Mbo publishes 16th novel
Nnasaretha Kgamanyane | Monday September 22, 2025 06:00
Born and bred in Mbalambi village in the northeastern part of Botswana, where, like elsewhere back then, Dementia (a condition usually associated with the aged) was exclusively regarded as “boloi”, Mbo says his new novel addresses the issue and aims to enlighten readers about it. The book is 356 pages long and has 68 chapters. The novel is a crime mixed with a bit of comedy here and there. According to the author, it targets an audience aged 18 years old and above.
'The book was recently published, and therefore, there are no solid reviews yet. However, writing it, I had a few challenges, which included having writer’s block, being busy with work, laziness, and a lack of motivation. Even though this is my 16th book, my wish is to publish a book every year. I wish to write a book that is set on some other planet at some point,' he said.
He further explained that his father was a bookworm and used to read whatever he could lay his hands upon, even if it was a novel with missing pages, which inspired him to read every book he stumbled upon. He added that he became a bookworm and developed a love and longing for writing at an early age.
'The books with missing pages are the ones that launched me into writing mode, as I had to learn to fill in the gaps and figure out what was missing, thus inserting a creative code into my mind. As such, I started writing short stories when I was doing form two at Maenjane Junior Secondary School in Sekakangwe village. I was a fairly renowned debater. But then I had no direct contact with computers and, due to whatever misfortune, I somehow lost the notebook that contained my short stories,' he said.
He said his love for English Literature back in the days was inspired by reading books such as 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' by Shakespeare; The River Between by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'; Far From The Madding Crowd by Thomas Hardy; Animal Farm by George Orwell; and Cry, The Beloved Country by Alan Paton, amongst others. He boasted of being able to recite whole paragraphs and relevant page numbers from the books.
'And I could even dream them, waking up in sweat after visualising a whole paragraph from A Midsummer Night's Dream. When I was doing form four, my English Language teacher used to take my English composition notebook to read to form five students as a way of motivating them to write better compositions,' he added.