmele, Koi, Morabaraba to mention but a few. There will be no live bands like in the past. Artists will only play traditional instruments to give the event a true cultural feel,” said Hinchliffe.
She said they are expecting the popular Francistown-based traditional groups of Dinkgwe-Nkgoga and Makombela to entertain revellers.
“Dinkwe Nkgoga will be mostly entertaining the audience with their Phathisi and Setapa dance moves while Makombela will offer Hosanna and Mokomoto iKalanga dance,” said Hinchliffe, adding that Basetse Mamo the living legend for iKalanga traditional dance, the leader of Bongolo Dza Ntogwa will also take part in the event.
She said once again the Sesarwa dance popularly known as Boro performed by the Basarwa from Lepashe village will mesmerise traditional music enthusiasts.
Hinchliffe said that Kuminda Farm is looking forward to hosting a successful Zhizha as the Ministry of Youth, Sport and Culture (MYSC) have sponsored the event this time around in the event’s third anniversary.
“We have invited the Minister of Youth, Sport and Culture, Thapelo Olopeng, the Minister of Environment, Wildlife and Tourism, Tshekedi Khama and the area Member of Parliament and the Assistant Minister of Education, Skills and Development, Fidelis Molao to grace the event and we are still waiting for their responses,” said Hinchliffe, adding that it will be good for them to attend the event as it promotes culture.
Zhizha has become part of the local cultural calendar in Marobela. This will its third year being hosted and it promises to be bigger and improved.