Last week, we did an interview about the spectacular Afro Heritage Show at City Matala. To those of you who were unable to see the magic happen, and those who did and are interested in the insights of the organizers, this follow up interview is for you.
How was the event?
The event went fairly well, considering that it was our very first time hosting an event. I describe it as having went “fairly well” for the reasons that; first and foremost, my business partner and I practically organized this event within the duration of two weeks.
That is to say, while we had the idea of hosting such an event as early as the end of September, we had only began preparing for it during Independence (i.e. the first week of October).
However, as a result of some of the mishaps we encountered with the initial apparel designers and the club owner we had approached, we ended up being delayed by two weeks of schedule.
Another important thing is, it being the first event we host obliged us to having it free of charge. From most people’s perspective, this seemed the most reckless move we have made for the obvious reason that, how are we then going to make money?!
Well, our response to that is simple. We were not necessarily planning the Afro/Heritage Showcase to make money. True we want to earn something financially with the upcoming events, but as far as this previous event was concerned, our main aim was to promote creative talents of Basotho Youth especially in the community of Ha Matala.
So basically, with the Afro Showcase, we sourced out funds from our own
pockets. Again you will understand why I deem the show to have been fairly good.
What was your favorite part of the show?
Personally, for me the favorite part would have to be the dancing and of course the runway moments. Besides my insane penchant for dancing, it just really felt super cool to see the crowd cheering at our performance and watching in awe at how beautiful we all looked in our designer outfits and ohh not to mention the glow enhanced by the make-up…hahaha!
Hahaha! And the worst moment?
There were a couple. First, the Dj failed to deliver as we had initially agreed. That is to say, the equipment wasn’t complete or up to par. The stage wasn’t stable enough and there were no microphones for at least the first two hours of the show, which means we had to literally shout at the top of our voices for the crowd to hear what we were saying.
Secondly, our apparel designer delayed to reach the venue, which means we had to improvise by shuffling through the program until he eventually pitched because, generally the gist of the show revolved around his apparel.
Thirdly, there was a random scene which happened unexpectedly. I would rather not go into detail about it. I only mention that fortunately, no one was badly injured at the end of it all.
What challenges did you face?
From what I learned from the beginning of organizing this event till the end is; it is very unfortunate that regardless of how educated or at least literate our society may be, women or females still tend to be objectified by men.
If anything, most males (but not all) we came across or approached throughout the event organizing either looked down upon, named us “bo-baby” or anything along those lines to make us feel inferior.
On the other hand, some simply treated us as though we don’t have what it takes to make our show happen altogether.
In spite of the ill structured patriarchal society and its stereotypical attitude, raising of funds and moral support from family and or friends still projects to be the major challenge we experienced as far as the planning of this event was concerned.
How did you handle the challenges?
Although some days it would be really hard for either of us to maintain our cool especially in instances where you’d discover that we had to work with people with pretty dreadful characters, I believe having each other’s back came in handy in most situations.
In that way, if my partner would find herself disrespected and therefore at the verge of losing it, I would step in and vice-versa.
In a nutshell, I must admit that we both supported each other so much more than I could have imagined. We would pray together before begin our daily schedule, meditate when need be, vent, cry, and dance the stress off.
I honestly believe that the only way in which we were able to overcome our challenges is for the simple reason that, nobody understands better what our vision is than ourselves.
No one can quite relate to how significant this venture is close to our hearts and how hard we have worked in making it come to life.
How are you guys to avoid them next time?
I think this question for me is not so much about how I plan to ensure that our challenges do not repeat themselves but rather on how we can try to avoid repeating the mistakes we made with the first event.
I am saying this because, my understanding is one doesn’t choose the challenges they experience in life or in business because then if that were the case then we could all be selective of the kind of challenges we want to face.
With that said, I definitely wouldn’t choose to be a woman while aware the kind of subordination they face in this so called male dominated world.
But with the mistakes, there is a lot I have learned with this event. Ensuring that they do not repeat themselves would be planning everything else on time.
What’s the most significant thing you learned?
Communication, time and humility are everything in life and business.
What can we expect from you guys in the future?
People can expect more improvements to what they witnessed with the previous event.
Concluding remarks?
Thank you, thank you, and thank you to everyone who supported and showed us love in our perfectly imperfect show. Thank you!