It is very interesting and challenging to be writing this novel in my mother tongue. I am enjoying it because I feel that it is overdue, and because on some level I feel that I am making a contribution towards the preservation of my language. I am also hoping that maybe someone somewhere will see it fit to prescribe it for schools. If not I am hoping that some schools will at least stock it in their libraries.

I have no doubt that the kids would love it because 1) I specifically targeted them when I wrote it 2) It deals with current topical issues that teenagers face 3) I tried to write it in a simple and humorous narrative.

One of the challenging part of writing it is trying to find suitable Setswana words for some terms. Sometimes simple words, like “steak”! I posted on Facebook for help, and my friends suggested a whole lot of translations, “sesuma” being one of them that I can recall off the top of my head .

But at the end of it all, we all agreed that even though I am writing in Setswana, the book should not need a dictionary to be understood. Therefore I settled on the borrowed version of the word- “seteiki”.

Follow this blog for updates. I will try to post something about the book every Friday.

The book “Boitshepo” will be available in March 2014.