12 Nov 2014

Perhaps it is in order to applaud the anticipated transformation of the country’s education system into a dual pathways and assessment.

With former students such as the 26 year old Odisitse Booster Diba whose talent in arts is immense, had the transformation effected earlier they could be far by now.

Booster realised in 1996 during his primary school days that he has talent in art. “Though art was not taught in school I would in the afternoon practice drawing at home,” he says. That is why Booster could not think twice about choosing Art as an optional subject when he got to Nswazwi junior secondary in 2003. 

Though he struggled with the theoretical part, the practical part gave a boost to his art general performance making him to look forward to continue with subject at senior secondary more so that at that level it was going to be practical only, the part that he was sure to excel in.

It is fairly easy for one to agree with Booster that the grade C that he got at junior secondary school final examinations was because of theory. During his senior school examinations where the subject was more practical he obtained B.

His mediocre overall performance during the Botswana General Certificate of Secondary Education (BGCSE) did not drown his passion for visual art.

Booster relates that since he left school in 2009 he continues to make different forms of visual arts ranging from pastel drawings, painting and portrait drawings.

He participated in the Northern Art Teachers Association (NATA) exhibition where he got position 3 and he has been involved in other exhibitions such as the Supa Ngwao Museum exhibition, Rotary network club exhibition, Impex exhibition and the Clifton school annual exhibition.

“These exhibitions help me to market my artwork,” he says.

Booster says when there are no exhibitions he takes his artwork to different offices, malls and the city streets to sell them.

One of the challenges that he has is that Batswana only admire artwork but do not buy and he feels there is need to teach them the value of artwork.

This, however, does not discourage him because he also does African design which is much cheaper than realism as way of encouraging Batswana to buy.

He further explains that African design is whereby a drawing is put in a simple frame with a dowel, a hook and can be hanged on the wall while realism is the attempt to represent subject matter truthfully, without any artificiality.

He says he tried to secure the youth development funding to start up a studio but his quotation exceeded the set P100 000.00 and could not be assisted.

He decided to use the little that he raised from piece jobs to buy material and started making some artwork to sell and currently he uses the proceeds to buy material. Booster procures materials both from Francistown and Gaborone.

Booster and other visual artists plan to organize an international show for visual artists twice a year but the only impediments are lack of sponsors and transport.

He says they already have contacts for other visual artists in the neighbouring countries and should their dream come true the show will provide a platform for them to network, share skills and ideas.

He appealed to the government, companies and individuals to assist the Francistown visual artists to bring to fruition their wish. He points out that although the department of arts and culture in Francistown at one point organised a visual art show it was not at the standard that the visual artists are dreaming of.

Apart from the joint dream, Booster’s personal dream is to engage in full time training in sales and marketing in order to be better placed to market his artwork. In order to pursue this mission, he has registered with Realic Educational Services.  To achieve this he has secured a job to enable him to pay for his studies. ENDS