My Life in Botswana, and Observation of the Society from 1971 to 2005

Abstract

I obtained a PhD in Statistics from Imperial College, London, in 1963. After working at CERN in Geneva and at Bell Telephone Laboratories in the United States for some years, it gradually became apparent that my wife and my four elderly parents in South Africa were becoming frail and in need of assistance. I applied to the United Nations for any statistical job in Botswana, Lesotho or Swaziland.

By extraordinary coincidence, the newly arrived expert British statistician in Gaborone found that his son was severely allergic to Kalahari dust. He suddenly had to give up the post of Botswana’s government statistician and hurriedly returned to England. This created a totally unexpected vacancy in Gaborone. I was extremely lucky to be appointed to this vacancy. I took up the post of Government Statistician at the Central Statistics Office (CSO) in Gaborone in February 1971. It was professionally satisfying for me to live in a country which was making rapid strides in the quest to raise the average standard of living of its people as rapidly as possible. I was also attracted to Botswana by its non-racial and non-tribal policies.