2010 was a good year for the arts

Gasebalwe Seretse
Correspondent | Wednesday December 22, 2010 00:00

Cultural FestivalsThis year, the Kuru San Dance festival, which was not celebrated in 2009 due to financial constraints, was successfully hosted on a farm outside the village of D'Kar. 

As usual San performers impressed international audiences with their world famous dances and games.  Showbiz was blessed to attend this cultural festival from other southern African countries such as Namibia and South Africa.Other cultural festivals that were successfully hosted are Letlhafula hosted by the Botswanacraft and the Domboshaba that celebrates the Kalanga culture.

Letlhafula, which celebrates the Setswana culture, has been successfully hosted annually for a number of years and it has attracted people from all over the world.

AwardsEver since their inception, the Heritage Day Awards have become one of the most prestigious awards in the country as they honour artists and craftspeople from different persuasions.  Fortunately, it looks like that these awards, which were introduced when Ian Khama became president are here to stay.

Visual artists always look forward to the annual Thapong Artist of the Year Award (TAYA) and TAYA 2010 was snatched by photographer, Donald Moilwa, who took the crown from last year's winner, Uhuru Kgope.Batswana writers also successfully held their most important awards, the Bessie Head Literacy Awards.

The awards are organised by the Bessie Head Heritage Trust and supported by a local publishing house, Pentagon Publishers.

This year, Tshetsana Senau, Legodile Seganabebng and Jenny Robson were among the top winners.It looks like the British Council/ Alexander McCall-Smith Short Story Writing Competition and the British Council/ Books Botswana Writing Competition will never be revived since they have not been held in a long time, which is sad news for this country, which has a good number of budding writers.

Sadly for artists, Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU) awards and Orange Botswerere Artists Awards were not held this year.

According to reliable information reaching Showbiz, the BOMU awards will be staged next year while on the other hand it looks like Orange Botswerere awards have died.

Fallen Stars Showbiz pays tribute to fallen artists, Gaotswesepe Robalang of Mmashoro and kwaito-kwasa star, Cisco Bikane better known as Cisco B.  Robalang was famous for her song Go Ka Tweng, while Cisco B was one of those young artists who were making a name for themselves. The San also lost a champion of their culture in Xguka Krisjan. For a long-time, the multi-lingual Krisjan was the life of the Kuru San Dance festival, interpreting as well as performing at the event.