Cultural music has always been Kgaila's passion

CHIPPA LEGODIMO
Staff Writer | Friday May 3, 2013 00:00

Like many of his peers, life in the 1960s was so laid back, the most common economic activity was farming. Very few young people got a chance to attend school either because their families did not believe it was important to do so or because there simply was 'no money for school fees' despite raring cattle. Those were the days when a 'true man' was perceived to be the one who showed a lot of interest in domestic chores such as cattle herding and tilling corn or sorghum fields.  Boys as young as six-years-old would be forced to wake up early every morning to go and look after the family's cattle in the bush.

While herding cattle, normally the boys would play various traditional games such as Mhele. But there were those who felt such were too boring and would go for something that would revitalise the mind a little bit and indigenous musical instruments such as Segaba, Setinkane and the guitar were often carried on such expeditions. Most parents were stoutly against such an idea as they believed it would make the boys lose focus and allow livestock to go astray, destroy crops or simply disappear.  But the boys would still find a way around every challenge. Cooking oil cans and planks were used to make guitars, which would keep them entertained until evening when it was time to return home.Kgaila was part of that generation.

He was passionate about cultural music and playing the guitar to him gave him an edge over his peers.But his mother and maternal aunt were dead against the idea. The 47-year-old from Thamaga's passion for cultural music was like a calling and no mountain was too high to climb to achieve his goal.

'I remember how my mother used to shout at me and snatch my guitar away because she felt it would make me lose focus. To her music was for the less ambitious; she really made life difficult for me. I ended up hiding my guitar  in the bushes every time I went home,' Kgaila recalls. As he grew older Kgaila needed a job and in 1986 he moved to Gaborone where he started working as labourer in a construction company. The first thing he bought from his P170 per month salary was a guitar.

At the time the instrument cost around P80 but spending more than 50 per cent of his pay on it did not bother him at all. In fact he felt so proud like a young execute who just purchased his first sports car.The acquisition of this modern instrument meant most of his spare time would be spent playing and appreciating it. While one would have expected the jubilant Kgaila to go home and show off his new acquisition to his family, the Thamaga man knew his mother would not be amused; so he had to hide it from her. It was only after he had recorded some of the songs for Radio Botswana's Dipina Le Maboko that she finally softened.

'It really took her a long time to accept that I loved music and my guitar was my soul mate,' he says.But perhaps his mother was right all along. It was not long before Kgaila quit his job and returned home where he spent most of the time playing his treasured instrument. Having worked at Murray and Roberts when the construction giant made the Gaborone-Kanye road, Kgaila saw women in villages along the road throw themselves at the company's workers and thus his song Murinyana was born in which he narrates the infidelities that resulted in some marriages breaking while a lot of fatherless children were also born. A while later he returned to the capital city to seek employment but once again music called and he ditched the spade and wheelbarrow for his guitar. Songs such as Mandela Road and Tsekane were born and made a good impression on radio. He started performing at malls in Gaborone, Francistown and later Maun. In 2003 the late disco sensation Lebasho (Christopher Lobatlamang) approached Kgaila to join his stable after the guitar maestro impressed in one of his one-man shows.

'I was excited and we started touring the country together with Lebasho and his band performing live. But then Lebasho fell sick and died and I was left in the lurch,' he said with a sorry look, 'but maybe I am an unlucky person because I recently lost a friend I used to perform with'.  Following the collapse of Lebasho's band and ultimately his death, Kgaila had to return to Maun but as if the misfortune of losing someone who wanted to lift his career was not enough, a competitor who shall remain nameless here started spreading news that the guitarist was in jail for rape.

The same man, is alleged to have later told fans that Kgaila was dead. The news spread like a bush fire that his mother had to seek clarity with the police who went to Kgaila's residence in Maun to deliver the news that his mother was in mourning.'I really do not understand why someone would do such a thing even if they were envious and feared competition. But he later came to me and apologised saying he was joking and I have forgiven him,' he said.Because music runs deep in his veins, Kgaila has used money he has won on the President's Day awards to buy more instruments and now has a complete band.

Already he has performed at some cooperate functions and looks set to win more. But the question which ligers in one's mind as one who appreciates Kgaila's talent is why he has not recorded albums?'I did an album in 2004 but although I cut 1,500 copies I have not received a cent from the person who recorded and distributed it.

When I frequented his house to enquire about it he claimed it was not selling but later he threatened to send me to jail; so I have since stopped bothering him,' he said.He has done another album with a popular kwasa-kwasa musician who he also suspects wanted to swindle him. 'This album has not been released but the stories are countless such that I wonder if at all it will ever come out or if I will get a thebe once it comes out,' he said.

Despite all the challenges he has faced in pursuit of his music dream, Kgaila has never considered giving up, hence he continues to fight on.