What is Ancestral Collective and what is its mission?

Ancestral Collective is a new nonprofit organisation currently being developed and structured to create platforms to create and send a strong message to our people, in particular Africans to remember and know their history, know who they really are, be proud of and celebrate their cultures, customs and traditions. We believe this will awaken our spirits and inform a purposefully driven life, that will motivate us to join hands to develop our people and our communities in all sorts of ways. With the help and blessings of our ancestors we believe we a better life can be created for all our people.

We historically lived as a collective and we need to return to those roots and customs. Through Ancestral Collective we aim to create networks of Knowledge, Funding and Economic Opportunities that will develop our people and our communities right throughout the continent.

Why are you having an event of this nature, what is it all about?

Through song and dance, this festival aims to reflect on the history of our people, pay honour to all our ancestors and celebrate our culture. In line with our mission and beliefs, we see song and dance as pathway to awakening our peoples spirits, creating unity and developing the said networks. In African culture, song and dance is an integral part of our spirituality and way of life. However we seem to have neglected and or are ashamed of our traditional music and traditional dances.

This then leads to the other main reason for having this event - it is unfortunate that in society today, when one believes and practices their African customs and traditions, listens to culturally orientated music, performs culturally orientated dances, and dresses in traditional attire, one is usually seen as being backward, uneducated, and economically weak or destitute. This has led to people being ashamed of their cultures and traditions, so the purpose of this event is to try and start to challenge those perceptions by creating a top class event where people of all walks of life can proudly interact and participate in their traditional music, dance and culture.

The last but not least reason is, in line with my passion for the development of people and Lesotho, through my passion for music, I have been employing traditional music artists from Lesotho to perform at functions at home in Taung. My aim with this event was to create a platform to boost these artist economically, stimulate and develop their production by having them perform in a major event, and also to change perception of their music by having them perform on the same stage renowned artists such as Thandiswa Maswai and Phuzikhemisi in an iconic venue.

How will it contribute towards Basotho's culture and heritage?

Other than reasons mentioned above, it will be a day Basotho can come together and proudly listen and dance to their traditional music, in a wonderful venue. We want to encourage people to come out in their traditional outfits and blankets and celebrate their history, culture and heritage. Other than just the artists singing, there will also be traditional dance performances such as mekhibo and mehobelo. Please note that the reason that there are artists from South Africa is because Lesotho is inextricably linked to South Africa, physically, economically, politically, culturally and through blood relations. Ancestral Collective's agenda and mission is a regional and continental one. Next year we hope to have artists from all over the SADC region and in year 3 have artists from East and West Africa. (Lest we not forget where we come from during the Diaspora).

The Festival will be hosted at the renowned Thaba Bosiu Cultural Village. The cultural village is aimed at presenting, promoting and preserving the cultural heritage of Basotho as well as influencing the present and future Basotho generations and international visitors to highly regard the culture of Basotho. The facility is well known to offer a unique tourism product through the provision of the Basotho cultural and traditional lifestyle in aspects of housing, entertainment, arts, crafts as well as indigenous plants. In our view, the venue ties the knot as a reverberation for the preservation of indigenous culture and the inter-generational knowledge transfer as far as Basotho tradition and heritage are concerned.

Is this the pilot event?

Yes, this is the pilot event under the banner of Ancestral Collective however in my personal capacity and under the auspices of my family and Bataung I have hosted major events. To make this event a success I have contracted the services of professionals and consultants in the event management and concert industry. I have chosen Lesotho not only because of my passion for Lesotho and Basotho, but because I believe that in this part of the continent, Lesotho is the ideal place to ignite the African renaissance and unity, without fear or favour. I'm also hoping this event will enhance tourism in Lesotho and bring with it all forms of economic stimulation.

What has it got to do with Lifaqane War as it is dubbed under that name?

Lifaqane-Mfecane is not a war but a turbulent and chaotic time in our history that started in and around 1815. In order to justify their actions the European historians lied in their narrations to let everybody believe that the different Southern African clans and tribes cannibalised each other and started fighting because of their ethnic differences. This could not be further from the truth, instead during that time the Colonialists were still practicing slavery and all sorts of other human rights atrocities, in their greed for power, land and resources, and that is what created the chaos. All leaders that resisted their ambitions were either enslaved or murdered. (Case in point Shaka Zulu, who the British lied and narrated as a war monger, and as the initiator of the chaos, meanwhile they actually plotted and orchestrated to have him killed because he was resisting their territorial advances).

So in effect the Festival is called Lifaqane-Mfecane to pay tribute to that time in our forgotten but very important time in our history, to pay homage to those who fought and died trying to protect our people and our land, and to get people to think about, research, and learn about this time in our history. Once we truly know who we are and where we come from, then we will know where we are going. Our slogan for that day will be: Lifaqane-Mfecane in 1815 was Chaotic, in 2015 its Collective.

What is the artist line up, in particular Basotho artists?

The main focus of the show is Sesotho traditional music, with 74% of the artists being Basotho (This excludes Mehobelo le Mekhibo). These are namely: Mantsa, Tsepo Tshola, Apollo, Bhudaza, Puseletso Seema, Rabotso le Semanyane, Sefako sa Menoaneng, Mothae, Lesoetsa, Mmapa oa Likhoele, Bo Mme ba Maputseng, Mapesela and Litsoejane. They are joined by Thandiswa Maswai and Ntombe Thongo of Xhosa origin, Phuzikhemisi and Shabala Rhythm of Zulu origin and HHP of Tswana origin. I have attached the email flyer for your perusal, please note that Bhudaza was added to the lineup as recently as this past Sunday, after the billboards were already flighted. (PS. on global digital space we say Difaqane instead of Lifaqane).