Culture Spears dance for Mandela

Botswana’s leading traditionalmusic outfi t, CultureSpears was recentlyinvited to perform at Nelson Mandela’sbirthday dinner at the Universityof South Africa (UNISA)in Pretoria.UNISA’s Professor PhalandwaMolaudzi, who previously invitedthem to perform in Mozambique,invited the local group to jointhem for the birthday celebrationa fortnight ago.“It was such an overwhelmingexperience. We feel honouredto have been invited as we werethe only Botswana artists andit has always been our dream tojoin in the celebration.

 

We havepreviously performed for otherformer South African presidents(post apartheid) and Madiba wasthe only one left. We outdid ourselves, represented our countrywell and we were well receivedby the crowd,” said group member,Magdeline Mogwe who ispopularly known as Chama Girl.Spears performed songs suchas Kulenyane, Khudu and Kueletsane.“Those are the songs thatSouth Africans know and love.After seeing us perform our CDsales went up as we had takensome CD to the event.

 

It wassomething we did not expect butit showed that our performancehad a real impact on those whoattended and decided to buy ourmusic,” Charma Girl added. Theyperformed alongside South Africansinger and actress, KellyKhumalo.As the ailing Nelson Mandelarecuperates in hospital, the worldcelebrated his 95th birthday honouringhis legacy in various ways.