http://www.mapsofworld.com/botswana/culture-and-society/art.html
Botswana Art has shown marks of excellence
since the Stone Age. Around the
Kalahari Desert, one can explore the paintings by the Khoisan communities
which are found to be as old as twenty thousand years. These communities
mostly lived on hunting and their art displays that action and effort.
The
figures that mark their artistic works are the animals, hunting weapons
and
human figures. This tradition of art in Botswana continues till date,
but
several modern aspects have been adopted. The artists and sculptors
of
Botswana have established their control over the art of painting and
sculpture over the years. The Botswana art is appreciated even in the
foreign countries.
The traditional music of Botswana is a rich form of art. CD's are quite
profitable!
The different ethnic groups of Botswana have given shape to different
forms of folk music
in Botswana. The different forms of Botswana folk music include:
* Chesa
* Huru
* Phathisi
* Tsutsube
* Mokomoto
* Borankana
* Selete
* Setapa
* Ndazola
Art lovers from all across the world flock to hear the Botswana's musicians play their folk music in the annual festival of Botswana music in the National Music Eisteddfod in Selebi-Phikwe. Why don't we GET THEIR CDs, too, use them as promotional gifts, or wholesale them to dealers by the dozen or by the hundred, get that music covered by radio stations, and create a furor to have dresses that have the BOTSWANA FLAVOR.
The other forms of rural Botswana art are displayed in the various
baskets crafted by the village women from Mokola palm
and local dyes. Thamaga Pottery and Oodi Weavers are the other notable
artistic communities of
Botswana, who have contributed to the art of Botswana for years. USE
"GOOGLE IMAGE" on these words, take a look at the designs. Imagine what
a purse made of such a well woven basket would bring in EUROS or DOLLARS.
Imagine a Kalahari pot or design on a pillow or shawl or tapestry The money
that such a RARE ITEM would bring in NYC, PARIS or LONDON.
Have you seen the prices that one American dealer gets for a few INDIAN
THINGS? She is MARLA MALLETT
. A small HINDU cotton purse is 400$. An AFRICAN TEXTILE of cotton can
be a thousand dollars! SET UP your own trade route, you who
read this. From India to NYC. From BOTSWANA to PARIS or LONDON or SWITZERLAND.
We FIND THE chic, European BOUTIQUES via CRAIGS
LIST. We DESIGNATE sales agents in every capital of EUROPE,
also you send people to Houston, SF/ Seattle, NYC, BEVERLY HILLS and we
OFFER things that nobody can get! KALAHARI DESIGNS.
http://sound-planet.org/covers/37/3778/art_3778_big.jpg
is an amazing KALAHARI DESIGN. Imagine it on a pillow, done in fabric,
textile, woven or painted.
YOU STUFF the pillow in the BIG CITY where you sell it, not at POINT
OF ORIGIN.
or
LOOK AT THESE IMAGES of the SAN PEOPLE
of Botswana THEY ARE DONE ON ROCKS!
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/africa/art/pictures/san5.jpg
Better than Picasso VALLEURAIS period.!! And ole PABLOs today go for
$l00,000 for a bowl of simple French clay Pottery. Imagine it done on a
bowl. same color as that rock, or that AFRICAN CLAY. CHEAP at l00$, maybe
cheap at $250! A little pottery as a second line gives the agents that
go out to department stores
a second line to show.
THE SAN PEOPLE did that kind of art and STILL COULD. 
Now,
you can't pull their art off the desert rocks
but you can get those people in Botswana to create it on baskets,bowls
fabric, ceramics, plaques. and make it look much the same those people
can draw like their ancestors l0,000 years ago. Sell it in Germany Paris,
London. You get the money from many small shipments of art to build a BIG
life. MANY SMALL trades a dozen things here, a hundred there, add up. EVEN
relatively inexpensive things like BASKETS.
Their baskets are so beautiful & intricate that they could sell for l00$ each This is of course, a Kalahari UTILITARIAN ARTICLE for carrying edibles around the desert. However, design adaptation is necessary to get them USEFUL to westerners for carrying wallet, compact, phone book, IPOD and they'd basically need to be flatter, more like a PURSE SHAPE with a longer handle for putting over the shoulder, a stronger handle to carry it through the streets of a modern city and be safe. I wonder what they cost per piece, there by the dozen in POINT OF ORIGIN. Incredible workmanship. After we obtain a design upgrade, We BUY l00 of them at a time from villagers. Put the entire village to weaving for us. But as in all things involving native designs, the concept is to upgrade and show them examples so they can RE-DESIGN the traditional media so they end up being more 'modern city girl,' like the COACH BAG BELOW. What would the artisans charge? Ten dollars? Could a village even MAKE l00 of them? THIS COACH BAG IS PROBABLY A THOUSAND BUCKS retail in USA. WHY NOT COPY the LINES but utilizing the typical BOTSWANA WEAVE and DESIGN above? EIther the villagers line them with cotton or we do that in the capital city before sending to US/ EUROPE.
