A blend of cultural festivities at Orange Letlhafula
Spira Tlhankane | Tuesday May 9, 2017 14:44
This year’s Orange Letlhafula held under the theme ‘A re ipele ka dijo, mmino le kapari: Pula matsorotsoro, kotla masiela, kotla dirojana’ did not disappoint as usual.
The sold out event held at the BotswanaCraft was marking 15 years of existence and it continued to celebrate Botswana’s culture through music, dance, food, dress and traditional games.
Orange Letlhafula is held at this time of the year and the food was one of the best aspects of the event. Throughout the day people had to enjoy some of the harvest including ntshe among others.
When the time for dinner came everyone had a diverse cultural menu to choose from including koko ya Setswana, letlhotsho, ditloo, tlhako, seswaa, phane, morogo wa dinawa, sengana, bogobe jwa lerotse just to mention but a few. A variety of drinks like morula fruit juice and mmilo fruit juice were available after the meal.
The usual suspect bojalwa ja Setswana also known as maswe a dinala was the most consumed beverage at the event and everyone had a calabash (phafana) to expand the experience.
Besides food, women came dressed for the occasion and they were looking better than their male counterparts. Orange Botswana arranged a competition for the best dressed and the audience had to choose from a handful of people who were on stage to show their cultural outfits.
It can never be a complete cultural experience without music and dance. Mafitlhakgosi Traditional Group from Old Naledi was there to show their passion on stage.
The group, which has dancers from as young as three years, went all out to display a variety of Botswana’s popular dances. Gatalatau Group from Mmopane also performed including Ramozara with his comic performance.
But it was Gong Master who brought the house down in the end with the performance of his song Socializa and everyone was on their feet. Even though there were various competing events on the same day, the Orange Letlhafula continued to set its own standard with its own target audience.