Ancestral Calls of the Old Shoshong Hills

ANCESTRAL CALLS OF OLD SHOSHONG HiLLS

I was born a traveler between ages and cages

Of this beloved mother earth. I transverse from North to South

Like a dreamer, journeying between the East to the West

Before my days end.

I had a friend

That I had to visit in December, about three years ago, his

Name is Prince,

And the little person in me desired to see the sacred hills;

The old Shoshong hills of ancient kind,

The day was calm but it was Christmas time

For most of our human kind,

The first of my last days I’d spend walking around the hills,

Climbing between patterns of old rocks underneath my feet

For the day’s revelation of the historical mystics,

I’d often sweat as though a runner on a deceptive marathon

But reality unfolded its person before I could reveal my human other,

The path between the rocks led us to a silent stream…

The voice in me uttered in silent wishes,

Quench my thirst

O silent Shoshong stream

Over olden hills of our forefathers gone,

And I shall hold my breath longer

Than the voice to my own shadow…

I could barely hear my silent heart beat

And the person I am told me to be a little stronger

As a servant of art and cultural heritage,

I had to plead with the gods to welcome me in their soils…

For ancestors have the power to refuse me, rebuke me,

And I was a little nervous when I heard a distant sound

Of what seemed to be a cow-horn trumpet behind

The cobwebs. I knew that being at these sacred ruins

To cleanse my being was a tradition. My heart was at peace

As the sun sunk beyond the hills,

We had gathered wild herbs and boiled the green leaves

To heal

Our body kind. We had cooked beans

To feed our hungry beings.

And the music of the wilderness took me

Further to the forbidden land. The land of unknown realities,

As though societies had angered, abandoned and betrayed their ancestral beings

For just a mere soul seeking pursuit, but what soul need I seek?

For my knees trembled when I heard voices from the hills…

The night had come; the new day was born tomorrow.

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Onalethuso Petruss Buyile Ntema

The Voice of a Shadow, 2017

The Earth is a Human

The Earth is a Human extract

Is the earth a human? What human is this earth? The rhetoric is actually true. Any clue? Would you excuse my ignorant self for being too smart to write this? Just this not so classic theoretical sense? I think the earth is a human. For the voice in me echoes beneath memories of the gone, the present and the distant. What future there is for insecurity, hypocrisy, deception, retaliation, brainwash and manipulation? Of course I embrace the brighter side of life but reality cannot be ignored, not at all. For dreamers do. Farmers do. Thinkers do. Mothers do. Fathers do. Teachers do. Brothers do. Pictures do. Matters do. Pieces do. Cultures do. Beliefs do. Everything else does. The universe is just one such a dream. For dreams do tell us the unknown in corners of the round table as we pursue its diversity, embracing its greatness, debating its relative-ness and so on.

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Onalethuso Petruss Buyile Ntema

The Voice of a Shadow: Life, Reality and Mental Inspiration poetry

Photo credit: Prince Hyah Photography, 2013. Old Shoshong Hills, Shoshong village, Botswana

"I have learnt to appreciate that life is a journey through which destiny is your own, but its treasure knows no measure other than its person, for life is a pattern." 

Onalethuso Ntema Quotes.

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- The Voice of a Shadow, 2017

Word & Sound part 2

Word and Sound part 2

The day was dying for the full moon by the woods

As women gathered their daughters to collect firewood

In the nearby forest before dawn. Word was with them

As their loudest voices echoed from the wilderness, hidden

Treasures revealed before the eyes of the youngest generation,

For the day had come to end its journey. Great songs of great men

And women untold their mystical revelation. The night had fallen

Behind its shadows, and grandmothers sat around as word was spoken

In native tongues to the future, for golden days had gone, the unknown had come,

The unforeseen is yet to unfold its wings before the new day is born.

