Celebrating a legend

Source : Kutlwano

Author : Pako Lebanna

Location : Kanye

Event : interview

 

Watching Kanye from atop Kanye Hill a.k.a Ntsweng, a majestic view of the Ga-Ngwaketse capital emerges. This is particularly so when the scorching mid-January sun illuminates the village. On any other occasion, the panoramic view is a thriller.

However, today the sun’s reflection provides not the background for the usually thrilling view. Rather, a solemn occasion is underway - Riecks Morake’s burial and a farewell to one of Botswana’s all time greatest musical composers.

The contradiction between the solemn burial of a national assert and the charming sight that is Kanye viewed from atop Ntsweng, sums up the twin mood engulfing the congregants.

While on one hand they are here to mourn Riecks and console his family, on the other they are celebrating the legacy he bequeathed Batswana. Thus, commemorating a heritage not even death could rob him of.

“Death be not proud,” the English poet, John Donne once wrote in his epic prose, “though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; for those whom thou think thou dost overthrow, die not… nor yet canst thou kill me.”

Donne’s stanza expresses the message that death, the mighty reaper that robs even kings and tycoons of life, cannot kill some people’s legacies. Similarly, while death may have stripped Riecks of his life, that of his art emerges triumphantly.

Just as the great Austrian composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart touched generations with his masterpieces long after his remains were interred, Riecks’ library of quality Setswana compositions will surely stand the test of time. Born in 1932, Raleigh Riecks  Morake received the normal upbringing of any Motswana child of  his generation.

His talent grabbed the attention of the national conscience purely by chance in the 1960s when he was a teacher at the small village of Mabule in the Southern District.

“He was a very decent man, very well dressed, a gentleman, though we feared him,” says Grace Tiro, his former pupil at Mabule Primary School. She describes him as no different from the feared ‘teacher no mistake’ educators of that era. “He composed great songs, which he made us sing, and Mabule Primary won many national choir competitions,” recalls Tiro.

“When I produced agricultural programmes for Radio Botswana, we recorded music all over the country to add to our messages to farmers,” reminisces former agricultural broadcaster, Justice Baleseng.

Baleseng recalls that he met Riecks when the latter was still a teacher at Mabule Primary School and could not help falling in love with his musical compositions. Further, Baleseng remembers that during his trips to Riecks’ school, he would notice how his choir members, especially pupils, feared him, apparently because he was seen as a disciplinarian.

However, discipline aside, the man is also said to have been good at making the pupils more relaxed whenever they practised a song. “He had a way of expressively psyching his choir,” says Tiro. During his trips, Baleseng recorded Riecks’ compositions, which in turn inspired his supervisors at work - Oteng Ramasia and Otukile Masolotate.

The two seniors personally visited Riecks at Mabule where they requested him to compose more songs with agricultural messages for their department. The classic theme song of one of the Department of Agriculture’s radio programmes, Pitso ya Balemi was born after such a visit.

Batswana Reetsang/Reetsang tsamaiso ya tsa temo (le leruo)/ Reetsang tsamaiso ya tsa temo/ Reetsang dikgakololo… Unbeknown to the creative composer, authorities at RadioBotswana, the only radio station at the time, his music was capturing the imagination of many.

As such they did not waste time to look for the master composer who was being utilised to great effect by Baleseng and his colleagues at the Department of Agriculture. Relentlessly, Riecks was headhunted by the Department of Information and Broadcasting, and, for this reason, he joined the groundbreaking generation of broadcasting pioneers, among them Nonnie Pilane, Batho Molema, and Kgosietsile Mmamapilo.

“He was a quality broadcaster,” Moreri Gabakgore, who at one point headed the Broadcasting unit, says. “In everything he did, he put energy. He composed quality songs that told a story, they had a relevant message.” Gabakgore speaks of the gentlemanly demeanour of Riecks, how his office was always speaks and span, clean to the core, how his dress sense harmonised with his gracious nature.

He was the typical man of elegance, akin to Richard Gere’s character in the movie “An Officer and a Gentleman.” Baleseng buttresses this argument. “Riecks was not the type for jeans or khakhis that were common at the time.

