Jovial Bakwena celebrate Dithubaruba Festival in style

BABOKI KAYAWE
Staff Writer | Tuesday November 16, 2010 00:00

The fourth cultural event opened with a publicity walk that was led by an ox-drawn wagon from the Main Kgotla to the museum with a jovial and swaying crowd of Bakwena in traditional attire and holding various Setswana household objects.

In a morning of cultural revival, as the festival aims at bringing back the Bakwena tradition, a string of cultural activities from poetry, dance, dress, food, tangible cultural objects were offered.

Highlights included traditional foods like kabu, which were served alongside homemade brew offered in a pre-wine/beer glass-style - the phafana way; and drinking water carried in sego, a traditional drinking container. 

Quite diverse aspects of Sekwena ways of doing things characterised this unique cultural restoration extravaganza.

Praise poets also entertained the revellers as they laughed and cheered to their economics of the spoken word. 

Dipako Sesienyane, a Molepolole poet, giftedly urged his tribesmen to breathe and live the Sekwena culture on a daily basis not just during the annual festival, which organisers plan to develop into a big event in future. 

He added that taking the traditional dance to countries like Japan and eating Sekwena dishes is not on its own culture, but rather having the spirit of Ubuntu and knowing oneself is a true embodiment of culture.  'Go isa mmnino wa Setswana ko bo Japane ga se ngwao,' he said.

Pouring endearments to the chief of the Botswana Tourism Organisation (BTO), Myra Sekgororoane, Sesienyane pleaded with her to help his people take their culture to greater heights and ultimately pass it on to the younger generation through BTO support.

Another 'artist' who starred at the festival was Kgosi Keineetse Sebele, a seasoned orator and great historian who reeled the Bakwena history as if he were a living museum. 

From the wars fought to the coming of the missionaries in the Bakwena land and the involvement of Batswana in the Great War - the First World War (WWI) of 1914 - Sebele just narrated it with ease. 

Yes, he definitely can make a super Voice of God in a history of Bakwena documentary.

His are rainy brains of history, even poet Sesienyane pleaded for funds so that he could 'document his brains before they return to their maker'.

Sekgororoane assured Bakwena that the BTO would continue supporting the tribe in its cultural revival endeavour. 

She encouraged that they turn it into a commercial event as it has the potential to generate income, adding that the country is working on diversifying the tourism sector from being wildlife - centred to encompass cultural tourism. 

Kgosi Sechele I Museum curator Kawina Kawina said they are working towards improving the event and realising its intended purpose of reviving Bakwena culture and taking it to the young generation through holding it in heritage sites like the Dithubaruba area, a place that inspired the festival name. 

Moreover, they will include other people in the Kweneng area, as it is diverse and home to many cultures.