Sereetsi goes on a countrywide tour
Tomeletso Sereetsi of Sereetsi & the Natives is starting the year on a good note. Hot on the heels of his phenomenal success in 2015, he is scheduled to embark on a two and half month tour of Botswana during which he will share, impart knowledge as well as exchange ideas with the general public, village leadership, students of the arts and teachers about the now famous Four Strings Guitar.
The opportunity to embark on the tour came through a P456 000.00-grant from the Companies and Intellectual Property Authority (CIPA).
Sereetsi is regarded as the saviour of this oral traditional guitar, having compiled the first ever-instructional CD/book titled The Solo Four String Guitar of Botswana.
The 83-page book is the result of research of Botswana’s folk guitar’s tuning, chords, song form, origin and development. The grant came in two forms. It assisted in making the book accessible to schools (secondary schools), through the distribution networks of Ministry of Education and Skills Development (MOESD) as well as libraries. It will also be used in schools as a supplementary book.
Secondly, the other half will be used to facilitate workshops that will see Sereetsi touring different parts of the country where he will workshop the public, students, teachers as well as artists in different parts of the country on how to play a four string guitar, its application as well as its musical content.
Ahead of the tour, whose dates are being finalised this week, 300 and 500 copies were donated to the Botswana National Library Service & the Ministry of Education & Skills Development (MOESD) respectively.
The books that were donated to (MOESD) will be distributed to various schools across the country. “The idea is for the students to access the book, and already we have students who are pursuing the arts in schools,” he explained in an interview.
He also said that the workshops are targeting 15 places that include Tsabong, Gumare, Ghanzi, Nata and Letlhakeng and will be done in phases with five places being visited in each phase. Following the completion of each phase, they will return to report back, document as well as find out if there are any lessons learnt.
The workshops are not only targeting artists but include cultural enthusiasts also. “This will help in seeing Batswana take pride in their own products,” said Sereetsi adding that this can be seen as national pride.
On a personal note, he said that the tour will assist to deepen his knowledge about the guitar as well as pave way for writing his second book. “Chances are another book might come out of this tour. I am looking for something tangible from this project,” he said.
