FISHING FOR THE FUTURE: Cyber tea with Jacob Nthoiwa

I was recently invited to Johannesburg to perform on behalf of a regional NGO, I set aside some down time and met with up a few of my Johannesburg based friends to do some catching up. I love traveling but I cant imagine raising my children anywhere but here, Botswana has her fair share of challenges but I think I'm genetically coded to keep coming back home. Still it doesn't really come as too much of a surprise that there are a number of Batswana are ‘out there’ doing good honest work and making a meal of the opportunities their self imposed vocational exile brings them. Jacob Kelebogile Nthoiwa is a Motswana business and technology journalist for ITWeb and is currently based in Sandton, Johannesburg. He pulls no punches when I ask him whats missing at home, why the need to seek opportunities elsewhere?

I believe our country still lacks journalist. When I say journalists I do not mean content farmers or people who gather and compile information. There are still a few journalists who question issues and investigate deeper into them so they can deliver informed news to the people. We also miss specialist journalists like business journalists, technology journalists, medical journalists, and financial journalists just to mention a few. What I have observed is that each and every journalist wants to go into entertainment or politics. Which leaves a big hole in the other sectors of Botswana economy.

Jacob has a BA in English from the University of Botswana and a Post Graduate Certificate in Financial Journalism from Wits University. He comes from a family of accountants from both his brothers, one a practitioner and the other an accountancy student, to his mother who is with the Auditor General here in Gaborone. His father a retired police officer now runs a small farm on the outskirts of Gaborone.We talk to him about how it all began

The beginning
I grew up basically in every part of Botswana. I was born in the mining town of Selibe Phikwe then shortly afterwards moved to my home village to stay with my grand mother. I later went back to Selibe Phikwe where I started my primary school then later Masunga. I moved to Francistown then went off to live in a small village near Selibe Phikwe called Semolale for a year where I finished off my primary school education. I later moved to Johannesburg to stay with an aunt, a fter that I went back to Francistown then Shakawe, Gumare and Maun. In 1999 I moved to Gaborone where I started my tertiary education the following year. The reason I moved so much is that my parents were always getting transferred to different parts of the country.

To teach or not to teach
After finishing my studies at the University of Botswana I couldn’t find work and by then I desperately wanted to be a writer. The market was clogged. I decided to find a job outside Botswana to avoid being a teacher as I studied Humanities and most of us who graduated there ended up doing PGDE and became teachers if we were not lucky to get into the corporate space. I was unlucky I couldn’t find a job in the corporate world. One day I decided to pack my bags and try my luck in Johannesburg and it actually paid off, within a couple of months I had a job.

Jozi now
Basically during the week I wake up at around 5am in the morning and start reading global news. I always want to know what has been happening around the globe while I was asleep. Then I go on to check my e-mails after that I attend to all the social media sites that I subscribe to. I then hit the gym and I am off to work. At work it is basically all about news gathering going to events and conducting interviews either face to face or telephonically. Then afterwards since it’s a daily, I write down the stories and submit them and do some brainstorming in preparation for the following day. During the day I check the news sites for the developments taking place around the world. I end my day by joining friends for a quick drink and dinner. I end my day with a dose of news then check and reply my e-mails and then I study because technology is an ever evolving industry and once you relax you are left behind. On weekends its basically relaxing and visiting friends and attending all the social functions that I get invited to.

5 year Ambition
I always wanted to be a full time novel writer. I am working on a couple of manuscripts hopefully by then I would be a published writer working on promoting my work. I also want to run an exchange programme for young Batswana writers in future in order to develop literacy in the country.

More on the missing
Our country still lacks public relations practitioners. These people can help sell our country so much. We need a career guidance strategy in the country, as well as institutions, which can deliver diverse courses. What shocked me the other day is that Botswana has so many people who studied fashion design, graphic design and there is nowhere these graduates are going to find employment, as we do not have clothing factories in the country. It is almost impossible for all of them or just 20% of them to run fashion houses as the population in the country is so small.

