26 Apr 2021

‘Shhhh! don’t tell anyone, it’s our little secret, he said. If you tell anyone, you will go to jail, I will kill your parents and siblings.’

This is a snippet from one of the poems from the book, From their lips to mine, penned by first time author, Gaone Skelemani. The book has a collection of over 100 poems that deal with daily forms of abuse ranging from molestation, rape, defilement and infidelity.

In an interview, Skelemani said by writing the book, she wanted to help society tackle Gender Based Violence (GBV) and abuse in general.

“I have realised that in most instances society only reacts when it is too late. We mostly attend to the effects of abuse and not the root cause, and sometimes we react when some people have already turned suicidal.

So the book tries to simply tell society that we have a problem because before you act on a problem you first have to admit it,” she said.

Skelemani said unfortunately most of the abuse happened behind closed doors with society and victims unwilling to talk about it because they deemed it ‘too embarrassing or that it will break families.’

She said abuse was especially harsh on children who often had nowhere to run as the abusers were mostly close relatives who they stayed with.

Skelemani said unfortunately the silence becomes too loud to ignore for some victims resulting in mental breakdowns and suicide. She said on children they grew up thinking abuse was the right thing and that they turned into abusers themselves.

On why she chose to pass the message through poetry, she said other ways such as short stories, workshops and round table discussions had already been done.

“ I wanted to explore something different. The advantage of poetry is that it is short and one can read them one by one and introspect after each poem. It’s a break from reading a whole long story or novel,” she said.

Skelemani also said poetry was an intrinsic part of Batswana, which she hoped would make the book more appealing to them. She said the inspiration for the poems came from all around, whether it was a conversation with someone or listening to the radio.

She said the book was relevant to all people across ages and social standing because issues of abuse affected everyone.

“The book is a conversation starter to help victims realise that they were not the only ones affected and that it was ok to reach out,” she said.

Published in March, the sales are reportedly good as she has managed to sell her first 100 copies in just two weeks.

A certified life coach, Skelemani said she was planning the book launch in Gaborone on May 1 at Cresta Hotel at 10am. She said the  book was dedicated to her late great grandmother, Manadi Skelemani. ENDS