27 Jun 2021

Extraordinary challenges call for extraordinary answers from extraordinary young people like Ms Boitumelo Mokute of Goo-Lobeko ward in Kanye.

The 37-year-old poetess amplifies the evils and perils of the coronavirus through the spoken word.

Her work embodies the pain and anguish many people around the world could be going through after losing loved ones to the coronavirus.

Speaking to BOPA in an interview recently, Ms Mokute said she wrote a poem entitled Masetlapelo a bolwetsi jwa corona, which loosely translates to the ravages of the coronavirus, paying tribute to her mother who lost the battle to the invisible enemy last month.

The poignant poem is laced with lamentations of how her mother fell prey to the killer virus.

She said her late mother was her tower of strength who helped her grow her light to a flame and warned compatriots to steer out of harm’s way adding the disease knows no age.

She said she discovered her talent in poetry while trying to shake off boredom sometime in 2010.

She said things started looking up in 2012 when she wrote praise poems for prominent figures like dikgosi and the platform gave her an inflection to write more for a living.

Her poems are themed around topical issues like the safe male circumcision and some challenges faced by young people with the aim to motivate them not to allow any situation they could be wading through to destroy them.

She said she struggled to find a job after doing Early Childhood Education at RAVOS in Kanye some years back but never allowed that to demotivate her. 

Rather than wallowing in self-pity, she started writing poems to make ends meet.

She has so far sold over 30 poems and hopes with more support she would someday become a household name.

She has encouraged other unemployed young people to explore their ‘talent’ and use it to change their circumstances. Ends