Spotlight on Culture Spears (Botswana)
Taking a closer look one of our favorite groups here at Music of Africa.
When I first came upon a Culture Spears video, I wasn't sure what to make of it. I don't recall exactly which one it was. I've watched so many.
But the up to date production values seemed to conflict with the traditional setting, dress, and surroundings. As time went on, it became apparent that the group were paying tribute to the traditional music, dance and lifestyles of their native Botswana and that they lived in the modern world just like the rest of us.
There was apparently a period where these Botswanan "traditional music" groups became very popular but now that trend has settled down a bit. If I don't sound too authoritative on this point, it's because I don't fully have a handle on the topic. So enough said about that, for now.
But Culture Spears is still doing their thing, nearly two decades after getting together, in 2005. They were the first group featured when we kicked off our Pick of the Week feature and have appeared several more times there.
Here's what the group has to say about themselves, at their YouTube page (where you can find a lot of their music):
Culture Spears is a traditional dance group made of 5 young artists. The group was found in the banks of the beautiful Chobe River in the Year 2005. Through hard work and dedication they released their first recording titled KORONE. The Six-track album was a marvelous release to listen to. The album had songs like Selonyana which talked about a lost lover,Korone, the spiritual song that depicted God as the Almighty King and Mmadikokwana which depicted lack of proper parental care the children who can be exposed to different life hazards in life. The year 2006 was yet another year, Culture Spears had to continue the journey, and they released KULENYANE. To date Culture Spears songs are household songs in South Africa and making them juggling between the two countries for performance and different events
About a decade after forming, co-founder Kabelo Mogwe spoke about their early days, in an article in the local press:
“The idea of forming a musical group first occurred to me in December 2004 while I was sitting under a Motsentsela tree in Kasane. Thembeni and I decided to join Tse tilodi dance group in Kasane after senior school in Letlhakane. We used to perform in lodges around Kasane and the community called our group Zebras. Those days artists like Kgobola were big and people used to ask me if I did not want to follow in their footsteps, that motivated me to work harder,” Kabelo said.
The group was still going strong nearly a decade later, when Kabelo was again interviewed in the local press. Where he noted that the group was more popular in neighboring South Africa than their native Botswana.
With so much great African music available, I usually don't feature songs a second time. I'll make an exception for "Lebante," which is embedded here. Which inspired me to seek out more of Culture Spears' music.