Organisers of the first annual Botswana Traditional Music Awards (TMA) have vowed to stage a spectacular event slated for December in Kasane.
The event slated for the country’s tourist hub will see groups and individual acts slug it out for a place at the award ceremony in Kasane.
According to a member of the Executive Committee, Raoboy Mpuang, artists will perform at regional level where winners will proceed to national finals for the ultimate prize.
“We’ll be using SMS voting to decide winners, because we’ve realised that adjudication has caused problems in the past. Our competition will be fan based,” he said.
Mpuang told The Voice that only one first spot per category will make it to the national finals. “If things go according to plan, we want the winner from all the 11 categories to pocket P10 000,” Mpuang told The Voice.
The categories are hosana, tsutsube, segaba, katara, setapa, setinkane, best traditional attire, best fashion designer, best visual, best traditional artwork, and best photographer.
The EXCO member further said the intention is to mix culture and tourism, hence the decision to host the event in Kasane instead of Gaborone of Francistown.
“In fact the inaugural show is in Kasane, the following year, they’ll be in Maun and then Shakawe in 2025.”
“The biggest aim is to bolster the tourism sector as it is the second economic contributor. We hope to attract thousands of international visitors from our region and the entire world,” Mpuang said.
He further said they’re going to have a package which will include a ticket, game drive, merchandise and boat cruise. “We’re currently still negotiating with Culture Spears and Dr Vom to perform at the Awards and Gala dinner,” revealed Mpuang.
Mpuang further told The Voice that through collaborations with other organisations such as Talent Tracker Trust from Zimbabwe, artists will be given platforms to perform outside the country. “We’ve signed an MoU with Talent Tracker and have been benchmarking at Namibia and Zambia Music Awards,” he said.