Botswana: Music Festivals Banned in Schools

This news article is about music festivals being banned in schools in Botswana. The article was posted on January 27th of 2010. It was written by Calistus Kolantsho. Music shows have been banned in secondary school halls by the Ministry of Education and Skills Development. Gilbert Seagile said that both musicians and schools have been affected. He said that schools used these shows to raise funds. He also stated that they don't have a union to question these things so its hard to fight against. Seagile also stated that they were not informed right away when this decision was made. He thinks this decision is harsh and its making musicians suffer. He doesn't think the government is doing enough to support musicians. Franco Lesokwane also stated that in the villages there's no where for musicians to stage their shows because community halls aren't present. Since the music festivals helped schools raise money its hard for schools to get by now. They are now forced to organize school activities through the Parent-Teachers Association (PTA). She said they need the funds for the maintenance of the old school buildings.



I thought this article was interesting because some schools in Botswana depend on music festival funds to keep their schools running. Since I'm in high school I tried to imagine myself in the situation, with no music festivals/dances in the future. We only have 3 dances a year, Homecoming, the Sweetheart, and Prom. It doesn't seem like that big of a deal because we're so used to always having them. It must be a huge deal for the people in Botswana that attend these events and the school's who depend on these festival funds. It must be hard for people like Seagile to see this happening. He can't do much about it either since there's no unions to fight whats taking place.

Picture courtesy of allAfrica.com