The Union Is The Proud Home Of The Musicians

Talking Musika
RAMPHOLO MOLEFHE | Monday December 22, 2008 00:00

The promoters already have a working association that represents their interests.  Many of them have independently registered business companies in whose name they do their business with the support of the Botswana Confederation Commerce Industry and Management, known as BOCCIM for short. 

In other words they have institutional support for the work that they do in the music industry.And when the government wants to do business in this area, they call first upon the members of BOCCIM who will always have interests closer to each than to those of the labourers or arts practitioners.

Lately, it also appears that a good number of the promoters, and some who want the leadership of the musicians and artists, also appeal to the political leadership of the ruling party for institutional support and connectivity to all sections of the industry that matter.

The musicians know from history, that no one takes them seriously; not the government, not the promoters, not some sections of the consumers who believe all music comes from either Soweto or Philadelphia, not even some who claim leadership of the musicians' organisations.

Very soon, the musicians will lose some of the people, who are bound to them in a love-hate knot at the nightclubs and entertainment spots that they own.  Things look very gloomy at the entertainment venues as a result of the banning of alcoholic drinks.
The soccer lovers who will visit Botswana in 2010 will be duly impressed that Botswana is indeed the Kgalagadi Desert that they read about in the accounts of the missionaries who visit the place. 

And they will affirm, as did the ministers of state under South African apartheid, that the brain of the native can only manage kaffir bier in the day time, after which it should be ensured that they are soundly asleep together with the chickens, goats and cows, which by one account, make up the majority of the population.

The union, therefore is the one and only rallying point of the musicians. 
That means that the musicians must train themselves in the ideology of musicianship.  That means that they must understand that music is work, and work - particularly work in the arts - is a collective enterprise. 

It is done together with others.
Those are musicians, sound engineers, roadies, music teachers and students, all of whom need each other under a single umbrella.

That is why workers who have acquired a certain level of awareness of themselves and the partnership that is necessary between they and others in the same trade, often say:  You Offend One of us, You Have Offended All of us.

Out of the political togetherness evolves a set of rights, one of the most important being the right to negotiate everything that affects your livelihood:  wages, conditions of work, the right to family and a dignified death, the right to school, work and to congregate with others in the same trade.

The cultural workers - which is what musicians are - will soon discover that as they pursue their rights, they also have obligations to the larger society.
The artists owe the larger society performance in accordance with the highest standards of professionalism, meaning that you study your instrument and honour the promises that you make to the audience.

The artist also owes the audience an original statement about his or her life experience, in clean places, in a caring way.  The artist owes other artists respect first before others and protects them before and other person.

Finally, the artist owes the union money to make work for the organisation possible.  Only when the artists pays his dues does he then treasure the little resource that the union has.

Begging from government and political parties and others outside the fraternity should be kept to the barest minimum.  Ideally, it should be abolished.  That way the musicians will have achieved true self-reliance.