Seriously Funny Reading from Botswana
In my quest to find something authentic and not so everyday average to read, I stumbled upon some serious literature in Botswana. "Why Botswana?" a friend asked me. "Why not?" I replied. I think the further away the country is located from where I live, the better the chance that the book will be outside my realm of experience. Also, because of its history and its political and economic situation, I suspected that most literature in or about Botswana would be what is known as "engaged literature", that is, literature committed to making a change. Engaged literature is right up my alley.
My suspicions about engaged literature were true for the author Bessie Head, a South African woman born in South Africa. She started a career as a teacher but switched over to writing. It was because of this writing that she was forced to flee to Botswana and it was there that her career in writing really got started. Her most well-known novels are When Rain Clouds Gather, Maru and A Question of Power. I decided to read the first, which is also the earliest.
When Rain Clouds Gather deals with a male character, Makhaya, who flees South Africa (does that ring a bell?) and somehow ends up in a village where the women are doing all the work and the men are just herding cattle. Makhaya tries to show the people the reality they live in but finds it difficult. Makhaya is a mysterious type who has gone through a great deal of undefined of emotional pain. Though she withholds many details of Makhaya's life, the author fills us in on the details of the pain of others and shows you that almost everyone suffers because of poverty, oppression and injustice.
Another key character in this book is a Western engineer who comes up with an ingenious plan to make the land more useful. This character personifies all the good ideas that could be useful in Africa but in the end seem to make no difference because of the destructive powers that seem to have a toe hold on the land.
Although Makhaya finds love that should warm the heart, I read the book from a more intellectual perspective and got the chills every once in a while when considering the situation the villagers faced. This was not fiction, this is reality, and that makes the book a serious read.
Despite the harrowing subject matter, my interest in Head's writing was aroused. I had the urge to read more about engaged literature, which can be nightmarish. I found a book about another female author , Unity Dow, who was appointed Botswana's first female High Court judge. If she could not write about (in)justice, than nobody can, I thought. I started her Far and Beyon' which deals with current day problems in the whole of Africa: AIDS (and the decimation of the population), poverty and the fortune tellers that enjoy an extreme power over people and over common sense.
Before I could finish her book, I stumbled upon the books of Alexander McCall Smith. He has written a series of novels about the No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency. These books are extremely funny. From the moment I picked the first book, I knew I had a winner in my hands.
This series deals with a flamboyant Botswanean woman named Precious Ramotswe who decides to start a detective agency with her inheritance. How cool is that? Why a detective agency? Because there isn't a single female detective agency in Botswana and she thinks she is as good as any male detective. You can't argue about truths like these. She hires a secretary and advertises. Soon she has clients and the stories begin and along the way the author shows us how Precious became so precious. I find her a very admirable woman, strong but with enough feelings and emotions to demonstrate the full spectrum of human characteristics. She is investigative, curious, does not take no for an answer and knows how to take care of herself. She draws the greatest conclusions, and she is almost always right--even though she does not always know what she is doing! I want to be her.
The stories in the book are exhilarating and are refreshingly original. It is funny to see how they all deal with life in Africa and in Botswana and yet give a humorous twist to it. The way the author informs the reader about Botswana and its people is very subtle.
In The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, a client wants to know where her husband is. One day he never returned home. In true mystery novel fashion, a red herring is thrown out immediately, mainly relating to the fact that disappearing men are, unfortunately, very common for women. But this man disappeared in a very unconventional way and not with bad intentions.
When I read that Alexander McCall Smith was not a woman I was almost shocked. He has created such a vivid and feminine character in Precious that I--a woman--felt almost jealous that a man could describe her this well. I devoured his first three books (The No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Tears of the Giraffe and Morality for Beautiful Girls), which all have the same formula, but there is progression so it is not merely repetition. Other characters, like the cute mechanic Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, are great as well. They all share human flaws and discrepancies but still succeed in being adorable. Nowadays I call these books my feel-good books, I know when I read them I will have a laugh and an authentic story to reflect upon. I can't wait to start the next ones, The Kalahari Typing School for Men, The Full Cupboard of Life and In the Company of Cheerful Ladies.
Both the engaged literature of Botswana and the more entertaining feel good style of Smith are well worth reading if you are at all interested in what is going on outside the confines of your own experience.