He was a smart dresser. He clothed in suits like a respectable gentleman, wearing shoe brands such as Crocket and Jones and Flosheim. Even when his clothes were not expensive, he knew how to pick the right combination.” Esther Kanaimba, Phillip Moshotle, Banyana Keddy (nee Segwe), Margaret Modise, Grace Olsen and others would be among the radio presenters that would work with Riecks. 

He presented the Debswana Knockout Quiz programme in the 1980s but a decade earlier he was already anchoring a programme called Chuchumakgala (the forerunner to the Sunday choir programme ‘Molodi wa Pina’). The current presenter of Molodi wa Pina, Last Rakgasa, says they still use the choral song Chuchumakgala, another of Riecks compositions, as the programme’s signature tune.

As part of the Molodi wa Pina tribute to Riecks Morake on a programme aired on Sunday, January 15, a day after the choral legend was buried in Kanye, younger generations could hear the legend’s presentation style, when Rakgasa relayed old recorded material.

He introduced the programme by saying, “ke eo chuchumakgala, e re tlela ka melodi.” He was making a figurative reference to the coal-fired steam engine train that took many Batswana and others across southern Africa to the mines of apartheid South Africa (as immortalized in Hugh Masekela’s song,‘Stimela’). 

He used the song to express how his programme metaphorically took listeners on a musical journey. Riecks’ poetic presentations, making use of an array of metaphors and similes to entice the audience in between the choral tunes, was typical of the early pioneers of Radio Botswana.

These were the likes of Billy Mokgosi, Geoffrey Motshidisi, Bishy Mmusi, and in later years Mogatusi Kwapa.  They were men gifted in poetic delivery of the Setswana language. It is apt that the steam engine that took Batswana to other lands was vividly captured in the programme in that Riecks’ music took Botswana culture in song to the world.

 In the 1970s, then President Sir Seretse Khama, on a visit to Korea was greeted by a local symphony orchestra, singing Riecks Setswana works. They sung his classic tune, “Dintlenyane tsa Botswana,” with refrain; “Tautona Sir Seretse Khama. Tautona re a go galaletsa, mo pusong e ntlentle, mo pusong e ntlentle, mo lefatsheng la Botswana. 

Di-Embassy, le Di-Ministry, le yone State House di kopane…” The lead vocalist of the Korean ensemble, backed by a well arranged instrumental, continued to another classic in Riecks repertoire. ‘Motlapele a rialo a re; mosele wa pula o epiwa go sale gale. Batswana, dijwalo tsa lona di tlhoka bokgola jwa pula tsa ntlha.  

Lemang tlheng mariga, dijwalo tsa metsi dibokwana diswe ka ntlha ya serame.” When deputy permanent secretary in the Office of the President, responsible for the Information and Broadcasting departments, Mogomotsi Kaboeamodimo, stood to speak at the funeral, he asked for the Korean version of Riecks works to be played.

Nigh on four decades after the Koreans interpreted the tunes, Riecks’ music continues to inspire Batswana, such as the signature tune that opens Radio Botswana daily, with the words; “Seromamowa sa rona mo Botswana se naya chaba tsotlhe lesedi, lesedi la ditlhabologo tsa sesha le sone semanjemanje.

Heelang Batswana, lo reetseng seromamowa (sa Botswana). Heelang Batswana lo reetseng Seromamowa…Seromamowa se kopanya dichaba, se kopanya dichaba le mmuso…”

Such inspiration was felt by the mourners gathered at Ntsweng, among them Bangwaketse royal, Kgosi Malope II, former First Lady Olebile Masire, cabinet ministers Mokgweetsi Masisi, Peter Siele, MPs Kentse Rammidi and Patrick Masimolole.

In bidding farewell to a legend, it is apt that one of the speakers said; “If there is a person deserving of the Naledi ya Botswana (the country’s highest honour), it is Raleigh Riecks Morake.”

Teaser:

Riecks was not the type for jeans or khakhis that were common at the time...