Healing Dance Captures San Culture At Kuru Festival
Spira Tlhankane | Monday August 27, 2018 13:33
The San healing dance captured the culture and belief of the indigenous tribe.
The healing dance was held on Friday evening and for many who saw different groups perform on the arena, it was a unique cultural exchange experience.
It was a group from D’Kar called Giraffe who kick-started the beautiful traditional dances and the music of the San People. The women sat around a fire singing while the men danced around it. During the dance women would join in as well. This dance is done to communicate with ancestors and seek for their help.
It is said that when one of the San people is sick, they would dance around the fire all night asking ancestors for directions to find the cure. After some time, one of the dancers, particularly a shaman or spiritual leader, becomes possessed with the spirit from the ancestral world. It is believed that the spirits lurk in the African night beyond the small circle of firelight. During the dance, groups like Cuisekurusa, Xaa Xaa and Kurunaboo do everything to show how the healing is done. The dancers would collapse and the one in spirit would lay hands on them, hence removing the sickness altogether. Mind you, when these dancers were in trance there was no faking but they were indeed connected to the spirit world.
They spun around, collapsed and sometimes risked falling into the fire. It is also believed that the spirit can also possess some members of the audience who are not even part of the dance.
While it may seem like the dance groups are singing one song, the San explained that the songs are different because they communicate with the ancestors about many issues despite sickness. Other groups that came afterwards like Kg’aika Khoe then showed another way of healing, which is targeted towards broken souls. They believe the soul needs fixing through dance like the body would.
In the end members of the audience, who included people from Europe and America were given a chance to join the dance.
People joined in as they danced in en-masse with some hoping to cast away their troubles and become new people.
The Kuru Dance Festival was created by the Kuru Development Trust and is sponsored by Barclays Bank of Botswana, and the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development. The Kuru Development Trust focuses on economic empowerment for the San people.