03 Jul 2016

Lauri Kubuitsile’s historical novel The Scattering was launched in Maun on June 29.

The Scattering tells the Herero history of war with the Germans intertwined with a love story of one heroic woman.

Speaking at the launch of The Scattering, former director Botswana Library Service, Bobana Badisang said the novel was a well-researched piece.

Badisang described the book, which was published by Penguin Random House (SA), as a painful yet beautiful historical novel of war and love story interwoven.

Kubuitsile, she said, is as a multi-talented artist who has musical capabilities and has published books such as Kwaito Love, Can He Be The One? Mr Not Quite Good Enough and Love in the Shadows, children’s short stories as well as newspaper writing.

“She teaches writers selflessly and has taken art as a vocation,” she said.

Writers, she noted received rejections many times which she said should not be an end to one’s career.

Badisang encouraged Batswana to rally behind local authors and give them support, “authors can be controversial, but needs support,” she said.

On her remarks, Kubuitsile said The Scattering was initially called “If not for this,” but changed as the publisher Penguin Random House suggested was a bad name.

Kubuitsile said the publishers initially rejected the book and she had to re-edit also based on suggestions from other authors.

“The book has received good responses and has completely made me recover,” she said.

The Scattering, she said is inspired by a ravage story about Shark Island that she gathered during one of her holiday trips to Namibia.

Kubuitsile said the narration of how the Herero were starved and died encouraged her to research and the birth of the historical novel; felt people have to know the story.

However, Kubuitsile says the story was initially about Tjipuka love story in the midst of war, but the other woman’s character which started as a small character grew and some reviews say the book is about two women.

It is no surprise that the novel was launched in Maun since some events of The Scattering are set in Tsau village near Maun; which is a significant place for the Herero as their first settlement when they were dispersed from Namibia around 1904.

The second launch of The Scattering will be in Namibia on July 20.

“South-West Africa, 1904: When German colonial authorities issue an extermination order, the Herero are forced to flee into the desert and seek safety in British Bechuanaland.

Tjipuka, a young Herero mother, escapes the massacre with her baby, but is captured and put to work in the death camps in Lüderitz. There she has to find the courage – and the will – to survive against all odds,” a snippet from the novel reads.ENDS