Mmangwao to start poetry academy for children
Tumelo Mouwane | Tuesday April 25, 2017 16:11
Sebakamadi prefers her stage name, Mmangwao ya Setswana. Her daily life is centred on culture.
Her uniqueness also lies in the fact that she always puts on traditional attire even when not on stage. She is one artist who walks the talk.
Mmangwao, her preferred shortened name, is also a deputy schoolhead at a primary school.
Mmangwao said she did not grow up as a poet but began poetry after writing a poem that was read at the funeral of her younger brother in 2003.
“I did not grow up as a poet, I was an actress. In 2003, I lost my younger brother and that touched me lot. At the time I took a pen and wrote what was in my mind about my brother’s passing on. I gave someone the poem to read during the funeral and people approached me and asked me to start poetry because they thought I have talent and that was when I started.
“My content is about things that happen in my surrounding and across the nation or the world. I am a general poet and I touch a whole lot of topics. I have several poems about past presidents, athletes and things that happen in my daily life,” she said.
Her biggest dream is to establish a poetry training academy.
“My biggest dream is to see myself having established a poetry academy for kids in which they will learn to nurture their talent and become the best of themselves in terms of artistic excellence. As we speak I am working around that and I know I am going to achieve it at the end of the day no matter the challenges,” she said.
Mmangwao said the challenges in the local poetry industry include amongst others lack of bookings, financial challenges and Batswana’s attitude towards poetry as a business.
“Some of the challenges that we have in the local performing arts industry is lack of finances and bookings, people don’t know us because the platform where we could make ourselves known to the public seems too congested.
For example I have long submitted my records at the radio but I have never heard a single one playing. That demotivates but if you know what you want you can’t allow yourself to be demotivated.
“Another challenge that bothers us as the artists is that Batswana in general do not want to wake up to the reality that poetry is no longer just a way of entertaining people.
It is business and we must accordingly be treated not just as entertainers but business people,” she said.