and the village had two entries. One is from
the village school and you can see the girls
in the picture with one of the boys. Couldn't
get the other boys in the photo because they
were off somewhere at the time.
The group are of the Thimbukushu tribe and
that is the general traditional dress.
There were about 20 or so contestants and
they were some real good ones. The Thimbukushu
are noted for their style of dancing which is
with a lot of shoulder movement. It is really
something to see and I have a little video clip
or two that I was able to take. The problem is
that the quality is terrible due to the placement
of the contest area. It was facing the sun and
under a tree that let a lot of diffused light through.
Despite that it was a really great day and I saw
some tremendous dancers and some pretty serious
drummers.
Of the total contestants there was only one from the
San (Khwe) tribe and they were from our village and
organized and sent by the youth office. Even though
they where doing such a different dance style
( a lot more leg movement than the Thimbukushu)
they were still competitive due to the fact that the
regional event is actually open to all cultures and
their styles.
The school group was pretty good but like the San
group it was obvious that they could have used a
little more practice time.
For the San it was their first appearance at the yearly
event and I was glad to have been able to go with them.
Neither team placed to advance to the bigger regionals
but the San did take 1st place out of all the groups
for the most traditional attire. They were totally crazy
when they won that award. At first I heard that they
won 1st place and I thought, how can that be. There
were far more practiced groups. But of course they
explained what the award was. Sorry to not have a
photo of their attire but I have it on video.
Even though, the San may have a chance to go to the
next level because they are the only one of that
culture who participated. If they get the bye, so to
speak, I am hoping that they get to practicing some.
They practiced for 4 days before the competition.
Don't know what the reason for that was but if they
do go on, I'll be bugging them to practice for their
big chance to go to the finals in the capitol (Windhoek).
On the personal side I have to say that it was interesting
being one of the 2 or 3 white people at this event.
No problems at all, just interesting being present at
such a serious cultural event/competition in an
African country. And even though it is my second time
living in a country on the continent, it is not the
same. In Senegal they didn't have these types of
competitions. So it was totally new and really, it was
being present at what you see on National Geographic.
It was a good day and experience and it had a good
ending as the San group sang all the way back from
the competition. They were in the back of the pickup
truck after dark and it was cold. But that didn't
dampen their spirits.
It was such fun to have been along and see the
competition and the happiness of the San group.
No comments:
Post a Comment