St. Joseph�s College to host cultural festival
Maureen Odubeng | Thursday April 27, 2017 18:00
St. Joseph’s College Cultural Festival will take place at the College Grounds under the theme ‘Bana ba kgwale, ba bitsana ka melodi’.
The festival coordinator, Tlamelo Letlole, explained that they decided on the theme as an effort to drive the message home that while there are diverse cultural practices, and tribes, ‘all of us are one as Batswana’.
“We want Batswana from different areas, to come and celebrate with us, and learn about other cultural practices,” he said.
He added that most importantly, the event also targets students, as it will be yet another platform for them to learn about their culture and heritage.
He said St. Joseph’s College students would get an opportunity to put some of the topics they learn during Setswana classes into practice.
“The school has different houses, and each house is expected to do a presentation on any cultural practice, which may include dikgafela, lenyalo la Setswana, botsetsi, and go rapelela pula,” Letlole said.
He explained that the houses, which are named after different animals, would temporarily adopt names of traditional fruits such as motoroko, mogwana, morula, and mmilo.
“The school admits students from different cultural backgrounds, so we want to make the festival representative of different tribes in Botswana,” he said.
He said the different houses would have a chance to beat it out against each other, in both traditional and contemporary games.
“Games will include koi, mhele, diketo, rwabi, sack race, egg race, and balloon race,” he said
The festival which will be competing with a number of events around town, will have performances from a number of acclaimed artists, who mostly specialise in traditional song and dance, traditional instruments, and traditional poems.
Performers on the day will include Culture Spears, Dr. Vom, Solly Sebotso, Welkom Polka Group, Motlhaolosa, Rangers Marena Choir, and Poetry Ensemble, led by renowned poet, Moroka Moreri.
Tickets for the festival are on sale at Webtickets for P200.