Botswanarama - Old School Botswana Music Highlights

No rhyme or reason to this one, other than to feature great Botswana stuff from back when. Break out your dancing shoes.

I was inspired to start this site by all the videos of Botswana's four-string guitarists that reside on YouTube. But I soon discovered that Botswana's music scene had other charms, namely it's kwaito and kwassa music, which is in another category altogether.

First up, a favorite, a song from Eskimos called "G-Wawa." I first discovered it via a crappy video copy on YouTube that's no longer there. The dancing is especially noteworthy, but we'll have to settle for the audio version, from SoundCloud.

Here's an all-star roundup of artists from this era. It's the video for a song called "Mzobozobo," that features Eskimos, Vee Mampeezy, Gilly Many Papa, and Matsieng (fyi…sound quality is a little dicey). In the early days, Eskimos performed with Vee as his very capable dancers.

Street Gang's " A Re Yeng Batswana" is another favorite. Here's a link to the video, since it’s audio only. Below is another video, with actual video content, that features the group teaming up with Mmemo Mahala.

If I've got my story straight, Wizards streamlined their name from the earlier version, which was Wizards of the Desert. Here they team up with Botswanan producer and artist, Zolasko.

Finally, here's a song and dance-off from Exodus, with a song produced by none other than Vee Mampeezy. Small world.