Zwani embraces Botswana with another fiction book
Lesedi Mkhutshwa | Sunday September 1, 2024 06:00
The book is aptly titled, ‘Botswana is Home’, described by the author as a work of love and passion. She said she started writing the book on requests from readers for a series that included all of the characters from the first three books. In the book, Zwani documents some of her travels in a well-weaved storyline that sees the union of three dynamic women that have been part of her since she first self-published in 2018. Zwani states that upon starting the writing process, she had the privilege of being hosted by entities around the country that have had a significant impact on the tourism value chain such as Mashatu Game Reserve in the Tuli Block, Ker & Downy Botswana camp called Dinaka, which is located in the Central Kalahari and others. She also had the pleasure of visiting a distillery on the fringes of the Okavango Delta where Botswana’s first Gin named Okavango Gin is made. She said she set on this mammoth task of painting a story of conservation, love, loss, and possibilities.
Some of her beloved characters like Tori, from Zwani’s most popular book, Kasane, continue to navigate life in the tourism industry even in the aftermath of the pandemic. Furthermore, Tebogo from the book, ‘The Shrink of Mogwana High’, finds herself struggling with the new normal. All three ladies embrace new adventures and learn to live with devastating surprises as they rediscover a land they call Home. In this work of fiction, Zwani has been able to embrace the Botswana culture. The visit to the Francistown cultural heritage site was explored in a further section. She made comparisons between Botswana and South Africa’s designated heritage sites throughout the chapter. She wrote about how she observed that South Africans were actively promoting their cultural history. Zwani made an intentional decision to go to the museum as soon as she found out that Francistown had one. The book cover is a painting done by a Maun-based artist, Roger Brown, who was capturing a scene of life in Seronga village. She explained that she had previously run a competition in partnership with Canon Botswana in which the designer walked away with a whooping P15, 000 for the cover of the book.