Ikalanga song and dance captivate many
RYDER GABATHUSE
Staff Writer
| Friday December 5, 2008 00:00
The crowd that had thronged the Local Enterprise Authority (LEA) tent last Tuesday was left spellbound as 27-year-old Thenjiwe Ntogwa and her two fellow dancers, Chenesani and Sinikiwe Ntogwa took to the stage.
They pounded the red-carpeted parking lot at the Thapama Hotel with gusto and energetically sprung up, eliciting cheers from the seemingly partisan crowd. With her hands on her head, like the horns of a never de-horned Masai cow in East Africa, Sinikiwe Ntogwa was given the whole stage to do her thing. She dashed a long distance from the drummers of Kangangwane Ntogwa, Amos Ntogwa and Abbie Thengu whose rattles or matlhowa tied to her thin legs produced an entertaining sound on the side.
Because they hail from the Ramokwebana area, which shares a border with the embattled Zimbabwe, this has had a direct bearing on their songs, which are predominantly sung in Ndebele.
When she returned to the stage, she dug her toes right into the red carpet, and this saw dust emerging from the carpet, before she sprung up and pounded the ground again like a springbok running away for an enemy. Her legs appeared very stiff, albeit under her tight control. She staggered towards the drummers whose energy also was unwavering throughout as they pounded the drums with their hands. The backing singers clapped and shouted at the top of their voices to ginger up the dancers.
Chenesani Ntogwa, who maintained the same pattern, dancing and dashing away but made her dancing even more interesting with her extraordinary gestures to the gallery, followed her. Every jump she made was spectacular. She was only let down by her matlhowa, which loosened in the middle of the show thus forcing her to leave the stage.
Then the stage was literally set alight when the chubby Thenjiwe Ntogwa was given a chance to prove her dexterity and youthful exuberance. Hefty as she is, she sprinted across the stage with the speed of an acrobat amid the throbbing drums and returned at the same speed, while jumping and gracefully gesturing in front of the top table that included Assistant Minister of Trade and Industry, Duke Lefhoko, LEA CEO, Dr Tebogo Matome, LEA board chairperson Mabu Nteta, Francistown-based president of the Customary Court of Appeal, Christopher Masunga and other dignitaries.
Of the three Ntogwas, Thenjiwe was the most entertaining with her stylish moves and dashes on the stage whilst energetically clapping her hands to the traditional beat.
Behind the drummers Kebuang Sephatsa, Itumeleng Chakalisa, Teedzani Ntogwa, Bapalali Solomon, Goitsemodimo Ntogwa, Lenny Ntogwa, Lorato Baya, Isaac Vumbu, Dikgang Ntogwa and Dipuo Ntogwa concluded a list of the backing group. Basically, the group's majority members are from one family of the Ntogwas, which is associated with the traditional Mwali prayers for rain. One of them Robert Vumbu is the villagers' messenger of rain. Dancing and singing is part of their socialization and it heals their souls when the chips are down.
Kudzani Tjilenje is the youthful version of a famous Ramokgwebana group, which sings and dances Hosana, Mokomoto, Sangoma, Manchumane, Hoso and Ndazula. Hosana, Mokomoto and Hoso are sung at weddings and other functions for entertainment, Sangoma and Manchumane are sung when training Sangomas whilst Ndazula is for old women asking for rain in the thickets.
Last Tuesday, the group sang and danced one of its famous '...Amaleliwe...zana ko ndi kona'. This Mokomoto song starts off on a slow tempo and quickly gains momentum to a fast tempo. It is mostly sung at weddings and entertainment functions generally. It is an old song from the years of yonder, yet it appeals as if it was composed yesterday for the LEA function. Guests at the LEA function found themselves hitting the tables with their fingers in response to this song. For the dancers of trio, it was just their time to display their very best.
For their second time on the stage, the group belted out the song, '...Se buza kuwe baba...' This is a Hosana type of a song, which is sung on the occasion of praying for rain from Mwali. Roughly translated, the song means that ' ...We are asking from you father...' The group's three dancers are used to facing large crowds and at no time do they shy away from doing their thing facing the people they entertain. In fact, the group exudes high energies and they all have passion for their type of music.
Speaking to Thenjiwe Ntogwa later, she indicated that they work under the keen eye of manager Isaac Vumbu, an elderly man who wants to see the out-of-school youth, who dominate the group, improve their lives through culture.
'We want to help take our culture to another level through song and dance. Our culture is under threat from external forces, including foreign cultures which the youth of today seem to be embracing at the expense of Tswana culture,' asserted Thenjiwe.
The group's members are not employed and subsist on the income they generate through playing at corporate functions, weddings and other events. Except for the leader of the group, the rest of the 20-member ensemble are women.
'We don't necessarily compose the songs. The elderly people, who still sing them with gusto as through music we communicate with our ancestral spirits, pass all the songs on to us. We belong to a community in which most people are still superstitious.'
During the last President's Day Holidays in Gaborone, Kudzani Tjilenje won first prize in their category and won a whopping P25, 000, whilst the group of elderly women and men was voted number two in the Hosana category.
Isaac and Poelo Vumbu formed the youthful group in 2003 and they have never looked back. The good thing about the group is that there will always be continuity because when young boys and girls mature, they simply jumped on board and further the culture of song and dance.