Fables should have taken Rick Ross to Maun
Thalefang Charles | Friday January 13, 2017 14:28
Although the organisers extensively marketed the show, Gaborone was just too deserted to fill-up the Duma FM Grounds on New Year’s Eve.
Right from the announcement, which was a major entertainment coup in Botswana, the show was met with huge skepticism. Many took it for yet another of social media’s “fake news”. In the streets many thought out loud saying “some Gabz cats tryna flash us”. It was so big it was unbelievable.
Almost everyone, Yours Truly included, just went on with their festive plans and did not bother to reserve a New Year’s Eve for the greatest rap concert ever to be staged in Gaborone even though we wished to watch Rozay.
This was because Fables, barely known promoters, wanted to cut short our pilgrimages to our festive destinations and return to this uninspiring city that we struggle to live in for an “unbelievable” show on New Year’s Eve. With all the notoriety we got from local promoters lately, we were not ready to just throw away our pilgrimages that we look forward to throughout the year for some show that sounded to good to be true.
We were all bemused as to why would such a great rapper choose to spend his New Year’s Eve in a city that we always run away from during the festive season. We wondered why would Fables choose Gaborone as the venue knowing that our beloved Gabs turns into a ghost town at the end of the year. Things just did not add up. Most of the people that live in Gaborone have never seen this city during the festive season. It is embedded in our collective pyche that when the festive break arrives, we all head for the villages.
Nowadays, the village festive pilgrimages are being cut short as people embark on various travels. The advent of social media, where people want to check in at new places and chase those cool Instagram photos have led to many people embarking on more travel. The top local tourist destination in Botswana is undoubtedly Maun in the Ngamiland. Every year, sometime after Christmas Day, many people (Yours Truly included) take the trip to Maun.
So on December 30, while in Maun, when the images of Rozay in a queue at OR Tambo Airport for Gaborone-bound flight appeared on our timelines, we felt envious and wished we were in Gabz for the show. But then again when visualised Gaborone, the painful thoughts of the difficult grind and empty city streets of festive season made us lose interest.
There were lots of Gabz people in Maun. Together with some friends we watched the Rick Ross’ “boss arrival” at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport on social media while chilling at the Big Tree along the Thamalakane River. We were having some good time with local boys (di-poo) and beautiful women (affectionately called ‘di-carcass’ by the local boys) in what is referred to as “go stager”. Drinks from our cooler-boxes were cold, it was not super-hot and being there watching the river and all the these happy people made us content. We could not leave.
If we needed some action, there was a boat-cruise to enjoy our drinks while getting some fresh river breeze. Maun police were at their charming best and not harassing anyone, just urging everyone to be vigilant and enjoy responsibly. It was beautiful and we wished Rick Ross was in town. Someone even exclaimed, “waitse, Rick Ross show should have been here”.
Fables should have benchmarked from ESP Afrika, the organisers of the Cape Town Jazz Festival on the timing and importance of the location of the festival. The festival line-up is essential, but the venue counts a lot for festival-goers. There are many people who usually travel to the Cape Town Jazz Festival without any idea who is on the festival line-up, but all they care about was that it is in Cape Town.
Maun has an amazing character that keeps pulling crowds back in there. The town is arguably the best place to be during the festive and Easter holidays, so Fables should ride on that.
Maun is the gateway to the Okavango Delta. It has the country’s busiest international airport with connections to Africa’s busiest OR Tambo airport. Rick Ross and his international fans that wanted to follow him to Botswana could have had a direct flight from Jo’burg to Maun. If Ross preferred resorts fitting for a “boss’ he claims to be, the Okavango Delta has camps that top luxury charts worldwide and are just less that 45 minutes from Maun airport.
We could have showed him the real “jungle’ with the real wild animals but with five-star hospitality. He could have taken “a young” safari and to see the wild animals that some of his clueless mates in the US believe we swing with them in the wild.
We have seen that he wanted to meet the “real people” in the Ghetto, so we could have taken him to Mumsy Complex to meet the real rockers of the Kgalagadi and they would have loved to walk the Maun streets with him. Of course if he crossed the line they would have warned him that, “they could swallow him and spit him after the show”.
I bet Rick Ross would have loved Maun and vowed to return like everyone that experience Maun for the first time. Maun, being the local tourist magnet could have filled up Rozay’s show and Fables could have smiled all the way to the bank with a fat cheque.