Dihosana is a

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

dance by

Kalanga people The Kalanga or Bakalanga are a southern Bantu ethnic group mainly inhabiting Matebeleland in Zimbabwe, northeastern Botswana and Limpopo Province in South Africa. They are historically related to the Nambya, Karanga, Bapedi and Venda. Curren ...

Ikalanga Kalanga, or ''TjiKalanga'' (in Zimbabwe), is a Bantu language spoken by the Kalanga people in Botswana and Zimbabwe. It has an extensive phoneme inventory, which includes palatalised, velarised, aspirated and breathy-voiced consonants, as w ...

people which existed for a long period of time. Dihosana involves the invitation of

ancestors An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from w ...

through

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

to pray for

rain Rain is water droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the Earth. It provides water ...

. It is a rain making dance. Dihosana is a dance heritage which has been inherited from the fore fathers by those practising it. People living in the north, approximately about 20 to 30 km north of

Francistown Francistown is the second largest city in Botswana, with a population of about 103,417 and 147,122 inhabitants for its agglomeration at the 2022 census. and often described as the "''Capital of the North''" or as the natives would have it “''T ...

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

are believed to be the

veteran A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military. A military veteran that h ...

elders of the Dihosana dance, in a village called Makobo. ''Hosana'' is a Kalanga term an old and wise person. The dancers usually dance in groups and wear black skirts, and long strings of

beads A bead is a small, decorative object that is formed in a variety of shapes and sizes of a material such as stone, bone, shell, glass, plastic, wood, or pearl and with a small hole for threading or stringing. Beads range in size from under ...

in their necks. The beads are grouped in many different colour categories from

red Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondar ...

black Black is a color which results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without hue, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness. Black and white ...

and

white White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

, a myriad in the body and

waist The waist is the part of the abdomen between the rib cage and hips. On people with slim bodies, the waist is the narrowest part of the torso. ''Waistline'' refers to the horizontal line where the waist is narrowest, or to the general appear ...

. Hosana is part of the Kalanga culture and not everyone qualifies to be a Hosana dancer.

Gallery of photos

Hosana dance troupe 6.jpg Hosana dance troupe 5.jpg Hosana dance troupe 3.jpg Hosana dance troupe 4.jpg Hosana dance troupe 1.jpg

How Hosana begins

For one to be a Hosana, the person should have an

ancestral An ancestor, also known as a forefather, fore-elder or a forebear, is a parent or ( recursively) the parent of an antecedent (i.e., a grandparent, great-grandparent, great-great-grandparent and so forth). ''Ancestor'' is "any person from wh ...

calling. It comes not as a choice or preference. One becomes possessed with sickness that cannot be healed at the hospital. The person will then be taken to a hill called Ka Mwale where they meet up with their

for

initiation ceremony Initiation is a rite of passage marking entrance or acceptance into a group or society. It could also be a formal admission to adulthood in a community or one of its formal components. In an extended sense, it can also signify a transformation ...

. When they arrive at Ka Mwale, they will meet up with a traditional doctor who will

diagnose Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine " cause and effect". In systems engin ...

the patient for the availability of hosana spirits. Once they are done and the patient is declared to be having the spirits, they will start helping out with the steps for initiation.The person will be healed and will be a complete hosana after being attended by a traditional doctor. The person will now join other

hosanas to pray for rain. It is believed that when there is drought in a village, the chief will approach the leader or elder of hosana so that they can pray for rain. The elder from veteran hosana will release someone to start by cleaning or sweeping the ground known as Sebata.

References

Dance in Botswana {{dance-stub