Africa-Press – Lesotho. Likeleli Kapa sees herself a great publisher in the making, one of the most prime in the not so distant future. Likeleli, 30, from Ha Abia Maseru, is a fiction and content writer as well as a freelance editor.
She is also a translator – translating English content into Sesotho and vice versa. “Well, my love for writing started in primary school. My mom is a teacher so she instilled the love of reading in me…and even before I could even write anything I was a reader.
In 2003 when I was doing Standard 6 I started writing and used to give my work to my mom and she would tell me where to improve,” says Likeleli. She continues that her love for writing was later ignited while studying at Sefika High School.
She recalls that her English teacher named Sam Amekye, now retired, used to read her compositions in class and telling others to follow suit. She adds “after hearing that my stories were good I read even more books in our school library.
”
“I started writing at primary school, I was about 12-years-old.
It was just a hobby back then and no one except my mother knew that I was writing, I started professionally in 2016. At that time I was an unemployed graduate. Of course, I have ventured into other businesses since then that did not work.
So I was sitting at home one day and I asked myself ‘what is one thing that you can do and does not even feel that you are working?” Likeleli recalls her childhood and that her answer was writing.
She continues that at the time she already had two poems she had written when she was a student at the National University of Lesotho, but needed to go back to them to polish them and add more content since she was planning to write a book for publication.
Kapa says poetry comes from her heart, and gave her recognition and helped her associate with different authors. She says she dreams of working with Nigerian author MS Dogara “who is a good storyteller and whose books I enjoy.
” “I see myself as the biggest publisher in the SADC region. We don’t have many publishers in Lesotho and that is a challenge. We have to publish in South Africa and abroad.
The other challenge is that Basotho writers and service providers such as editors, book cover designers, book marketers are recognized in other countries but not here at home,” she continues.
“Our tertiary institutions are producing quality graduates but they are not given the opportunities. For example, I do not understand why the majority of books at schools are written by people from other countries.
We have enough talent and skill as Basotho to have to tell our stories, way better than people from other countries,” she says. To date, Kapa has compiled a poetry book ‘Poems from my heart’, a play ‘The Product of a Polygamous Set up’ and a novel ‘The Refugee Camp’.
She adds that she enjoyed writing the ‘The Refugee Camp’ the most. “I enjoyed it the most because it has a touching storyline though with a happy ending.
It is about teenage girl whose parents were abducted in front of her. As a result, she and her little brother have to live at the refugee camp. As expected bad things happen at this refugee camp and they escape.
To cut the long story short. Against all odds this girl end up graduation from college because of good Samaritans who helped her along the way,” she says.
Likeleli further revealed to Life&Style that her supporters should expect two new books from me in the near future, one titled ‘The Wife of a Private Investigator’ – the book tells the story of a young Mosotho woman in her twenties, she loses her private investigator husband at that early age.
The husband had been investigating corrupt public leaders. The other is called ‘Fallen Heroes’ a historical military fiction about a 92-years-old man who fought in the World War II; he tells his story with amiable detail.
For More News And Analysis About Lesotho Follow Africa-Press
