Botswana to host UNESCO’s biggest session next year
As Kgatleng District ICH Committee prepares for 2023
Kgatleng District Intangible Cultural Heritage Committee will hold its last meeting of the year tomorrow at Phuthadikobo Museum in Mochudi to update on progress, challenges and map the way forward for 2023.
Museum Director, Lesego Maano told The Midweek Sun that the meeting is significant given the announcement made at the 17th session of the InterGovernmental Committee on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage that was held in Rabat, Morocco from November 28th to December 3rd. At that session, Botswana was announced as the host for the 18th session of the Inter-Governmental Committee for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Maano said this marks a “big achievement for us” as it will uplift them and encourage other regions in the country to set up similar committees in their regions to safeguard intangible cultural heritage. “We are happy that this meeting will be held here”, she said. Both the Earthenware Pottery Making skills in Kgatleng District (Kitso ya go Bopa Dinkgwana tsa Sekgatla) and Dikopelo Fok Music of BaKgatla ba Kgafela –have been listed under the UNESCO 2003
Convention on the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage. As part of safeguarding measures, UNESCO requires member states to hold activities for practitioners every year towards the protection of these elements, to ensure that they do not disappear. Maano said their biggest achievement in 2022 was to register Nkgo Thitelo Pottery Association 20, which is an association of Babopi ba Dinkgwana tsa Sekgatla. Their wish is for every potter - amateur or Master Practitioner - to join the association. It has not done a lot yet and will be convening a meeting at the beginning of 2023 to explain the mandate of the association.
They also managed to host a bootcamp with the objective of taking pottery-making skills to school children, but unfortunately were distracted by Covid-19, hence they ended using out-of-school children and five elderly women. “It was successful. We made the pots using our Master Practitioners and another that was taught in 2017 as tutors”. This was followed by a pottery exhibition where the works of groups that had participated in the boot-camp were showcased. These included Modipane Primary School; Molefi Senior Secondary; Out of School Youth and
Elderly People. They won prizes and were given certificates of participation.
Maano explained that there were also projects for Mmino wa Dikopelo tsa Bakgatla ba Kgafela during the year under review. “We managed to produce a periodic report to find out how much progress in terms of safeguarding this element (Dikopelo tsa BaKgatla ba
Kgafela) has been made and thereafter we managed to submit the report to UNESCO, who were happy with it.
“We also held various workshops to train Dikopelo practitioners and composers as well as trained Dikopelo
practitioners on their welfare and how to protect the intellectual property (IP) of their element”, Maano said
During their research, Dikopelo tsa Bakgatla ba Kgafela Master Practitioner Thibe Nyepetsi explained that the voice called ‘Tinoro’, was gradually fading out and so, the KDICHC managed to get practitioners from various Dikopelo
groups and with the help of MYSC held a workshop to train them on retaining this voice. The only other element listed with UNESCO from Botswana is Seperu of Chobe District, and all this thanks to the hard work of National ICH Expert Bathusi Lesolobe, who is also Managing Director of Palm Consult.