Sandy Grant, Botswana: Choice and Opportunity: A Memoir 1963-2018

Abstract

Sandy Grant’s Memoir is a remarkable historical document. It weaves together a rich tapestry of ordinary
people and happenings over half a century in the corner of Botswana occupied mainly by the Bakgatla. It
is a humble story told with good humour and eloquence. It does not honour the lives of famous men and
women, nor for the most part are the events recorded memorable. Yet the book does an extraordinarily
good job of recording local social history -what local people did, what they said, and what happened
to them. He pays almost no attention to the bigger events taking place in Gaborone except where it has
immediate impact in the Kgatleng. Over the past half century Gaborone has been developing at breakneck
speed, while Mochudi remains a relatively sleepy backwater.