Category Archives: Botswana

Review: The Screaming of the Innocent by Unity Dow

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I was prompted to add The Screaming of the Innocent to my global reading challenge list by this excellent review at Petrona. My short summary review would simply be: read the book yourself, you’ll be glad you did.

The Screaming of the Innocent is set in the author’s native Botswana and tells a harrowing tale about a young girl who goes missing, the men who are responsible and the ease with which they engineer a cover up of their actions. The girl is 12 years old and one day she is spotted playing with her friends by a local businessman, Mr Disanka, which seals her unfortunate fate. He calls upon two men he knows who share his heinous interests and together they plan what they’ll do with the girl. Although at this point there is no graphic depiction of what is done to the girl, the passage in which this odious individual, who is thought to be a good man despite his many mistresses and other moral lapses, identifies the girl as ‘perfect for his purposes’ quite literally made my skin crawl.

We then jump forward five years and meet Amantle Bokaa, a young woman in her 20s, as she begins an internship at the clinic in the same village from which the girl disappeared. When carrying out some cleaning at the clinic Amantle finds a box marked Neo Kakang: CRB 45/94 and when she tracks down the village resident who shares the name Kakang the box is opened to reveal a set of blood-stained clothes. The villagers, including Motlatsi Kakang, are stunned because the clothes clearly belong to Molatsi’s daughter Neo who went missing five years earlier. They were told at the time by police investigators that the girl had been killed by lions.  Amantle, being a remarkably strong young women, then takes it upon herself to uncover the facts behind Neo’s disappearance and what she soon realises must have been the official cover up of those facts.

The subject matter of this book is undoubtedly dark but, because it is based on a real case of ritual killing, there is a purpose to that darkness. This is not gruesome violence for the shock value of it like so many ‘thrillers’ contain these days; this is actually quite a restrained depiction of events which will keep occurring in the real world unless they are exposed in this way. But perhaps the most important thing to know is that despite the utter wretchedness of many of the events in the book there is a sense of optimism and hope too. The introduction of Amantle and the friends she co-opts to her cause is a master stroke on the part of the author, allowing the reader to imagine the possibility of a brighter future for Botswana and its poor people, especially its women.

For Amantle is a delightful character who, as the youngest of seven children in a traditional Botswanan family, was selected to be the first one who would go to school. We learn via flashback some of Amantle’s personal history and it becomes clear how she developed into such a smart and resourceful young lady who is prepared to stand up for herself and those she identifies cannot do so for themselves. She is not entirely alone, engaging the help of a young female lawyer friend who in turn ropes in another chum or two and you get the sense that the author sees these young people as a big part of her country’s future.

This is one of those books that oozes its setting, both physical and psychological, from every page. The traditional values which are increasingly at odds with modern thinking, the entrenched poverty, the heavily hierarchical social structure in which women at each layer have to struggle more for their share of what is in offer are all present. But so are the beauty of the landscape, the strong sense of community that develops among the rural villages and even, albeit briefly, some flashes of humour such as when the young people have to spend a night camping and the city-living lawyer is terrified they will all be eaten by lions.

If the book had depicted only a single note of despair and sadness I would, I think, hesitate to recommend it but knowing that it also contains the seeds of reason to be optimistic I do think it’s well worth reading. It is emotionally harrowing (the ending particularly so) but not gratuitously so and, on balance, I am glad that I read the book, despite the sadness and sense of impotent outrage it engendered.

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The book has been reviewed at Petrona

As well as being a writer Unity Dow is a human rights activist, former High Court Judge and earlier this year was nominated as one of Newsweek’s 150 women who shake the world.

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My rating 4.5/5
Publisher Spinifex Press [2002]
ISBN 1876756209
Length 215 pages
Format trade paperback
Book Series standalone
Source borrowed from the library

Review: The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu by Michael Stanley

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The third of 14 books I plan to read for the medium level of the Global Reading Challenge takes place in Botswana and is the second ‘Detective Kubu’ book by Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip. The book is published as A Deadly Trade outside the US.

At a tourist camp in the lush northern part of Botswana the bodies of two guests are discovered early one morning while a third guest has disappeared, apparently back to nearby Zimbabwe. When authorities realise that there may be political and/or international ramifications arising from the case Assistant Superintendent David Bengu, known as Kubu which means hippo in Setswana, is sent from Gaborone to lead the investigation. Ably assisted by local Detective Sergeant Joseph “Tatwa” (giraffe) Mooka the pair soon discover that everyone at the camp has something to hide and that nothing is what it appears. The first of many twists in the case is that one of the two dead men, school teacher Goodluck Tinubu, is recorded as having died thirty years earlier in the bloody Rhodesian civil war.

There is much to like about this book. Kubu is a charming character and the portrayal of his work and family life is a refreshing change from the tormented lone wolf coppers we see so much of. He manages to maintain a civilised relationship with his immediate superior, is happily married to his first wife and even has a sound relationship with his parents. This in particular provides an interesting angle as it depicts the differences in outlook and behaviour between the generations. Other characters are nicely drawn too, including Kubu’s workaholic boss Jacob Mabaku, his colleague on this investigation Tatwa who is newly qualified and still learning the ropes and his delightful wife Joy. The collection of misfits and outsiders who have made their home at the Jackalberry Camp also intrigue, none of them being stereotypical and all of them having very believable reasons for ending up in their present circumstances.

The authors have also done a good job with the historical and political backdrop to this story, dealing relatively lightly but intelligently with both the Rhodesian war and its aftermath and the need for a delicate handling of the relationship between Botswana and the troubling neighbouring Zimbabwean Government. I’m sure it would have been easy to have turned the book into a lecture about these subjects but avoiding this trap made the story much stronger and more thought provoking as readers are left to draw their own conclusions.

