14 Mar 2024

The National Arts Council of Botswana (NACB) is renewing bilateral agreements in order to effectively implement them and strengthen the creative industry.

In February, the NACB and National Arts Council of South Africa (NACSA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enhance the cultural sector in both countries.

In an interview Obenne Mbaakanyi, the NACB Director of Creative and Cultural Sector Development, emphasised the importance of implementing these bilateral frameworks. 

Mbaakanyi mentioned that besides South Africa, Zambia and Namibia were also countries of interest for potential partnerships. However, due to the existence of bilateral frameworks with South Africa, NACSA was contacted for exploring various collaboration opportunities.

The MoU with NACSA includes several objectives, such as research collaboration, given South Africa’s strength in the area. The aim is to exchange research papers to enrich cultural knowledge.

Notably, Botswana and South Africa share a common language and heritage, and the MoU aims to deepen ties and embrace the diversity between the two countries. Mbaakanyi highlighted the significance of celebrating these diversities and fostering mutual inspiration.

Mbaakanyi said with South Africa’s more substantial budget, the MoU presented opportunities for Botswana to benefit from collaborative projects. For instance, she said, the agreement allowed for skills support exchanges and artistic residencies, leveraging South Africa’s experience and established art festivals to attract international attention.

Further, she said, the partnership between the NACB and NACSA through the MoU signifies a step towards enhancing cultural exchange, collaboration, and growth within the creative sectors of both countries.  The cultural tourism is also another aspect, and Mbaakanyi said with South Africa being strong in the region in that sector, they were looking into partnerships and collaborations, which they need in order for them to benefit Botswana. 

“When we talk about tourism demographics, a lot of people come to South Africa and naturally they come to Botswana. So they should be able to pick out what is unique in Botswana and South Africa,” she explained.  She added that they were partnering in such spaces and create opportunities to celebrate diversities and yet partner in critical areas such as art spaces.  She also said this would be an inspiration to Botswana artistes to understand different perspective as to how South Africa do their art. 

Furthermore, Mbaakanyi said they were also looking into recognising art from grassroots levels at schools. 

“Having an understanding of these will also assist us in making things better, as well as engaging with a position paper to our Ministry of Education and Skills Development by signing an MoU to further enhance art in our education system, nurturing it from primary level to secondary.  And also ensure that the ecosystem of art is developed in a way that it will be sustainable for the artists,” Mbaakanyi said adding that it was critical to work on a solid foundation for commercialisation for the community to be able to engage and interact at that level.  

Batswana artistes have long complained about not having to stage or be booked for music festivals in South Africa, whilst South Africa’s acts immensely enjoy that in Botswana. 

Mbaakanyi said another aspect, which the NACB were looking into for Batswana to be able to have festivals and host in South Africa as well. 

Therefore, she said they needed to find a way to bring the two together ‘especially in the promotion of music. 

Additionally, Mbaakanyi said whilst in South Africa for the signing ceremony, they appreciated the dynamics the NACSA goes through, which she said inspired them especially with regards to grants. 

“South Africa is already in the digital space and we are still talking Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). 

And when we look at the National Transformation Strategy of Botswana towards 2036, we are looking at making the creative sector become a big economic engine and see it run by the private sector with support from government,” she said. 

Mbaakanyi said they also met with the Tshwane Choral Group, who are part of the legacy programme of NACSA and appreciated how they work as a choir. 

She said the choir was interested in meeting with the choral association in Botswana and see how they could partner with a choir in Botswana. 

Issues of capacity building were also discussed for the two countries. Botswana is rich in the cultural component compared to South Africa especially speaking of Tswana culture. 

And Botswana has also developed in authenticity without any outside influence. 

Therefore, Mbaakanyi said Botswana also could inspire South Africa and help them get in touch with their roots and resuscitate their culture and values to have a standpoint of building pride and monetising culture.  Moreover, Mbaakanyi said the film industry was one aspect which they strive to develop with collaborations, partnerships and promotions.  

South Africa’s film production is huge, they are already on big live stream channels like Netflix and also have their own channels. 

Mbaakanyi said they were looking into Botswana film industry needs to and establish where they could partner  with  Botswana its stories exposure.

She said Botswana’s untold stories need to be shared and unpacked. “There is so much greatness in our stories that we have not shared. 

It is about unpacking them and creating a wholesale of stories, art and culture that our people can take advantage of and monetise, also backing it up with research,” she said. She said these are the various dialogues they had with the South Africans on issues of knowledge sharing where the two could have workshops and share the knowledge, challenges. ENDS