07 May 2019

The Member of Parliament for Kanye South, Abram Kesupile has challenged aspiring writers in the Southern District to consider beginning to write in order to contribute to the development of an informed society.

Kesupile said this at the Gamaila Authors empowerment and exhibition, where aspiring authors had a chance to interact and share knowledge and experiences in writing. He said writing could be a platform for changing the community and also attracting tourists to the country.

The legislator noted that in the past, books were written and published overseas. “Such developments made it difficult for us to realise our dreams and aspirations, as mostly, they were unable to tap into our indigenous knowledge,” he said.

He decried that currently, there were many developments happening in the country, which remained untapped, adding that writers need to take advantage of that.

Kesupile further noted that, as a politician, he realised the political arena was not a platform to critique or encourage change in people’s behaviour and attitudes.

“When in politics, there are so many things restricting you from breaking issues in which one desires to see change, such as nudity and hygiene, more especially in public gatherings, which contributes to the moral decay of our society,” he said.

He noted that writers knew that they had the potential to change the virtues of society, as such information would be permanent for that particular generation and available for public consumption.

“Life is a struggle, and our struggle creates patterns of life that create the story,” he said, noting that when students go to study overseas, they go there to read ideas, knowledge and culture of the people in a particular country, in the form of books, documents and research works.

“Even in our country, at our universities and colleges we still read books written outside our country. We are therefore unable to instill and spread the morals and principles of our country, which we subscribe to,” he said.

Kesupile encouraged writers to think powerfully in terms of what they could write about.

He said “we believe that writers can manage to rectify the situation,” adding that the only way they could manage is through developing positivism.

Kesupile therefore advised authors to partner, collaborate and work together in order to realise superlative achievements.

“You should derive joy from the growth of others. We need to empower one another for us to grow,” he said, recommending that they should consider looking for mentors.

“If we can all take part in our respective fields of expertise, we can be able to make this country a great nation,” he said.

In his motivational words, author, Kagiso Sebina advised writers not to despair when they do not find market for their books, advising them to market and advertise their work through internet networks and also sell in the form of e-books.

“Do not sell your books through book stores as they are just kept on the shelves, where they will just gather dust. It is better to market your books, yourselves,” he said.

Sebina also advised authors to invest in both the content and the cover pages of the books.

“When doing the book cover, the idea is to attract the reader thus marketing your book. Do not reveal all that is inside the book,” he said. He said authors were merely selling their books not services, adding that one way to market their books was to conduct free presentations and address people on issues of life, then in turn sell their books.

For her part, the organiser, Tshegofatso Lekone said they had realised that there were so many gifted Batswana with life changing stories that were worth writing about. She said such stories had the potential to change lives, yet stories remain unheard because ‘our people lack direction, encouragement and inspiration from experts’.

She said the event was aimed at bringing authors and writers together in order to share experiences and encourage aspiring writers. ENDS