After a three-year silence, the Gaborone Book Festival is back and it is bringing big names, fresh voices, poetry, Netflix-worthy storytelling and a brand new book market to the National Museum.
GOSEGO MOTSUMI
The books are back on the menu. After disappearing from Gaborone’s cultural calendar for three years, the Gaborone Book Festival (GBF) returns from 20–22 August with a programme that feels less like a quiet literary gathering and more like a full-blown cultural reunion.
And one name is already generating serious buzz: Sue Nyathi, whose novel The Polygamist has been adapted into a Netflix series, bringing her sharp exploration of love, marriage and modern African life to a global audience.
THREE YEARS LATER, THE PAGES TURN
Co-founder Kenanao Phele told Time Out that the comeback is deliberately expansive, with the festival staged in partnership with the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr Kirk Sides, an associate professor of English at the university, joins as co-curator.
But this is not simply an international guest showcase. The festival puts Botswana’s literary voices firmly in the spotlight, with Thalefang Charles, Phodiso Modirwa, Kenneth Middleton, Gothataone Moeng, Priscillar Ndadi, Pearl Stabile Ndovu and Onica Lekuntwane among the featured writers.
Game Zeus Bantsi and folklore artist Ntirelang Berman also join the programme, proving that the festival’s idea of a “book” extends well beyond the printed page.
FROM POETRY TO PLAYGROUND
Opening night hands the microphone to poetry, with performances and readings from Modirwa and Berman. Meanwhile, 50 children from Gaborone public schools will enter their own literary universe through a writing workshop facilitated by festival authors.
The freshest addition may be Saturday’s open book market, inviting readers to browse and buy directly from local authors.
After three years away, Gaborone is not merely reopening the book festival. It is making a case for reading, writing and storytelling as part of the city’s cultural life.
And with Nyathi bringing a little Netflix electricity to the room, this comeback already has a plot twist.