Suggested reading |
Among a number of books by early European visitors, David Livingstone's Missionary Travels stands out as a classic. The complete text is available on-line at this site (see Missionary Travels etext). Also well worth reading is John Mackenzie's Ten Years North of the Orange River (discussed in my paper " 'Suppose a Black Man Tells a Story': the Dialogues of John Mackenzie the Missionary and Sekgoma Kgari the King and Rainmaker". In That Tremendous Voice: Essays in honour of Leonard Diniso Ngcongco, ed. Kofi Darkwah (1997, special issue of Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies).
See Neil Parsons' notes on Botswana fiction.
At the top of any prospective visitor's list should be Bessie Head's When Rain Clouds Gather, about Botswana on the eve of Independence. The novel has, bizarrely, been criticized as ignoring politics, but in fact offers acute observations about both the transition in Botswana (notably the end of the era of chiefly dominance, and the phenomenon of "lands-settlement") and the possible models for African political leadership. Bessie Head, Botswana's greatest writer (and indeed one of the greatest in Africa) also wrote two other important novels set in modern Botswana, Maru and A Question of Power. Maru is about racism, not against black people but against the Basarwa. It is however a troubled book already showing some of the mental torment which erupts in A Question of Power, a difficult but magnificent voyage through mental disorder to insights on religion, sexuality, and African society. Her last book, A Bewitched Crossroads, is an historical novel. She also wrote a number of short stories, including the collection The Collector of Treasures, and a book about her adopted home, Serowe, Village of the Rain Wind, which includes extensive oral interviews. (The Cardinals, actually written first but published posthumously, is set in South Africa and pre-dates her Botswana experiences.) See also the English Department website for some pages on Bessie Head
Mositi Torontle's The Victims (1993) (not to be confused with a number of other books with the same title) manages to convey a remarkable range of insights into Botswana in the eighties, and is another book that could be recommended as an introduction for visitors, but it is unfortunately out of print.
Moteane Melamu's three books of short stories, Children of the Twilight, Living and Partly Living, and The Unweeded Garden and Other Stories, and Caitlin Davies's first novel Jamestown Blues provide insights into the problems of modern Botswana life. Caitlin Davies's new novel Black Mulberries draws on her knowledge of the Okavango Delta, a main tourist area, to look at the complications of the interactions of human and nature, local and visitor, etc.: this is definitely a book that will enrich the experience of anyone coming to visit.
Unity Dow (otherwise known as a legal scholar and High Court Judge) has published four novels: Far and Beyon', which deals with growing up in the age of AIDS, The Screaming of the Innocent (about muti murder) and Juggling Truths, a portrayal of Mochudi in the sixties as seen by a child. The last is especially recommended to visitors and those interested in understanding Botswana. Her fourth novel, The Heavens May Fall, published at the end of 2006, shows the "seamy side" of Botswana life as seen by a lawyer. Unity Dow is rapidly emerging as a leading Botswana writer.
Another emerging writer is Lauri Kubuitsile. She has mainly written short stories (winning the AngloPlatinum Short Story Prize in 2007), but has also published two detective stories, The Fatal Payout and Murder for Profit. The latter is especially recommended to visitors.
A recent work which is well worth reading is Scarred, by Nanky Seoke, described as a fictionalized memoir. It describes the author's experiences growing up in the Kgatleng (and Lesotho) very vividly.
For a deeply sympathetic (and very funny) view of modern Botswana, read Alexander McCall Smith's The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, which has been followed by a number of sequels, Tears of the Giraffe, Morality for Beautiful Girls, The Kalahari Typing School for Men, The Full Cupboard of Life, In the Company of Cheerful Ladies, Blue Shoes and Happiness, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive, and most recently The Miracle at Speedy Motors. This series (about Mma Ramotswe the detective) has proved popular in the west, and helped put Botswana on the map. A "Mma Ramotswe" film has just been released. The books should not be made to carry too much weight, and criticisms that they do not deal in depth with Africa's problems are a little unfair: part of the original point of The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency was to counter western perceptions that Africans were incapable of living ordinary lives and running their affairs, but lived entirely in a state of disaster. The first book is the most interesting.
Botswana popular literature in English is limited. Andrew Sesinyi's Love on the Rocks (1981) has long been popular locally, and more recently he wrote a new novel Carjack which was apparently intended to de-romanticize crime, an aim which seems to have been overtaken by the author's considerable narrative zest. For a wonderfully lurid vision of Gaborone, see Galesiti Baruti's Mr Heartbreaker.
See the detailed notes elsewhere on this site, especially Neil Parsons' Select Bibliography on the History of Botswana and Bibliography for Local Studies. Thomas Tlou and Alec Campbell History of Botswana and Neil Parsons New History of Southern Africa are the standard introductions. For the 19th century see J. Ramsay, B. Morton and T. Mgadla Building a Nation : a History of Botswana from 1800 to 1910 and for the 20th century to Independence see Fred Morton and Jeff Ramsay (eds) The Birth of Botswana : a History of the Bechuanaland Protectorate from 1910 to 1966. For post-independence politics the best introduction is probably Thomas Tlou, Neil Parsons and Willie Henderson Seretse Khama, 1921-80. Neil Parsons King Khama, Emperor Joe and the Great White Queen : Victorian Britain through African eyes deals with the visit of the three chiefs to Britain in 1895 but has a wide ambit.
The older books by Anthony Sillery (who had been Resident Commissioner in the late 1940s) are still valuable, but are dated and tend to be limited to the official perspective. (See bibliography.)
Most of the above have a political and economic focus. For cultural and religious history Gabriel M. Setiloane The Idea of God among the Sotho-Tswana, Jean and John Comaroff's two-volume Of Revelation and Revolution and Paul Landau's The Realm of the Word are essential.
For a recent episode in Botswana's public life you might be interested in Caitlin Davies' study of The Return of El Negro. Caitlin Davies has written about her time in Botswana in a powerful memoir, Place of Reeds.
By Bruce Bennett, email bennett@mopipi... [Click here for full email address]
Copyright © 2000 University of Botswana History Department
Last updated 18 April 2008