I did however find the book a little too long. The story itself felt slightly more complicated than it needed to be and for me it dragged in the middle portion as there was much driving across country and relaying of information from one jurisdiction to another which was unnecessarily repetitive and slowed down the pace. That aside though The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu is an entertaining read and you’d be hard pressed to find a book more evocative of its image-rich, exotic location. The inclusion of two maps and a cast of characters (with phonetic pronunciations) is the icing on this very delicious cake and I am looking forward to a third installment of this series.

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This book has been reviewed at Aust Crime Fiction and Crime Watch

I reviewed the first book in the series, A Carrion Death, for last year’s Global Reading Challenge.

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My rating 3.5/5
Author website http://www.detectivekubu.com/default.aspx
Publisher Harper Collins [2009]
ISBN 9780061883248
Length 441 pages
Format eBook (ePub)
Book Series #2 in the Detective Kubu series
Source I bought it

Review: A Carrion Death by Michael Stanley

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A human body that has been picked over by hyenas is found near a resort in a remote part of Botswana. There are few clues to the person’s identity other than it’s a white person. Assistant Superintendent David ‘Kubu’ Bengu needs to use all his ingenuity to find out who the person is and how they ended up in such a predicament. His investigations take him in many directions including to the most influential company in the country which incorporates diamond mines among its many interests.

The character of Kubu is one the outstanding features of this novel. He is a happily married, opera-loving, overweight chap whose childhood nickname of Kubu (meaning hippo) has stuck through to his adulthood. He is also a tenacious and clever detective who is willing to access help from whatever source he can find it. Although he does have a couple of odd quirks that crime writers love to give their protagonists (singing opera while driving across the country for example), Kubu is still a very natural and realistic character. He gets on well with his boss (who is neither a moron nor a monster) and even hosts a dinner party with his wife Joy for family and friends. Such things are perfectly normal in real life but stood out for me here as being the kind of thing you don’t see a lot of in crime fiction.

Given that I primarily read A Carrion Death as part of my fulfillment for the 2010 Global Challenge I was pleased it evoked such a sense of its location. The vast distances that Kubu has to travel in order to carry out his investigations and the remote desert setting for several key events acted together to give a strong sense of the relatively sparsely populated and land-locked country. Although in some ways it is quite different to the country depicted in Alexander McCall Smith’s No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series the importance given to all family relationships is a common trait between the two Botswanas. Here the family element is demonstrated repeatedly, most memorably for me when Kubu travels to South Africa and observes many beggars which he says would never happen in his country as people would be too ashamed to let even distant relations resort to such measures.

The book did suffer a little from ‘first book syndrome’ where every idea the authors had seemed to be thrown into the mix with the consequence that some of the threads were not terribly well thought through or relevant (the witchdoctor for example really added neither local flavour nor plot development). Tighter editing of these portions and the several repetitions of ‘the case to date’ segments might have made a dent in the book’s excessive length which would, in my humble opinion, have made it a better product. However the complex story does unfold well, including the time jumps in the first third of the novel, and the main thread is resolved in a manner in keeping with the rest of the story which is becoming something of a rarity these days.

Michael Stanley is a pseudonym for two authors, Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, but however they apportion the writing tasks their collaboration appeared seamless to me. A Carrion Death is a thoroughly enjoyable romp of a tale and you’d be hard pressed not warm to the character of Kubu. I’m certainly looking forward to reading the second novel in the series soon.

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My rating 4/5

Publisher: Headline [2008]; ISBN: 9780755344062; Length 557 pages; Setting: Botswana, present-day.

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A Carrion Death has been reviewed at Mysteries in Paradise and at Euro Crime

Review: Tears of the Giraffe by Alexander McCall Smith

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Title: Tears of the Giraffe

Author: Alexander McCall Smith

Publisher: Abacus [this ed 2003, originally ed 2000]

ISBN: 978-0-349-11665-5

I’m a bit behind in this series as this is only the second of what will, this year, be a ten-book collection. This installment begins with Mme Ramotswe and Mr J.L.B. Matekoni confirming their engagement. At the same time Mme Ramotswe is called upon to investigate the disappearance of a young American man some ten years previously and Mr Matekoni is assisting the local orphan farm to maintain its ageing machinery.

If you have read any of these books at all you’ll know exactly what to expect. The individual annecdotes and events might change from book to book but the overall feel of all them is, I suspect, similar. There’s a plethora of homespun philosophy and wry ovservations from Mme Ramotswe although, in this book more than the first, Mr Matekoni’s personality and views on how the world is to be tackled are explored more fully. Both are truly delightful characters: the kind of people you would happily travel to the other side of the world to have a cup of tea with.

McCall Smith was born in what was then Rhodesia and has lived in Africa on and off over his life. His love for, and understanding of, the continent is evident in every word of this book. The cadence of the dialogue, the vivid descriptions of the places and the traits exhibited by the key characters all combine to provide an utterly immersive experience. And, as with the first book, it paints a picture of Africa not often seen: a collection of happy, productive, proud people going about their daily lives with the same struggles, concerns and triumphs that people do the world over.

This book contains a more cohesive several-threaded narrative than the first one which was more a collection of vignettes and I prefer the apporach here. However, the story is still gentle and can drag a little as there’s a sense of inevitability rather than suspense. If you’re looking for a heart-thumping thriller then I suggest you go elsewhere but if you can spare some time to relax and view the world from a different perspective I doubt you’ll be disappointed. For your investment you should get a few laughs, some intelligent food for thought, possibly a tear or two and, I can virtually guarantee this, you’ll feel better when you finish than you did when you started.

My rating 4/5

More stuff

A review on The Armenian Odar Reads (be warned there’s minor spoiler towards the end of the review)