Gifts from the diaspora
Basically I will bring knowledge especially in the business side of media which I have learnt in Johannesburg and what I will learn in future. We should always travel and learn at every point of lives or we get left behind ...people should not rely on the government. We should go out there and we will actually see that our country has potential.

Books
What I have noticed about people in our country is that we are not a reading nation. We should develop the culture of reading. It helps a lot because nowadays we cannot rely on word of mouth. There is so much information out there to be consumed and we should take advantage of it.

It comes as no surprise that with a job that has allowed him a fair bit of travel over the last couple of years Jacob is now considering a move even further afield either to "New York or London at the end of September. There might be offers in those two cities that I cannot reveal at the moment."

A WOMAN OF MANY FIRSTS: Amantle Montsho

In 2010 Botswana won her first Gold medal at the Commonwealth games, today we - royal we- won our first gold medal at the World Championships. Amantle Montsho who won both these medals was also the first Motswana woman to compete in the Olympics. Today she won the 400m in a national record time of 49.56 seconds, right behind her was 200m three-time champion Allyson Felix (America) with a 49.59 finish, Russia's Anastasiya Kapachinskaya came in third in 50.24 seconds.

Facebook (on the Botswana end) is going crazy with congratulatory status updates and postings of various videos.

Twenty eight year old Amantle hails from the village of Mabudutsa, although her athleticism was nurtured while she was a student in Maun. She has come a long way since then, winning along the way - The Botswana National Sports Council's Sportswoman of the year and Sportsperson of the year. She trains at the High Performance Training Center in Dakar, Senegal.

Well done Amantle, we are all very proud.

BOOM BARGAIN BUST

Once in a while the city of Gaborone shakes the dust off her pretty feet, startling her dancing rattles (matlhoa) into a staccatto whisper, she crawls up from under her own weight and yells "le rona re teng ka kwano".

On Saturday afternoon I attended a Writing Association of Botswana short story workshop by Wame Molefhe you can read about it here. We had lots of fun working our way enthusiastically through the practical execises before some of us shyly read the results out loud, and then this evening another treat. Maru A Pula art teacher and renowned artist Steve Jobson, and live performance artist Moratiwa Molema who is also a member of the Artfunctionz crew alongside Monsieur Polk and The Unseen DJ hosted an open multimedia performance at the Thapong Visual Arts Center.

Titled Bargain Boom Bust it is based very loosely on English artist William Hogarth's A Rake's progress - a series of eight paintings depicting 'the decline and fall of Tom Rakewell the spendthrift son and heir of a rich merchant, who comes to London, wastes all his money on luxurious living, prostitution and gambling, and as a consequence is imprisoned in the Fleet Prison and ultimately Bedlam'(wikipedia). All, most, some of this is translated into an organic fusion of dance, poetry, installation art, music, sound, projection and light in a very engaging and individualistic manner. Its not a wholly cohesive project but I think that was either deliberate or was a natural outcome of the working process. Artists all wrote or choreographed their own material which was then linked into a sequence of sorts. Other than the great craftsmanship exhibited by whoever penciled/charcoaled the figures projected onto white sheets (I suspect its Jobson) my favouite scene has to be the silhouette striptease-dance because it was ever so cleverly done, with none of the too-muchness that an outright undressing in the open might have held for some folks.

Jobson says this production has ambitions to grow within and beyond Botswana's borders by involving additional local and international artists. The closing video clip was sent in from outside the country by Friedeman Luka and though not integrated fully into the production speaks to that process having already begun.

The cast boasts of both well established creatives and promising young talent; Moratiwa Molema, Karabo Maselela, Sibongile Phiri, JB, B Note, Bundu Lama and off 'screen' Kgotla Ntsima, Steve Jobson, Inga Ritter, Andrija Klaric, Vivek Kamokar as well as Nikola Gaytanjie.

Although the event was held at Thapong, Maitisong provided technical assistance in support of the production. Let us hope this is only the beginning. I will put up some photographs of tonight's contemporary interpretation of 18th century sequential art when I can get them, I think they'll show a better story than I could ever tell. Goodnight world