Johwa, Mosele to perform at Millennium jazz joint

LEKOPANYE MOOKETSI
Correspondent | Friday April 16, 2010 00:00

 

The two men share the same love for culture and the guitar. While Johwa sings in iKalanga, Mosele is renowned for his Setswana lyrics. Mosele has done such popular hits like Selina, while last year the song of the moment was Ntsa E Jele Ntsanyana.

Popularly known as Satjilombe to his fans, Johwa is also a legend in his own right. He has released a number of albums in his career spanning just over a decade. Some of Satjilombe's albums include Tjibhako and Batalaunda. Tjibhako includes tracks like Pankaka and the SADC song. The two musicians have started collaborating by holding joint shows, which is what Johwa proposed in a recent interview. He said Afro jazz artists should start holding joint shows.

Last month, Johwa and Mosele performed at the same show hosted by Duma fm at the Botswana Marketing Craft courtyard. Mosele had never had a problem of working with other local artists. Although he is based in Norway, he has always engaged local artists in his recordings. One of them is Bra Malombo Mmereki. He also featured on Mmereki's album, Ga Ke Robale.

On Easter Friday, Johwa performed with Mosele in Francistown. But Johwa was not able to accompany Mosele to South Africa the following day because he still had another show in the North. This was just the beginning of their collaboration. Both musicians have built their names in local music. They have also featured in the Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU) awards.

Mosele has been in music for a long time. He has played with some of the country's oldest groups like Kalahari. Since the days of Kalahari in the '80s, Mosele has travelled extensively around the world, especially in Europe. He was part of Hugh Masekelela's band when Kalahari left for the United Kingdom (UK) in the '80s. However, things did not go well for the band in UK. After the group disbanded, Mosele remained in the UK before relocating to Norway where he has become an established artist. But for Mosele, home has always remained home. During the course of the year, he usually jets into the country, to stage shows.

Over the Easter holidays, he organised a show in Mafikeng in South Africa for Botswana artists. He intends to do a follow-up show in South Africa with the same artists.

Johwa on the other hand, came into music at a later stage in his life. But he introduced a unique style that he calls iKa-jazz. So far, he has released a number of albums and has become one of the country's music giants.