Memories of Maru-a-Pula with Shams Essack and Batsho Dambe-Groth

Maru-a-Pula School is a distinguished and celebrated school. It was founded in 1972 and was a model for how a multi-racial school could thrive at a time when apartheid was rife in neighbouring South Africa. The founding headmaster, Deane Yates OBE, was a University of Oxford graduate, a former headmaster of St John’s College, Johannesburg and received an honorary doctorate from the University of the Witwatersrand for his pioneering work in education.

163 Maru-a-Pula (MaP) School alumni of the school's pioneering first 20 years, 1972 - 1992, have come together and contributed their stories about their memories of their high school in Gaborone, Botswana.

The stories in Memories of Maru-a-Pula (aka Memories of MaP) come from an illustrious Maru-a-Pula School alumni body of Ivy League and Russell Group university graduates, Botswana’s first female pilot, a former Silicon Valley executive, academics, entrepreneurs, business-owners, authors and others who are leaders in their fields.

The editors of Memories of Maru-a-Pula: The First 20 Years, 1972 - 1992 include:

1.    Batsho Dambe-Groth: is a member of the MaP Council, an HR professional and has served on a number of boards. 

2.    Glenda Daniels: is an associate professor in the Media Studies Department at the University of the Witwatersrand, is the author of three books and is a member of SANEF. 

3.    Warren Nebe: a founder and a senior lecturer at Drama for Life at Wits, was the head of the Maru-a-Pula Drama Department, is a Salzburg fellow, was a Fulbright scholar and a TEDx speaker.

4.    Shams Essack: corporate communications & digital marketing consultant + executive & business coach.

To buy the book:

a.    In Gaborone and the rest of Botswana, please visit: https://www.maruapula.org/

b.    In Johannesburg and the rest of South Africa, contact Shams Essack via email: [email protected]

c.    Internationally, the book is also available on Amazon KDP as an eBook and printed book.

Proceeds/profits from the sale of the book will go to the Maru-a-Pula Orphan and Vulnerable Children’s (OVC) Scholarship Fund which pays for the tuition and boarding of children who have academic potential to do well at MaP but who don’t have access to funds to pay the school fees.

Other important links:

·     MaP official website: https://www.maruapula.org/

·     Memories of MaP https://www.memoriesofmap.org/

·     The crowdfunding campaign https://www.backabuddy.co.za/champion/project/shams-essack