USING WORDS TO ENCOMPASS HISTORY
Lebogang Botlhoko is a published author aged nineteen. The talented writer takes pride in reading the same novels countless times. Most of the novels she reads are about fighting for women’s rights, black people’s rights, and many other marginalized groups in society. Lebogang has since become a gender-related issues activist and has joined an international organization, namely “VOIS Cyprus”. When she is not busy trying to change the world, she spends her time in her room, learning Korean.
Writing Kryptonite
Describing what her writing kryptonite is, Lebogang said that her writing weakness dominates when she is surfing the internet. “I can go there to research on different topics and to get statistics, but once I am sucked in, I find myself reading random things, like the good effects of tea, how to say ‘exquisite’ in Korean, and even read about Shakespeare’s sexuality,” she explained.
Power of Language
The talented author came to learn that language has so much power. She hence discovered this at 10 years old when she read Cassels Botlhoko’s poems, who is her late uncle (MHSRIP). At first, she found it difficult to understand why he had written poems so dark. However, once she read them repeatedly, she began to understand the poems. For example, before his death, he wrote a poem named “The Funeral Procession”. This poem was added to his funeral program, so you can only imagine the type of emotions felt when everyone was seated at his funeral procession reading a poem called “The Funeral Procession”.
Spirit Animal
On a lighter note, Lebogang mentioned that her spirit animal is a turtle. This is because she has survived mental illnesses and “attempts”. Turtles are known to be symbols of the ability to survive because of their ability to live long lives. Lebogang is a survivor. When she began the development of her book, she did not do much research except to search for “How to Successfully Type a Manuscript”, just to begin somewhere and learn something new. She then started picking different poems from her book and found ways to arrange them, to create a theme.
Writing as a Spiritual Practice
Botlhoko views writing as a spiritual practice. Reasons being, she believes that writing allows people to get in touch with their emotions, and writing gives an artistic expression of what we live through, as well as who we are. Lebogang also believes that the internet, mostly social media, contribute to the well-being of poetry, because poets can reach a wider audience on these platforms, and people across the world can buy books on the internet. Nonetheless, she still prefers the smell of books and prefers snapping her fingers at an open mic poetry session. Over the years, writing seems to have been categorized as an art for the educated.
Asking her if someone can be a writer even if they do not feel emotions strongly, Lebogang stated that they simply cannot be a writer if they do not feel strong emotions. She further elaborated that being a writer requires a lot of deep thinking, and as one pours out what is in their mind and heart, the emotions should be felt through the paper. The Creative also advised that a good poem should convey clear, memorable, and concrete images. In simple terms, she said that poetry is best served in very raw form, as it gives a better picture of messages being expressed through writing.
The 19-year-old writer sternly believes that as the art industry continues to grow all over the world and as we continue to uplift it, it will uplift others and eventually change lives. With that done, she perceives that it would be impossible to denounce writing as a “waste of time”. We use words to encompass history, to describe the natural universe, and to even conjure realistic visions of things that exist only in fantasy. Jean Batiste Girard once said, “By words, we learn thoughts and by thoughts, we learn life.”
Thoughts
Moving on to her book titled “Thoughts”. Lebogang gave an insight into the inspiration behind the book. In her own words, “I chose this title because my poems convey my everyday thoughts as time passes. It gives the readers a warm welcome into the thoughts of a person who has suffered immensely from mental illness, which includes the complexities and impacts they caused and most importantly, the healing.” Her book, which falls under the narrative genre, was published on 9 June 2020.
She wrote most of her poems in the second person. Lebogang was sponsored by Maatla Tsheole from “Showcasing Talents”, and she would like to express enormous gratitude to Maatla for making the process possible.
Lebogang highlighted that the book can bring a positive change to anyone who reads it because she can relate to several challenges in life. Therefore, she encourages people to never give up but to keep on persevering and look for inner inspiration when going through challenges. In conclusion, the book, “Thoughts”, is possibly the hope which you’ve been looking for, the missing puzzle perhaps. The people who contributed to her book are her beloved parents, her family, and good friends. She would thus like to thank them for all their love and support.