Abstract realities expressed in the musical undertones like taboos – our norms

Have faded in foreign like forbidden souls of the broken hearted. Shadows have gone

Behind cross corners, the little corners of a circle beneath the human in us,

For word is sound, good sound, spoken word, ancient word, modern word, teach us

The word in you O word of the genesis of human,

Because I am human. And I wish word was human…

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Onalethuso Petruss Buyile Mambo Ntema

The Voice of a Shadow, 2017

Word & Sound part 1

WORD and SOUND part 1

The word. What word need I tell?

What song need I sing when broken hearts surrounded me like an orphan?

Drowning beneath silent rivers and deeper than my toes could handle,

Scary nights tortured my silence as though it were just a mere dream,

And the child in me told me to be grounded like a soldier’s sacrifice,

For strangers know not their stranded days hunted. For word and sound decided

Their fate in my blood stream, my bloodline, my lineage, ancient days united;

In the modern kind, the musical kind, the lyrical and metaphorical tongues.

I could feel my nerves persuaded by the rhythmical madness, my stubborn heart

Crawled beneath the walls of an ancient rhythm, the natural vibe, the musical vibe,

My fingers were dancing like pieces of a songbird,

The sound. The word. For sound is word.

And word is sound. Our sound. Word sound.

The imagery is little known before dawn;

When tomorrow crawls at distant near before gone.

What song need I sing?

What poem there is for me to recite before sunset shadows?

Or breathe like Mother Nature’s word and sound?

What human am I to deceive the other?

Do monkeys betray like humans do? Do they? Not so?

Don’t you wish you could do as monkeys do? Don’t you?

Would you dare listen to the music from the heart beat?

The sounds it makes, the patterns, the word, the heart beat…

O word of my mother’s mouth piece;

The servant of word in sound but parables and phrases, 

Your word is flowery, sparkles and sprouts through but all seasons;

In ancient voices of the gone. The gone.

Our ancestral songs chanted behind the sun down,

The storyteller sound, the word.

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Onalethuso Petruss Buyile Mambo Ntema

The Voice of a Shadow, 2017

"SHOKO" a gender based violence campaign song #1BillionRises

Home » Art & Culture » Artists collaborate in One Billion Rising song

Chobe artists have come together to record a song to commemorate the upcoming One Billion Rising campaign against gender based violence scheduled for Saturday (March 5).

The song titled Shoko is a fusion of five languages namely: Sesubiya, Hambukushu, Setswana, English and Seyei. One of the song composers, Onalethuso Ntema explained that the song is a call for action against gender-based violence narrating Shoko’s story through the song.

“The lyrics goes; Na shweena ku torokanya in Hambukushu meaning I don’t want to be hurt, vantu ve Ireeza vonse mwi’kanda yeetu in Subiya meaning People of God let’s all stand,” he said.

Artists from different backgrounds across the district collaborated to produce the hit song. It is envisaged that the song will be performed at the One Billion Rising event in languages that residents can relate with.

He explained that campaigns against gender based violence need a lot of platforms to get the message across including through song and dance.  “This was our way of playing a role in giving back to the community,” he added.

This year’s campaign is billed to be bigger as more towns have joined in to commemorate this day.  Ghanzi district, Palapye, Moshupa have also since joined to commemorate the day this year. In Chobe the event is scheduled to take place in Kazungula through songs, motivational talks, poems and dance.

One Billion Rising revolution is a mass action campaign to end violence against women across the world. Global statistics indicate that one in three women on the planet will be raped or beaten in her lifetime.

This number translates to one billion women, hence the concept behind the name of the campaign. Botswana joined for the first time last year with a debut in Kasane.

Community leaders, government departments, political leaders, business people, young people, religious leaders, men and women from across the district are expected to participate in the event.

As it stands, gender based violence in Kasane is worrying according to acting station commander for Kasane assistant superintendent Dipheko Letamo. “From January to date, we have recorded 18 cases of common assault and an additional 9 cases of assault occasioning actual bodily harm,” he said.

For the whole of last year, Kasane recorded 32 incidents of assault occasioning actual bodily harm with an additional 71 cases of common assault.

Considering that these statistics represents Kasane only and not the whole district, Letamo said this was alarming. “Some of the cases are never reported, so these figures are likely to be much higher with some cases getting withdrawn,” he noted.

