Palesa stars in thrilling Pula musical
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Tuesday April 25, 2023 06:00
Pula meaning rain is very significant to Batswana. The animals, humans and plants depend on rain for survival. The country also depends on farming for sustainability. Rain also has a major impact in the country’s culture.
Filled with Setswana songs, Setswana poems and different traditional dances representing cultures in Botswana, the musical was beautiful. It anchored on the practical and spiritual relationship that Batswana have with rain and how it brings joy to many families during the good rainy days and sadness and sorrow if it does not rain.
The musical took the audience to how women back in the days used to plough during good rainy days when their husbands were busy taking care of livestock at cattle posts. Even though ploughing was very hard at the time as there were no machines such as tractors, women would use whatever tools they had to weed and plough under the scotching sun to ensure that their families were well fed.
The performers sang popular Setswana songs like Pula nkgodise in celebration of rain, Mmammati and a song that tells how Batswana depend on rain for survival and many more. Every year, a chief (kgosi) would assemble his people to pray and ask for good rains from ancestors and after rains. All this was done with the help of a native doctor also known as the rainmaker.
Communities would plough and bring some of their first harvest to the kgotla to thank their ancestors for the rain as well as give the kgosi the first harvest so that he eats it first then they would proceed to eat it with their families. When women were busy ploughing, young women and men were taken to initiation schools for bojale and bogwera.
This is where they learnt how to be responsible women and men and know their roles in the society. Women would go back to the village and prepare a big welcoming feast since the initiations are done outside the village. The musical also took us through how young men would woe young women, had stick fights where the winner would then date the young woman they were attracted to and later marry her. It showed how Batswana celebrate and feast at their weddings and all wedding proceedings.
The true Setswana wedding cannot be complete without traditional beer also known as tshwene. Dance and good music has always been part of a successful wedding. Still in the musical, the audience also witnessed former Miss Botswana, Palesa Molefe playing the main character, Mmapula. The latter is the daughter of the rainmaker who was married by a certain young man taking us through her love story. Their love life was beautiful until a fateful year when drought hit the village.
Her father and the kgosi’s efforts to plead with ancestors to bring rain proved futile as they ended up choosing her to take over her father’s calling, and it was the only way they would bring back the rain. It was a challenge over the young couple’s marriage as the husband did not approve of the calling. Unfortunately the ancestors did not approve of the marriage and felt it hindered her from fulfilling her calling. She ended up giving up the love of her life and adhered to her calling. After going through the initiation process, she brought rain and happiness reigned again. During the musical, the narrator Gabriel Modise took the audience through the history of Botswana and the rain.
He also explained to that Batswana have always had endless names for rain depending on whether the rain is creating or destroying, whether it is before or after the planting of crops. In 2018, the Botswana Tourism took this musical and showcased it at the Broadway in New York as a way of showcasing the rich and beautiful Botswana culture. It still remains one of the best and beautiful art pieces in the country.