Xere Cultural Festival is calling
Preparations for the second edition of the Xere Cultural festival are ongoing at the village of Xere. This event is about encouraging culture and teaching the community about the way of life of the Basarwa tribe that used to live in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) back in the years. Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Environment and Tourism, Boatametse Modukanele acknowledged that the Xere Cultural Festival event is one event that resonates well with the environment and preserving culture. His ministry provides support role to assist this initiative financially and technically.
The attendants would be treated to the best of Xere through music, dance and food as well as various activities designed to attract the eye while educating people at the same time. The ever bubbly Chief of Xere Village, Kgosi Molaodi Moipolai emphasized that the event has rich historical significance to share, and pleaded with anyone to support them financially. He reiterated that, the event is a platform to encourage especially young people to have interest in their own culture and noted that these days young people do not even know how to speak their own language or understand the history of their culture. His wish is to see a lot of people attend the event in large numbers compared to last year.
The event is slated between 22nd and 24th. It will start with a cultural exhibition on 23rd and ends with a Sunset downer picnic on day one. During the cultural exhibition, there would be many demonstrations about the life of Basarwa, including hunting, collecting carcass and preparing and cooking it in steps, using traditional cooking methods, making fire in the bush, and so forth. There would also be food tasting of the Sesarwa cuisine.
While astronomy is common for the Western culture, the Xere community has also embraced this concept and, it is therefore one of the activities that is expected to take place at the event. People would be taught how to count the stars in Sesarwa as it has been the case for this tribe back then. There would also be poetry performance during the song and dance night. Another interesting factor is that, any craft or painting that would be identified at Xere would be originally manufactured from Xere to show how wealthy and talented the people of Xere are when it comes to creatives and arts. Event Manager, Kegopilwe Rapula has emphasized that Xere village is one small village with so much talent and have once won Presidential competitions in the Tsutsube category, taking positions, one and two.
There would also be exciting game drives into CKGR to appreciate the place and its surroundings. Rapula shared that last year, they hosted about 3000 people and are hopeful that people will attend in large numbers this year, and they are grateful to have partnered with Botswana Tourism Organization.