Botswana Poets Series – Barolong Seboni
October 3, 2010
“Barolong Seboni is a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at the University of Botswana. He did part of his schooling in London, obtained his BA at the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland (UBLS), and has a Masters Degree in English Literature from Madison University, Wisconsin. In 1993, Seboni was the poet-in-residence at the Scottish Poetry Library in Edinburgh.
Apart from being a poet and academic, he is also a well regarded newspaper columnist, radio presenter and cultural activist, making a significant mark on Botswana’s arts for three decades. Seboni is a founder member of the Writers’ Association of Botswana, the Writers Association of the University of Botswana and its journal Mokwadi, and a patron of the Live Poets. He was also part of the delegations that established the Pan African and South African Writers’ Associations.”
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The poet introduces and reads “Love Is” and “Love That”
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A short history of poetry in modern Botswana: 1) Black Spirit
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2) The Eighties
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3) Revolution
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4) The Nineties – poetry in schools
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5) The 00s
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6) The Live Poets
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7) Today
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The English / Setswana divide
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The Black American influence
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The Politics of Self
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Writing full-time
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The poet introduces and reads “Black Dog”
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3 Responses to “Botswana Poets Series – Barolong Seboni”
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I met Barolong at the Delhi Commonwealth Writers Meet this week and am trying to keep in touch with him, could you pass this message along please.
I met and continue to meet Poet Barox at our Thursday poetry sessions at cattle baron restaurant,but of late its not on,i only meet him on radio and ofcourse his Thinkin aloud publications and the weekly nitty grity mmegi newspaper.i think there is a need to name one of the University of botswana lectuer rooms after thisv living legend!
[...] Barolong Seboni, easily as old as 10 of the younger poets put together… I think, was actually sparkling as he metaphorically undressed the Village of Molepolole (name of Barox’s poem) in English so reminiscent of the Hamlyn Africa Series books of the 80’s. A nice contrast to Barox’s delivery in that modern rocking-back-and-forth-but moving-forward stop/start poetic rhythm akin to a locomotive starting off with a heavy load. If Molepolole had a gender it would be highly aroused by the poetic accolade. [...]