Botswana: Musicians Against Aids Go 'South of the Border'

Botswana: Musicians Against Aids Go 'South of the Border'

Mmegi/The Reporter (Gaborone)

9 August 2007
Posted to the web 9 August 2007

Chippa Legodimo

The Musicians against AIDS campaign spearheaded by Roger Madison of Stage Zone and Nosey Road band, heads down south to Lobatse this weekend. The, event will be hosted at Lobtrans Gunners training field in Peleng on Saturday.

Since its inception some three months back, the event has generated much interest and more and more civil society groups have joined. Nosey Road, Soccer Moruakgomo, Stane, Skiflynt, and Wrust have been gracing the event since it started. Once again the five will be present in Lobatse. Also billed to showcase their skills are Ash Temples and SNS Blues band.

According to the organisers, the objectives of the Lobatse show are to give artistes, especially the young and up coming ones like Wrust and Ash Temple, a chance to perform before a larger audience as well as use musicians and their music to lure people to the event where various AIDS organisations will get a chance to market themselves and their services.

"Participating musicians will be required to make a statement, in their own words, about HIV/AIDS. We believe that using music to spread the word about HIV/AIDS is very important," Madison told Showbiz in an interview.

However, the campaign is no longer confined to HIV/AIDS, the organisers have expanded the scope to include other health issues such as high blood pressure and diabetes. As such more community groups and health experts have been invited.

Madison also said that they will be addressing other social issues like drug abuse, which are contributing to the spread of HIV/AIDS.

He said they decided to extend the campaign to other areas outside Gaborone so more people could benefit. He also disclosed that staging such events at shopping malls like Game Cityand River Walk was restrictive, as they were given only a few hours.

"The Peleng ground will accommodate more people, besides that we will have a show from morning until late at night," he said.

He also said that they plan to go on a countrywide tour so as to reach a bigger audience. According to Madison, more corporate companies and civil organisations are now showing interest. As a result, they are hopeful of raising enough sponsorship for the tour.

Madison noted that they were going to have an even bigger audience but other popular artistes demand payment.

"Frankly speaking I approached a lot of artistes before I started this and they told me in no uncertain terms that 'money first'.

Only Nosey Road were happy that it would give them the chance to market themselves and now we are doing this together.

"We are not making any profit but if we got enough sponsorship, we would definitely pay the artistes, we have been blessed to have people like Soccer Moruakgomo," he said.