Go-ka-tweng: The lioness of song sleeps

GASEBALWE SERETSE
Staff Writer | Wednesday October 27, 2010 00:00

 

Last Saturday, hundreds of mourners endured the scorching heat of a spring morning to pay their last respects to the lovable Gaotswesepe Robalang at her home village of Mmashoro on the outskirts of Serowe.  Most of the mourners sang their hearts out as a way of bidding farewell to the woman who became a household name in Botswana.  Soon after she was interred, her relatives gathered around her eternal resting place and sang the song that endeared her to many, Bakgomohi also known as Go-ka-tweng.  As the song was sung some mourners battled tears, it was an emotional moment indeed.  It was with great sadness that Showbiz learnt of the passing of one of Botswana's leading folklore musicians some time last week.  Yes, that golden voice that was loved by both the young and the old is no more.  It is still hard to believe that the doyen of folklore music is gone.

Indeed the lioness of song, that came and conquered the arts, has gone to sleep.  This writer first became acquainted with Robalang when I embarked on an impromptu journey to the village of Mmashoro last year.  Even at that time, it was evident that the old woman was not the spring-chicken of old as she was ailing.  It was obvious that she was no longer sprightly as she had already seen her heyday.

Robalang could not answer some of the simplest questions that Showbiz posed to her and her face was etched in pain.  Evidence of poverty was written on the wall and back then Showbiz decried that the government was neglecting gifted Batswana artists.  According to Robalang's funeral programme, she was born in 1923 in the Bangwato capital of Serowe and this could be true since she explained that she was an age-mate of the first president of Botswana, Sir Seretse Khama (who was born in 1921) and that made her a member of Malekantwa regiment.

Although born into a family that is ruling the village of Mmashoro and therefore a member of the Kgosing ward, she had always known poverty in her life because she became an orphan at an early age.  In the song Bakgomohi, famously known as Go Ka Tweng, she laments the pain and suffering she endured during her childhood.  Since she had no one to protect and nurture her, her better off relatives subjected her to all forms of abuse.

The artist has another song, Mokoko, which although not as popular, is equally enchanting which goes like: 'Ke beile dikoko, ele koko tsa mathaolwa, kibi mokoko...'-, loosely meaning, 'I have put aside special and fattened chickens...'

Mokoko like Bakgomohi is full of protest.

During a radio interview with Mogatusi Kwapa of RB 1, Robalang light-heartedly shared with him the abuse that she went through as an orphaned child.  How she had to dress in hides to cover her nakedness and how she was forced to start home chores very early in the morning even before the rising of the sun.  She mentioned how children, who had parents, would turn their backs against her as they enjoyed their food, refusing to share it with her.  This motivated her to add the lyrics that chronicled her suffering in the Bakgomohi: Rona masiela re ta a bonwa e mang (Who shall come to our rescue, we orphans)?  Robalang told Modirwa Kekwaletswe, the author of Legalapa: Kanoko Ya Mmino Le Poko Ya Setso that she did not actually compose the song but learnt it from her elders and only improvised on it by adding relevant lyrics.

Although during the interview with Showbiz, Robalang could not explain why and how she came with the part that says:

O a bo o se pelo ngwana wa ga Khama (Tshekedi).

O nama o latha morahe wa gago.

Rona masiela re ta a bonwa e mang?

(How inconsiderate you are son of Khama.

How could you forcibly remove and abandon your people.

Who is going to come to our rescue us orphans?)  It has since come to light that her memory was failing her back then.  During the RB 1 interview a few years back, she told Kwapa that she was protesting the fact that Tshekedi Khama moved her people from their village near Mabeleapodi to start the new settlement of Mmashoro.

Kekwaletswe also wrote that Robalang's songs were steep in protest, decrying the bad treatment that she got as an orphan and the way Tshekedi treated her people, who were originally Bakaa from Shoshong village.  What comes out of the song is that even though she was a protest artist, she was also meek and this was marked by the phrase, go ka tweng? (What can one do?) which is obviously a remark of resignation.

Perhaps it is of her meekness that she allowed another local artist, Jeff Matheatau to sample the song in one of his albums.  According to her youngest child, Mmoloki Rampapo, after making a kill with the album, he (Matheatau) only dropped a bedroom suite at her place, claiming that it cost P 3, 000 as a form of payment. Matheatau has since vehemently denied the charges saying that he believes he had done enough to pay Robalang for the use of her song.  Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU) secretary general Seabelo Modibe concurred with Matheatau saying he is an honest man who also gave the old woman P10, 000 as a share of her royalties.

While Matheatau was unable to attend the funeral, BOMU was there represented by Modibe and Alfredo Mosimanegape among others.

The organisation spent more than P 15, 000 to make sure that the old woman got a proper send-off.  As I left the graveyard, I recalled the last time I saw old Robalang.  Wearing a blue German print dress (jeremane) and a floral doek and with her head slightly tilted to the left as she posed for a photograph.  I had a gut feeling that this would be the first and last time to see her.

Robala ka kagiso Lelekantwa. Robala ka kagiso Mokaa.