Female Sleuth Ferrets Out Africa's Goodness
MOCHUDI, Botswana — "This is the spot of the creation of Mma Ramotswe," the guide announces, swerving the open-air jeep to a halt at a dusty crossroad. Our party stands in reverence in the footsteps of Precious Ramotswe, the fictional Botswana detective whose heart and moxie have captivated readers worldwide and placed her on the best-seller lists.
It was here, in the village of Mochudi, that a writer named Alexander McCall Smith marveled years ago at the persistence of a woman chasing after a chicken for his dinner. He turned her into Mma Ramotswe (Mma means Mrs.), founder of "The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency," who calls herself "just a tiny person in Africa" and whose caseload ranges from cheating husbands and truant schoolkids to sinister witchcraft and a kidnapping.
The five Mma Ramotswe books transport readers into a Texas-sized land of thorn trees and desert, home-grown values and good-hearted people. Botswana is a country of 1.5 million people that is rich in diamonds, well-governed, untouched by coups and corruption.
The biggest thing to hit Botswana of late was this month's visit by President Bush, but fans of the books are already on fairly intimate terms with the country. Now they can join Africa Insight -- a tour outfitter that normally takes tourists on rugged safaris through the Okavango Delta and Kalahari Desert -- on a tour of the Ramotswe trail in and around the capital, Gaborone.
The trip takes in the squat homes and meandering dirt roads of Mochudi; the President's Hotel, where Mma Ramotswe likes to take tea; Zebra Drive (really Zebra Way), the quiet street where she lives, and a garage strikingly similar to Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors and the fictional business of Ramotswe's true love, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni.
McCall Smith, 54, a prolific author of fictional and academic books, is a medical lawyer who teaches at the University of Edinburgh. He spent several years in Botswana helping set up its law school. Born and reared in neighboring Zimbabwe, then Rhodesia, Smith is aware that some find it strange for a white man to be writing from a black woman's point of view.
"But I think as a writer, one must be able to empathize with all sorts of people. As a writer, I try to keep my eyes open. I hope I get it right. One has to be careful in writing about someone else's culture. You can get it wrong and misinterpret. But if you are careful, you should be able to say something about their lives."
