Thebe Mabanga
The annual North West Cultural Calabash has taken a huge leap towards establishing itself as one of the most important cultural events when the 2001 edition was launched with a new format last Friday.
“The [Calabash] is fast becoming one of the premier arts and culture festivals in South Africa,” said Mandlemkosi Mayisela, the North West MEC for Social Services, Arts, Culture and Sport. “The 2001 Calabash has all the ingredients necessary to strike a balance between the desires of developing and emerging talent on the one hand, and the glittering and glamourous world of top artists [on the other].”
The festival was established 10 years ago and centred in Taung, home of the famous Taung skull, and since then has made courageous strides towards becoming a platform for promising talent in the arts.
From a one-day event, it has grown to a year-round happening that has a build-up of mini festivals in five regions with a grassroots competitive component, culminating in a weeklong cultural fair with the clout to attract such talent as gospel queen Rebecca Malope, guitar prodigy Selaelo Selota and the Ghanaian outfit Odehe.
All these crowd-pullers form the backbone of a programme that is graced by young talent from all around the North West presenting work in traditional and modern dance, choral music and drama. Last week many of last year’s winners returned to their launching pad to give more exposure to new work among them were the Klerksdorp-based Ubuntu traditional dancers.
The festival has benefited a range of benefactors. Chief among these has been the popular African language station Motsweding FM as well as public transport parastatal Transnet. The transport utility’s sponsorship represents the company’s largest component of arts sponsorship. The joint contribution of the sponsors is in excess of R4-million a year.
This year the regional finals kick off in Klerksdorp (June 23 and 24). The carnival then moves to Lehurutse (July 28 and 29), a collection of villages outside the bottlestore-peppered town of Zeerust. The town of Garankuwa then gets its turn on August 25 and 26 before passing the cultural flame to the festival’s spiritual home, and home of all its previous finals, Taung over the Heritage Day long weekend (September 22 and 23). The last stop before the finals will be the platinum mining town of Rustenburg (October 6 and 7).
From December 13 to 17 the festival shakes off the rural feel of Taung for its final leg, to be held for the first time in Mafikeng on the banks of the Molopo river. This is where the Calabash will play host to the acclaimed Siwela Sonke Dance Theatre, playwright Greig Coetzee’s work Breasts and kwaito artists Guffy and Kylexx.
For more info contact Kgomotso Ntoloane, Tel: (018) 392 4100/9