Carol Kgafela

More and more Batswana are beginning to love and appreciate performing arts. Performing arts refers to any stage display of music, theatre, comedy and/or dance to name but a few. Growing up it was unheard of for a child to want to make a living out of performing as it was deemed as an industry that encouraged bad behaviour and promiscuity. But slowly, parents and the country at large are moving away from that stereotype of the arts and the entertainment industry  and, are beginning to accept it as an industry that they can encourage their children to join and pursue their dreams of glitz and glamour.
David Slater is a well known name in the arts circles in Botswana and has done tremendous work in teaching and promoting performing arts amongst the country’s youth. He first came to Botswana from Cape Town in 1976 as a maths and physics teacher at Maru-a-pula School. In 1987 Maitisong was built and he was appointed its director, a position he held for 20 years until 2006 when he left to run his own company, David Slater Music, which is a promotion company for local artists that looks to paying them properly for their work. “My involvement in the arts has been wide because of Maitisong. As its director it meant that I was involved with Botswana’s artists and most activities which included music, dance and drama,” says Slater.
Late last year, Slater expanded his career portfolio by teaming up with Alexander Mc Call Smith, author of the No. 1 Ladies Detective or Mma Ramotswe, and opening, ‘The No 1 Opera House” a coffee shop which doubles as a theatre and a platform for young artists to explore their talents through regular performances at the Opera House.
Maureen Kefapogile is a 23-year-old young woman who lives in Broadhurst and is studying Accounting at Gaborone Institute of Professional Studies (GIPS). She is your regular girl next door who enjoys sports and going out, but she also has a talent and passion for music, traditional dance and drama. She is a member of Sedibeng Chorale Society, the Corpus Christi Chiro and Church Choir. “I love to sing and growing up I had always been told that I could sing, and was thus encouraged to make use of my talent,” says Maureen.
She says that she first got to explore her talent through Chiro, the youth movement at her church where she was encouraged to sing and participate in the various activities of the movement.
By joining Sedibeng she hoped to get the chance to improve her singing and performing skills, which she says she is definitely achieving through her interaction with other singers and the voice training she receives. And like most youth out there would love to be able to make a living out of her talent. However, “the problem is that people are not yet prepared to pay performers properly. They appreciate what we do but they are not prepared to dig too deep in their pockets which makes wanting to live out of performing a dream,” added Maureen.