As the clock ticks towards the festive season, Francistown-based traditional dance artist, who prefers to call himself Nthinthe, has once again released a solo album, which is currently dominating radio airwaves and booming from every corner of every house hold.
The singer, who is a member of the successful Dinkwenkgoga traditional group, revealed to the Sunday Standard last week that he decided to do a solo project to diversify his skills and talent as he is also a good singer with traditional choirs.
“The members of my group gave me the platform to do my solo project because they know and respect my talent, especially when it comes to singing traditional songs,” he said.
The album is titled Mogatsaka and has got eight tracks. Defining the title of the album, the singer says that the title song is targeted at addressing the situation where people are no longer loyal in relationships; rather they would prefer to run around with young girls.
He also added that the song serves to send the message to those people to be loyal to their women.
“Nowadays, people no longer respect relationships amid lots of diseases such as HIV/Aids, therefore, the message is for them to break that chain,” Nthinthe divulged.
The other track that he emphasized heavily on is Bogodu, a track which addresses crime and other ills in the society.
Nthinthe, who traces his roots from Kanye Village, pointed out that he grew up in a tradition of choirs and he carries the passion from his years of childhood.
The other track he deeply loves is Marasta (Rastafarians), which addresses the tendency by some youth to fake Rastafarism and use it as an excuse to smoke marijuana.
“There is a tendency by some youth to call themselves Rastafarians, only as an excuse to smoke dagga,” he said.
Nthinthe revealed that his project was funded by a local company, Phofu Family Holdings, and recorded the album at 4 Four studios in Francistown. The singer said that Bullet, a famous Gaborone producer, did the production while the mastering was done by one Lame.
He further says that one of his inspirations in traditional choir music in the country is Gongmaster “because he is very creative as he can just go into the studio and make a hit instantly without rehearsal”.
“It is one of the standards that I want to reach,” he said.
With his album, Nthinthe plans to reach beyond borders in countries like South Africa, where Botswana traditional music is highly appreciated.
He is yet to launch his album and during the festive season will tour places like Shashe, Mooke, Orapa, Paje, Tshesebe, Tsabong and Ghanzi.
