“I grew up at the lands learning about the Setswana life. Growing up, I used to ask so many questions since I was always curious about what is happening around me. I also used to watch local drama and poetry competitions hosted by Water Affairs at the time. As time went by, I fell in love with traditional poetry and that was when I started learning poetry,” he said. He also explained that in 2012 during his cousin’s wedding, he wrote and recited a poet praising him. At the time, he said one of his lecturers spotted him doing his magic and asked him to join a poetry competition. He said in 2016 he joined the ABSOPA tertiary school competition and scooped position four at national level.
“In 2017 my community started asking me to take part in the President’s Day Competition. That was when I started loving it more. I got position four. That did not demoralise me and I continued doing traditional poetry as a profession from then to date. I even decided to write an artist profile that I submitted to different offices so that I could be hired for different occasions,” he said. Being persistent and believing in himself rewarded Modubathankga with some poetry jobs. Since he was so confident in himself and believed in his talent, the young man said when he went to the Botswana Defence Force to drop off his profile, he greeted them with a beautiful poet and, therefore, struck a deal to perform at their 11th Awards in 2018.
