Abstract
This paper aims at examining the practical use of the melon dance by Basarwa (San) of Kaudwane village in the Kweneng West District of Botswana. Basarwa is a group of people who originate from the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve (CKGR). Taking into consideration the Basarwa traditional way of life, this research focuses mainly on women and girls as the main participants of the melon dance music genre. Some authors refer to this music as a game, whereas others refer to it as a musical genre. Basarwa women and girls have used this musical genre over the years to celebrate their hard work of search and gathering of veldkost from edible or medicinal plants. After two – three days of cumbersome work of gathering these plants, Basarwa women return to their place of residence to celebrate through melon song and dance. Data were gathered through several visits to Kaudwane village in 2008, 2010 and 2013 respectively to validate facts on this musical genre. Informants gathered at the village Kgotla (village customary administration center) for oral interviews by the researchers. It should be noted that the majority of the Kaudwane Basarwa speak Sesarwa which is their native language. To overcome this language barrier, a young lady who is the village pre-school teacher acted as an interpreter to the researchers. In addition to oral interviews, there were also video recordings and information from other repositories such as journal articles, books and internet searches. The informants also offered to practically perform the melon dance for the researchers to observe. Key words: Tsutsube, Melon Dance, Women, Basarwa, Kaudwane, Kgalagadi Desert.
Highlights
The first encounter the authors of this article had with the melon dance music was when they were at the former Lobatse Teacher Training College which was established in 1956 and closed down in December 2009 being called Lobatse College of Education
Basarwa of Kaudwane calls this musical game siqhiru/segcuru dance in their language. This particular music genre falls under the generic term Tsutsube which covers all musical types practiced by the Basarwa of Botswana
Since Kaudwane does not have enough required wild fruits for the performance of the melon dance, compared to CKGR, the 15– 20 performers improvised and used available wild fruits such as; mogorogorwane/gcuwa fruit. These were used in the place of a wild melon which could only be obtained from the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve where this Basarwa group originated
Summary
The first encounter the authors of this article had with the melon dance music was when they were at the former Lobatse Teacher Training College which was established in 1956 and closed down in December 2009 being called Lobatse College of Education. Music Dance visited Kaudwane village where they met elder women performing the dance in a naturalist and realist context This led to the conception of this research article. Basarwa of Kaudwane calls this musical game siqhiru/segcuru dance in their language. This particular music genre falls under the generic term Tsutsube which covers all musical types practiced by the Basarwa of Botswana. Since Kaudwane does not have enough required wild fruits for the performance of the melon dance, compared to CKGR, the 15– 20 performers improvised and used available wild fruits such as; mogorogorwane/gcuwa fruit These were used in the place of a wild melon which could only be obtained from the Central Kgalagadi Game Reserve where this Basarwa group originated. The performers expressed unhappiness for having lost their original musical performances
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