By Cynthia Thanda
The last born in a family of seven girls, Lame Pusetso, also known as Poeticblood is a 24 years old lady from Hukuntsi in the Kgalagadi North.
Although she is currently residing in Gaborone, Lame couldn’t contain her excitement about her home when the PanAfrikanist sat down with her after her book launch on the 16th October 2021.
Lame grew up in a humble home, setbacks, and challenges notwithstanding. Lame’s greatest inspiration p her father – assisted in crafting her artistic career as he had a bit of knowledge in literature.
Even though his life was cut short in 2013, he left Lame with a huge motivation to continue pursuing her art. Her mother became the strong shield that provided protection and made some of her roughest moments seem easier.
Lame is an outspoken person and it is no surprise she is now a multi-award-winning author of seven (7) books, an owner of a publishing company, and owner of an online bookstore. She has never stopped trying and believing in her imaginary masculinity.
Her love for writing and recitals started at the age of six (6) or seven (7). Her father would write something down and ask her to read it out loud. Her parents groomed her well into learning.
Although her mother doesn’t know how to read and write, Lame smiled nostalgically as she reminisced of how her father would write letters to her mother and ask Lame to read them to her. She found it fun and that is why she got glued to the world of words.
She is a simple African child, raised on folktales that were told at night next to the bonfire. They got her curious and happy as a child. She thrived to have more of those and she told herself that she would write these when she grows up.
Her first book called Oceans of Untold Goodbyes is a collection of poems written to appreciate the contribution of her father to her talent. The title is inspired by her belief that the Oceans can carry her Untold Goodbyes to her father.
Financial scarcity has always been an issue; therefore, it was rough for her when she started but that never deterred her from publishing the book. And it was definitely a good move because it won the African Authors Award in 2020 and she sold over two thousand copies.
Lame believes she is more of a storyteller in all her works; hence she gets inspired by her environment, people, experiences, and everything else in God’s creation. She considers herself a bit of a historical writer. She loves telling stories of home and exposing the world to knowing the lands we grew up on.
“Being born from an underestimated region, people tend to forget the greatness in such small places. I therefore usually choose to write about it so that it never gets erased in the books of history”, Lame posits.
Her publishing company – Poeticblood Publishers – had been an idea for some time until 2020 when she could finance it into becoming. It was then fully registered with CIPA and started operating.
She has worked with two publishing houses before she took it upon herself to start her own company as a way of aiding those who needed the same help that she had needed also when she was financially handicapped.
The company has two departments – the editorial team and the printing team. There is also the recently added new team for the online bookstore called Mind And Soul Bookstores, which is registered under Poeticblood Publishers.
The company has 12 employees in total. Lame sponsors most of the developments while most other things are bankrolled by the company.
October 16th, 2021 was not her first book launch. She launched her first book last year in the same month. It was an award celebration and book launch organized by Women In Arts Trust led by Neelo Lentebanye.
Women In Arts Trust is a group of women that Lame worked with on a few projects and they decided to celebrate her achievements. On the 16th of October, she was launching four books: Sa Lorato, Gkaithoda, The Woman Hunter, Wounded, and Tears on My Mother’s Shoe.
Besides the lack of money, Lame was greatly challenged by the eruption of Covid-19. Most of the planned works were affected as most of them required more than just being in the office.
Even though she thinks that the government could do more to support authorship and give talented writers opportunities to do and create more, she is also adamant that writers as well have to create opportunities for one other.
“Reading culture in Botswana is noticeable but not yet at the expected rate. It is evident that people are hungry for more literature works but they hardly want to take time to read.
“We do have a lot of authors publishing their works but the rate at which their books sell isn’t satisfactory especially if you are a writer with no large following.
“I believe that Batswana will change this thing of only buying from those they know and give other authors a chance as well,” commented Lame.
Lame plans to have her company hosting the first-ever Literature Awards next year to help motivate authors and to leave behind a trail of inspiration for would-be and aspiring writers to follow.
She also hopes to open a walk-in bookstore next year. She urges people to look out for her new book soon: Something unspoken of but we all need it.
OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS
*African Authors Awards 2020 and 2021
*Muhler Forte Literature Awards nomination under Best poetry book 2020
*Muhler Forte Literature Awards Semi-finalist under Best Publishing house in 2022 Her work is available at Sebilo Books, Mind And Soul Bookstores
