Music of Botswana - Folk Music

Folk Music

Tswana music is mostly vocal and performed without drums; it also makes heavy use of string instruments. Tswana folk music has instruments such as gumba gumba Segankure/Segaba and for the last few decades, a guitar has been celebrated as a versatile music instrument for Tswana music. The guitar was originally played in a manner similar to Segaba but with a better rhythm due to plucking, almost completely replacing the violin-like Segaba until such prodigies of segaba as Ratsie Setlhako re-popularised segaba in the 80s with the help of radio. In the absence of instruments a clapping rhythm is used in music with the typical chant and answer manner of singing. The absence of drumming is predominant and is unusual for an African Tribe. Tswana music has producers such as Ramco loco and Ronald Sekaname who is currently based in Malaysia, signed under Tak Boleh records, in collaboration with Panggilan Masuk and kredit masembula. There are other hip hop artists who are not yet signed, include Banxs from Thamagaaaa and Thabang in Lobatse. The hip hop genre of Botswana became the most dominating when zeus came up; it has grown from the days of one of our legends, DJ Sid, who started the p-side and introduced western music to Botswana.