27 Nov 2019

This year, Maruping Poetry will join other stakeholders in commemorating the 16 days of activism against gender based violence campaign by hosting an event dubbed: Botswana International Poetry Festival.

In an interview with BOPA recently, the chairperson of Maruping Poetry, Keabonye Bareeng said as citizens of Botswana, who understand social issues besieging the country, including gender based violence (GBV), they believe it is their duty to join hands with the government to find better strategies to fight the challenges. 

Bareeng said after realising that a lot of information was being disseminated to people in the same way, which may turn out to be monotonous, they decided to provide edutainment in the form of poetry to captive more people and distribute more information.

She explained that the event, which is sponsored by the European Union in Botswana, will start with a two-day workshop. She said on November 28, there will be a panel discussion and a capacity building session on the role of the arts in society on the November 29, where artists will come together to dialogue on issues of violence against women and children based on the adopted theme.

She further noted that on November 30, which will be the main event, there will be poetry performances based on violence in general.  The event will cater for both contemporary and traditional poetry and it will be free and open to all, regardless of age, sex, cultural background and religion, Bareeng said. 

She noted that panelists and poets would include international artists from Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and South Africa, to share knowledge, network, cultural exchanges and benchmark. ENDS