When Motlhankane Lesego stood before an audience at Sol Plaatje University’s international conference to present a paper on Mosinete, a new genre of Setswana poetry, he left with more than notes. It sparked an idea that would become Haikaro, a new literary form.

“It was in the exchanges on intercultural creativity that I started thinking about blending forms beyond Africa,” says Motlhankane, a lecturer in the North-West University’s (NWU’s)School of Languages.

After the conference, which ran from 27 to 29 August and featured debates on decolonial aesthetics and global poetic traditions, Lesego continued to reflect on the new ground that it had opened for him.

That reflection produced Haikaro. The form fuses the Mosikaro, a Setswana traditional poem marked by rhythm, metaphor and communal resonance, with the Japanese haiku, a verse form known for its brevity.

“In Haikaro, Setswana orality meets Japanese minimalism. It shows how languages can meet without losing their roots,” says Motlhankane.

He is already known for creating Mosinete, a Setswana hybrid poetry genre. The form combines traditional oral expressions with modern techniques.

“Mosinete is what I call a living archive of Setswana consciousness,” Motlhankane said. “It is about connecting cultural memory to new ways of writing.”

He says his work aims to reposition indigenous languages within broader literary conversations. “African languages should not be confined to tradition alone. They are capable of contributing to world literature”.

Through Mosinete and now Haikaro, Motlhankane continues to develop new ways of writing that connect Setswana with global literary currents.

Motlhankane Lesego