Botswana’s statistics show that 2 out of 3 women will experience gender-based violence in their lifetime, which is higher than the average global figures, ENDS

Source : BOPA

Author : Ludo Chube

Location : KASANE

Event : Album preview

Date : Mar 03 Thu,2016

DailyNews article

CHOBE MUSIC ENSEMBLE - SHOKO - 1BILLIONRISING PROMO 2016

Artists:
1. Mopika Kambathi - TWAYUVA CULTURAL GROUP
2. Ntema - Mambo & the Nature Voices
3. Keitumetse Mogwera & Osego Arabang - Chobe ARTS Association.
4. Kabozu Kabozu - Poet.
5. Sandy Bw
6. Raymond Manasseh - MATSO INTERNATIONAL ARTS TROUPE cc. Matsosangwao Arts Troupe.
Special thanks to Chobe Alliance for Arts Organization (CAAO)
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LYRICS
Mopika Kambathi – TWAYUVA CULTURAL GROUP, CAAO
Shoko! Nyeyi wa kutena,
Mounga wani tjuru
Wenu kwa ngure,
Ame na shweena ku torokanya

Chorus:
Shoko! Na shweena ku torokanya
Shoko! Kani suni ku kuvazwa

Mambo Ntema – MAMBO &THE NATURE VOiCES, CAAO
Ni siye ku boraa barwakazi, nji wa rumbwana, nji wapundi,
Sheetu ku ko ldiro, yime ndi muqahu
Ireeza fumo wangu, Shikati’anga undi mwani,
Uldivu ldetu, ndi qhuku hweta na nyina…

Chorus: Shoko! Kani suni ku kuvazwa
Shoko! Gake bate go ronkgelwa

Sandy Ndereki – SANDY BW
Muva siye, vaana vetu
Muva siye, vaana vetu
Hey hey hey hey hey! Muva siye unwe (hey!)
Njiva nyinetu! Kana avo Ikova lye chichava,
(Tata!) Kamu siye ku kava vammayo…

Chorus: Shoko! Na shweena ku torokanya
Shoko! Kani suni ku kuvazwa

Kabozu Petros Kabozu (Poetry)
Listen to the voices of innocent victims,
Mulyi suko waavo chilyiro,
Mu laalyiro waavo mavote,
They suffer physically and emotional trauma,
Yes! I’m rising because I want to STOP Gender Based Violence…

Chorus: Shoko! Kani suni ku kuvazwa
Shoko! Gake bate go ronkgelwa

Keitumetse Mogwera & Osego Arabang – CHOBE ARTS ASSOCiATiON, CAAO
At times I just wonder what is the agenda of this gender based violence?
Do you really know how it feels to be abused?
Let’s us ALL stand up and be against this,
Let’s ALL rise and be UNiTED…

Raymond Manasseh – MATSOSANGWAO ARTS TROUPE, CAAO
Nna kenale modisa, modisa ya disang ka lentswe,
Ke a go kopa Ramasedi, Kgosi ya dikgosi leba kwano,
Batho ba sota basadi gammogo le ban aba bone,
Ba gataka ditshwanelo tsa bone ba itira diphoko mo lapeng,
Nna ruri gakena thata, boikarabelo ke nna le wena,
Go emisa kgokgontsho ya bomme le bana bone,
Kwee ke eng le ‘ira yaana, eish!

Chorus:
Shoko! Kani suni ku kuvazwa
Gake bate go ronkgelwa…

Bridge:
Pansiye mpapa lyiko mawee manyando…
Vantu ve Ireeza vonse mu ikanda yeetu,
Tu zime tu vonse…

Chorus:
Shoko! Na shweena ku torokanya
Kani suni ku kuvazwa
Gake bate go ronkgelwa…

(c)2016 - A US Embassy, Gender Affairs Department and the Chobe District collaboration

: Chobe Alliance for Arts Organization (CAAO)

Released by: Happy (Zambia)

Release date: 4 March 2016

Listen, Download & Share: "Shoko!"