05 May 2019

Batswana are said to be shunning local literature in favour of literature from outside Botswana.

The observation was made during  the recently held book night where it was established that while Botswana had a reading culture, Batswana were not necessarily reading literature authored by Batswana.

Organised by Gaborone Book Festival, the book night brought together three published Batswana authors who shared insights on their experience with the publishing industry as well as literary scene in Botswana and beyond.

Ms Galaletsang Dintsi who authored “Making your way through the maze, Life skills for the youth” said she familiarised herself with Botswana literature last year when she felt compelled to write.

“Batswana read but they do not read Batswana books,” she said adding, “I will admit that I also only started reading Botswana literature last year when I realised that I could not expect Batswana to read my books if I was not reading theirs.”  Reading Botswana literature, she said, gave her the much needed depth and local context.

Ms Dintsi thus highlighted that reading locally produced literature presented an opportunity for readers to review the works and give feedback to the authors on where the books could be improved if there was need.

Author of “The poetic beauty within my sorrow”, Ms Bame Thokwane attributed Batswana’s lack of consumption of local literature to inaccessibility of local books.

“More often than not you find that school libraries keep books by authors such as Danielle Steel and do not keep any copies by Batswana authors so we get used to reading those from early on,” she argued adding that Batswana books needed to be made accessible to the public.Another author Dr Nankie Ramabu who wrote children’s book titled “Kabelo” confessed that though she was well read, she only started reading Botswana books when she needed them for her academic research on childhood in Botswana.

“There was absolutely nothing on this topic and I felt the available literature which focused on HIV and AIDS was not representational of me, so I wrote this book as a way of getting our culture and philosophy out there to fill this gap,” she stated.

Founder of Gaborone Book Festival, Ms Kenanao Phele noted that part of the motivation behind the book festival was to create platforms which sought to expose Batswana authors to book lovers.

“Three years ago, I was not reading Botswana literature, but I had to be intentional about reading both Botswana and African literature and opened myself up to trying out other genres,” she said.

This, she said gave Batswana authors an opportunity to be in control of Botswana narrative, which was central to issues of representation.

Last year’s social media book challenge which saw users sharing Top 10 books they had read and recommended also compounded the assertion that Batswana were not consuming their own literary works.

The challenge generated a conversation on the lack of locally written books, highlighting the gap in the nation’s reading culture.

Authors have thus been challenged to avail their works digitally on online platforms. ENDS