Luvuyo Kakaza
Throughout South Africa, smaller cultural festivals are now marking a celebration of this country’s diverse cultures. Although some remain local occasions, others, like the North West Cultural Calabash in Taung, have grown bigger and gained national status.
This week the Cultural Calabash holds its fifth annual event from September 23 to 26. Over the past five years, the Cultural Calabash has developed into a major cultural event that gives the remote village of Taung a cultural collision. It is a fiesta of this province’s rich culture.
On every Heritage Day, festival goers are bussed to Paramount Chief Makurwane’s kraal, where teenagers who have endured circumcision rites perform fascinating Tswana, Xitsonga and Zulu dances. The performances are followed by huge African meals – ranging from tripe, steak and pap to African beer called umqomboti.
Since its initiation in 1994, as a one- day event, it has now grown in leaps and bounds to its present four-day duration. Today, the festival’s programme convincingly demonstrates the integration in this province of traditional tribal values with modern standards.
With throngs of culture vultures attending every year, organisers say it is only during this season that the dusty village gets to demonstrate its rich culture – from dance, theatre, opera, music and ballet to fine art, crafts and jazz. It also incorporates choral music competitions in local schools.
The Cultural Calabash attracts professional artists and audiences from the North-West, Gauteng and even abroad. Like previous years, this year’s event hopes to provide a platform for emerging talent and to expose these performers to a broad audience.
The upcoming local groups billed for this year’s program include Serankure marimba group from the little-known Letlamoreng village in Mafikeng. Serankure, meaning “The Rock”, is a 12-piece band that performs traditional Tswana dances with influences from the Bushmen’s ancient dances.
Although they are a marimba band, Serankure’s music is complemented by the unique sound of a lead guitar and a trumpet. They blend traditional Tswana music with Western sounds and present brilliant dances with poetry and storytelling. It will be the first time that Serankure perform at the Cultural Calabash.
“We are a struggling group that hardly performs for the real audiences,” says Serankure leader Tebogo Tsotetsile. “We only perform for tourists in Letlamoreng Cultural Village. We also do promotions for furniture stores. The cultural village is presently not properly marketed and lacks real audiences. We never get to perform for real audiences.”
Through events like the Cultural Calabash, Tsotetsile says, funds could be raised to save the Letlamoreng Cultural Village from extinction. A unique location, the village was founded by well-known sangoma Credo Mutwa.
Tsotetsile’s main objection is that the festival happens only once a year, whereas the cultural village is an ongoing cultural environment.
Apart from Serankure it is estimated that over 1 000 local artists from the North West Province, some from border areas, will be participating in the festival.
Also on show will be big names like the acclaimed rap-ragga Bongo Maffin and pop queen Brenda Fassie. The multi-award- winning Jabu Khanyile and Bayete are set to open the Cultural Calabash on September 23.
North-West playwright and director Aubrey Sekhabi will showcase his latest play, The Stick- “a musical that takes us on a journey to the early days of colonisation, from the days of Christopher Columbus to the early days of apartheid in South Africa. It is a piece of that will make the audience reflect back to the past as we head on to the new millennium,” explains Sekhabi.
Free drama workshops will be conducted by Generations soap opera idol, Sello Maake ka Ncube
Since 1994, Transnet has been the Cultural Calabash’s primary sponsor, gradually increasing its funding from R400 000 to R700 000. In addition, this year the North-West provincial government pledged R300 000.
With more funding, organisers say, the Cultural Calabash will be placed on the international map, encouraging more groups like the US-based Dallas Black Dancers, that performed at last year’s event, to return to the continent to contribute to the province’s cultural growth.
The North-West Cultural Calabash runs from September 23 to 26 at Mmabane Cultural Centre in Taung, in the North West province. For more details call (051) 994 1310