BEST OF BOTSWANA’S TRADITIONAL MUSIC

The Traditional Music Awards of Botswana to showcase cream de la cream of Tswana culture through music

The Traditional Music Awards of Botswana are solely meant to promote cultural tourism in the country by recognizing traditional music artistes through this event.

The long anticipated moment is already here, as all roads lead to Kazungula Bridge on December 09th for this esteemed event.

Founder and Director, Raoboy Mpuang told Vibe that the event aims at celebrating Botswana arts and culture, recognising the achievements and successes of individuals and groups that promote, preserve and celebrate the Botswana culture.

“These awards will recognise and highlight potential, ability, talent, and achievement, whilst at the same time supporting the community’s artistic and cultural development. The bigger goal of these awards is to also bolster the tourism sector as it is the second economic contributor and through these awards, we aim to attract hundreds of thousands inter- national visitors from our region to the globe as a whole,” he said.

Their vision is to create an amazing atmosphere that would forever ring the bell when it comes to traditional music in Botswana. The dress code for the event is, ‘African attire’ to ensure that attendants blend in well with the activities of the occasion on the day. The guest speaker for the event is the legendary South African Mbongeni Ngema who would be officiating alongside a local legend, Executive Producer of

Bagaka Ba Pele, Kelemogile Ramasu.

The theme for this event is ‘Embracing our identity’ and this goes all out to every local person to pause for a moment and learn to appreciate local music. Some of the nominees for this event include; Francistown Cultural Ensemble, Stine BW, Mdala Tanokhwe, Tjinyebenyebe, Sebaga, Kate-Tshaa and Mmaoshima.

The renowned Black Umfolosi from Zimbabwe would also be performing at these awards to add cherry on the cake for the attendees. Phusu BW would be the Master of the Ceremonies of the day and the trusted traditional cuisine cook, Mmammidi will also be there to sample the good and rich Tswana food on the day dedicated to celebrating local culture through traditional music.