The backward growth of the music industry, including the arts in general is due to lack of a fair share of publicity and bad history of Batswana perceiving the music industry as an industry of reckless and bad mannered people hence the tag “Bo Rrasekanta or Mma Sekanta”.
The guitar “katara” has been associated with bad things, and it needs cleansing.
The music industry needs to shed the tag “Bo Rasekanta” which is demeaning. There is a serious need to come up with multiple interventions. Some of these interventions that come to mind will be introduction of arts and culture segment in the BTV and RB1 News bulletins just like there is a daily sports segment to create a better appreciation and knowledge of our artists and activities.
It is only fair as a way of balancing the playing field between sports and arts investment and development in Botswana. There should be total removal of the music industry from the Noise and Nuisance Act and Liquor Regulations as musicians are neither noisemakers nor nuisance or liquor traders.
Lastly there is a need to establish a Music Hall of Fame and National Arts Council.
For as long at there is no Performing Arts/Entertainment Act/Policy the music industry will continue to be lost in the skyscrapers and the government will continue struggling to come up with ways of working and developing local musicians. A case in point is when a Govt Department wants to host an event and they want to book a particular Jazz Artist say Banjo Mosele, that particular Department is required by law to get 4 more quotations. If it happens that their preferred artist Banjo’s fee is high he will lose the job probably to a mediocre or unknown artist because normally govt buys from the cheapest supplier. In life there is a saying “If you pay peanuts you get monkeys”.
This 5 quotation rule kills talented musicians as they will always be undercut by armatures. That is why Govt Departments will forever use Primary school Students in official events as cheap labour.
The music industry works on talent. Tenderprenuership has no room in the music industry. If you are not talented you better stay home.
I always believe you make it in the industry because either you are talented or lucky. But if you are lucky you need serious luck. Only talent and humbleness is the passport to longetivity in the industry. CD/backtrack musicians and DJs have flooded the music industry something that should be of great concern. You can’t be a musician when you can’t play a single music instrument. I have never seen Zeus or Scar play a music instrument. Does this mean they are not musicians? If they can’t play a music instrument but only perform with a live band this means they are vocalists of repute.
If you claim to be a musician and cant perform your music live then it means you are a cheat, con and mime artist. A musician should a least be able to blow a flute or perform one of his/her songs live, how do you have a song when you don’t know its cords? For a robot to replace 8 or 10 people in the name of CDJ’s and DJ’s leaves a lot to be desired, with Vee, Culture Spears, Gongmaster, Maxy, Dikakapa and others have been in the industry for such a long-time they should be playing live with a band, this will show maturity and growth. Playing backtrack amounts to miming to me.
Therefore in short musicians also must play a role in re-branding the industry by delivering quality performances.
The music industry must be removed completely from the Liquor regulations. I am not sure of how the music industry is associated with alcohol sale.
A gospel show where no alcohol is sold how is it associated with the Liquor Regulations? Currently there is a new trend where promoters allow cooler boxes in Festivals so now if people who bring their own drinks and there are no alcohol sales at festivals how is the music industry associated with Liquor Regulations/sales?
Most local musicians use community halls and school halls to stage shows and alcohol sale is prohibited (Liquor sale in community was prohibited even before the new regulations) now how do the liquor regulations affect those shows in community halls? The alcohol regulations should affect bars, bottle stores and pubs not innocent musicians and promoters.
This Noise and Nuisance Act demeans the goodwill and violates the moral rights of musicians and music. I don’t think that there is a musician that can perform songs or stage a festival in a residential area. I am trying to imagine what can happen if Slizer was to launch an album around Ext 9? This has never happened so I believe no one has to scratch his or her heads trying to picture anything. This Act for me was meant to deal with people who play music loud during house parties, babyshowers and traditional events like (Matso e.t.c) and to control parties and bars that play loud music disturbing neighbours. I don’t think when a musician is performing in a community hall is a nuisance because that Hall was built to host such events. I don’t think you can say as a musician is making noise when performing inside the community hall, which was built to host concerts.
There is a need for the Police also appreciate to the fact that musicians are also workers and have rights just like any working class of people. As long as they have written permits their shows should not be closed. For the Police to shut down shows despite musicians having permits from by Laws and Community Halls leaves a lot to be desired. I hope the Minister of Labour Hon. Peter Siele is trying to come with some law or a legal instrument of some sort to try and protect this vulnerable working class (musicians). We can’t have musicians continuously being harassed and then we go out and say we as a country uphold the rights of our people when a certain segment is being harassed from expressing themselves. I believe musicians in Botswana are the most exploited people looking at the fact that they don’t have a single law that protects them.
They don’t have a statutory regulatory body like the National Arts Council.
The govt must have Music and Sports Hall of Fame near Parliament similar to one for the BDF. This will mark the names of the greatest sports and music personalities. This will also make sure that their work is archived and treasured for the next generations to refer to. As the govt introduces music and sports in school syllabuses and schools of excellences, the syllabus should teach our youth about our own music not some funk punk and techno music from Europe. We should make sure our township jazz, traditional music, kwasa-kwasa, traditional gospel and chorale are captured and used to educate the upcoming generations in their current form before they are diluted by the remix and bootleg generation of DJs. The National Arts council is greatly needed to give the music industry and government strategic direction and guidance.
In closing I have just picked up one of the local newspapers where the National Broadcasting Board has put up a disturbing advert that it will be hosting a Pitso. How can this event be held without musicians? How can you talk about our property in our absence? The N.B.B. together with the exploiters of musicians (broadcasters) apparently will be talking about liberalization of the airwaves. As the N.B.B. meets with broadcasters to discuss and strategize how to improve and intensify the exploitation of musicians people who will be sitting in that hall having a three course meal (morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea and probably a cocktail dinner over red wine) ask yourselves if God really smiles at your organizations and your profiteering from poor people.
I want all the corporate, business and govt officials who will be sitting in that hall to ask yourself why you are in that meeting/Pitso? To persue opportunities of increasing your profits or to help grow musicians who you profit from their work? I believe all broadcasters will only table issues of their stomach not music development issues. The N.B.B. should open for business and organize a platform to meet filmmakers, musicians, visual artists to discuss their challenges. A new broadcasting act without input of content producers will be a flawed act that Parliament must reject outright!
*Modibe is a Music Activist
