As literature from the African continent gains international stature due to its growth, it is commendable that Botswana is not left behind, said Botswana National Library Service director, Jacob Sekgoni.
Sekgoni was speaking at the recent Gaborone Book Festival. He quoted the country’s first president, Seretse Khama saying, ‘We should write our history books to prove that we did have a past and that it was just as worth writing and learning about as any other. We must do this for the simple reason that a nation and a people without a past is a people without a soul.’ He explained that even though the words were said many years ago, they were still relevant to date.
“I believe that the opening of the world and the economy post COVID-19 is an exciting chapter for all of us including such important events as the Gaborone Book Festival, which is the only existing book festival in Botswana, which was formed five years ago. I am happy that the Gaborone Book Festival Trust promotes the literary work of Batswana authors and writers, those new and established, and the literary works of other African authors who are invited this year and even in the past editions,” he said.
“This initiative could not have come at a more opportune time as our ministry, through the Botswana National Library Service, is mandated to promote and develop the literary heritage literature or local content by capacitating our local authors and writers and creating writing
forums to support the works of publishers nationwide. The Trust was set up to introduce a platform like this, as none existed in the past. There is a proliferation of literary platforms across the continent, and rightfully so,” he said.
He also said the Gaborone Book Festival also runs a School Outreach Programme that mainly targets low-income, highly populated, and hard-to-reach areas.
He explained that those were communities on the margins of the society, where parents, guardians, and caretakers did not have the financial means to buy books for children.
He added that the Trust focused on those areas through activations especially Read Aloud sessions to ignite and plant a seed for reading at an early age. This also ensured that those communities were not left behind in the pursuit of a literate and well-informed society. He explained that reading for both children and adults was an essential lifelong life skill.
“The ability to read and write is one of the indicators of academic success for children. The inability to read excludes people from being active participants in the economy as illiteracy perpetuates poverty cycles. Having the capacity and appetite to read is essential to that process. Our libraries throughout the country have reading programmes that are responsible for inculcating and promoting the culture of reading among the general public. We are continuing to open more library branches for this purpose,” he said.
