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Botswana: It's a Night of Celebration for Mma Ramotswe
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Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)
14 April 2008
Posted to the web 15 April 2008
Chippa Legodimo
Gaborone
The movie No 1 Ladies' Detective or Mma Ramotswe premiered last weekend in different locations including the New Capitol Cinema, Riverwalk and the Gaborone International Convention Centre (GICC) and on Friday night the British Council hosted an evening of cultural entertainment at the Botswana Craft Marketing to honour movie participants.
All the local artistes whose songs were used in the movie's sound track were invited to perform at the show. It was a cool night of live music featuring Botswana's cream of the top, Maxy Mogwana, Vee, Stampore, Shanti Lo, Chris Manto 7 and Gogo jazz band. But as they say class is permanent while form is only temporary. One of Botswana's pioneer musicians, the respected Mmashoro vocalist Gaotwesepe Robalang proved her mettle against a young generation of artistes who are regarded as celebrities.
Patrons had raised over P2,000 for the aging singer whose song, Gokatweng dominated the airwaves during the olden days when very few locals recorded their material. It still remains one of the uniquely original compositions by a Motswana artiste. Robalang took many by surprise after she was called forward to collect her money when she burst into song, showing no signs of slowing down let alone forgetting the tune despite her age. In short, she provided the very first spark that lit the show up. Gokatweng is a well-known Setswana track amongst both young and old and as soon as she started almost everybody followed suit. Whistling and ululating, the crowd went mad.
Solomon Monyame, who presented the white envelope to the old woman who was accompanied by two female relatives, explained that the money was not part of the royalties due to her. "This is just money that the crowd raised here, they dug into their pockets and it is fantastic that almost everybody who is here appreciates what the old woman has done for both our music and our culture," Monyame said. Although the first three groups to play gave the crowd good reason to be there, the highlight of the show came when the last four took their turns on stage. Stampore with Rebatswana did just fairly.
His guitar gave him problems when he started and after the engineers were able to connect it properly, the folklore singer had already lost the "spark". But the unimpressed crow found something to cheer about almost immediately Shant Lo came on stage. The Kanye-born jazz musician has a great personality and has a true sense of style. His two female back-up singers were the first to appear on stage, dressed in long white outfits before their lead man appeared just as stylish, in a white pair of trousers and a blue changing top. His dreadlocks coiled nicely to produce a chain shape just above the forehead. A good number of revellers crowded in front of the stage cheering and waving, thus giving the event extra colour. At the back another group could not hold on and the dancing just spread across the floor. He did not disappoint, spurring the back-up Gogo Band into a scintillating performance.
Hot on Shanti Lo's heels came Kwasa kwasa's Chris Manto 7 and this show proved just how fast a star can fade from the limelight. If it were during his days when he was still red-hot everybody would have been pushing to create room for dancing. But at this event only a few seemed to care. Wzaka Pressa, his most popular song, did rekindle his old magic in people's minds, with only a few hard cores dancing to its tune.
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The night clearly belonged to pint-sized Kwaito-kwasa star Vee. He and his dancers used the stage to impress even the foreign dignitaries at the event. Very clever indeed with his Letlhale la tsamaya proving that he is still a man in charge of his territory.
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