Vigorous drumming set Bushfire Festival on fire

MPHO TLALE
Staff Writer | Thursday June 6, 2013 00:00

 

The moves entail doing a traditional Swazi dance that sees the young men playing around with some highly charged dance moves that leave them breathless.The same group, now joined by women, proceeded from the comfort of the tent they were performing in to the open field where they were accompanied by bare breasted maidens who joined in the singing and dance behind the group of men.

This was the scene last weekend at Swaziland's highly acclaimed Bushfire Festival that aims to promote and celebrate music and the arts. Although music is Bushfire's main attraction, it had other accompanying aspects such as cultural showcases and random fashion statements from a variety of performers. This year the festival did not fall short of incorporating the country's very own culture within their programme as compared to last year when all was that was non-existent.The site was filled with both men and women clad in their colourful outfits. While some paraded the outfits dancing, some paraded them by just walking around. Dancers who were also doing modern dance routines did a modern meets the old by combining their traditional outfits with the modern routines.

As per Swazi culture, bachelors wore the loin skin with a cloth over them just to the waistline and ornamental beads while the married men wore the loin skins and cloths that ran across their shoulders.On the other hand single women wore dresses and had their hair up in a small bun while married women wore the skin apron and skirt with the apron raised over one shoulder as well as a hair bun.