Domboshaba Cultural Trust (D.C.T) hosted their first ever fund-raising Dinner Dance at the Gaborone International Convention Centre on Friday.
The event was a bid to raise funds towards the development of a Domboshaba Cultural Village at the foot of the Domboshaba Hills. Home to the annual Domboshaba Cultural festivals.
Members of the business community, corporate companies as well as Chief Executive Officers and Bakalanga tribesmen graced the well-attended event.
Invited guests included Dr Gaositewe Chiepe, Botswana Tourism Board CEO Myra Sekgororoane, Judge Mpaphi Phumaphi and wife Joy Phumaphi.
Mukani Action Campaign and Society for the Promotion of Ikalanga Language (SPIL) initiated the Domboshaba cultural festivals in 2000. Partly in response to the likely disappearance of Kalanga culture in the face of urban life, if not westernisation, as well as lack of awareness among Bakalanga of their historical history.
This year marks the event’s tenth anniversary.
In her welcoming speech, DCT chairperson, Chigedze Chinyepi, told guests Domboshaba means “Hill of Trading”.
“Archaeological studies have revealed that the area around the Domboshaba ruins was a significant trading centre around 1400, facilitating the exchange of salt, game trophies, copper, gold and later tobacco, glass, beads and textiles.
Chinyepi urged Batswana to uplift and promote their cultural values and beliefs.
“They give us dignity and integrity and must therefore be practised and nurtured to avoid being mundane, rusty and obsolete.”
She quoted Sir Seretse Khama who once said, “A nation without culture is a lost nation.”
In her keynote address Mrs Phumaphi warned people not to play down the limitless scope of the term with definitions of culture as simply music, art, food and dancing.
“Culture is the totality of a people’s way of life as deduced from material and non material aspects of their life, such as clothing, values, beliefs, language, thoughts, feelings and customs.”
She went on to congratulate the DCT saying the cultural village will bridge the gap between standard short stay tourism and a more holistic cultural experience, celebrating both social and ethnic diversity and the richness of a historical heritage that stretches from the period before the Banayi-Bakalanga Empire to today’s vibrant global village.
The event featured a raffle competition as well as a mini auction sale. Tickets were sold for P750.
Culture Spears entertained the guests with songs from their latest album.
