Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
5 September 2008
One of the greatest events on the arts' calendar in Botswana, the annual Thapong Artists of the Year Awards, took place last Saturday at the Visual Arts Centre. This year, the first position went to Neo Matome, a woman artist. Interestingly, Matome was one of the 11 women who participated in the awards. Second and third positions went to Abednico Sechaba and Kefilwe Mokopane respectively.
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It is maybe exciting that everybody is excited About Neo Matome winning the award as a woman artist. I think it is not about her gender but her creativity that she scooped the Thapong Artist of The Year Award 2008. If it was won by a male artist, would we be saying 'Male artist wins award"? I am sure not. We actually needed to see her name being flashed as a sub-heading rather than her gender being sub-headed. I thing we have to outlive the gender biased era where a woman who does well is complimented for being female. For those who do not know, Neo Matome is a well renouned creative mind who despite being a woman is known all over for being a creative genious. She deserved this award.
Kate