Western influence destroys Tswana poetry-Sealetsa

"Originally Batswana poets did not write down their works. Someone would just stand up and recite a poem without reading it from a script. But the Western way is different from ours. For instance a poem is not considered if it is composed of varying lines.
"A typical example is this kind of poem which either starts with the same kind of words and ends the same way," Sealetsa said.

Some of Sealetsa's poems have been published in a book used in secondary schools. However, he believes that Tswana poems are better done orally.
"I know that part of the reason our elders did verbally is because they probably did not know how to write but frankly speaking it bores me to see someone standing in front of a crowd and reading his or her poem from a piece of paper, that's not Setswana poetry," he said.