Shadows

No.1 Ladies’ Detective Agency

I’ve enjoyed myself reading No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. In spite of the writer is a man, he knows perfectly how women are: “We need more women in public life. They are very practical people, women. Unlike us men.” … “Women are gentle most of the time, but they can be tough when they need to be.”
Mma Ramotswe was to quick to agree. : “If more women were in power, they wouldn’t let wars break out. Women can’t be bothered with all this fighting. We see war for what it is – a matter of broken bodies and crying mothers” page 194

He introduces the reader to Africa very well. While you’re reading you’re seeing all the landscape descriptions in your mind:
“She drove past the hills to the east of Mochudi and down into the broad valley beyond. All around her there was nothing – just endless bush that stretched away to the bounds of the Kalahari on the one side and the plains of the Limpopo on the other. Empty bush, with nothing in it, but some cattle here and there and the occasional creaking windmill bringing up a tiny trickle of water for the thirsty beasts; nothing, that was what her country was no rich in – emptiness.” page 163.
“To the front, an acacia tree, the thorn tree which dots the wide edges of the Kalahari; the great white thorns, a warning; the olive-grey leaves, by contrast, so delicate.” page 1
“The tiny grey-green leaves, like blades of grass, were folded in upon themselves, against the heat, and beyond them the empty sky, so pale as to be white; and the smell of dust” pages 88-89

Mma Ramotswe’s surname is Precious. Wonderful name! She is a precious African woman: “Her weight was hardly a confidential matter, and anyway, she was proud of being a traditionally built African lady, unlike these terrible, stick-like creatures one saw in the advertisements. Then there were her corns – well, those were more or less on public display when she wore her sandals. Really, there was nothing that she felt she had to hide.” page 193

She is a religious woman although she had been puzzled when she was young:
“Precious Ramotswe learned about good and evil at Sunday School. … She could not believe that Lord had walked on water – you just couldn’t do that- …These were lies, she was sure of it, and the biggest lie of all was that the Lord had no Daddy on this earth.” pages 33-34
“She said her prayers whispering the words although there was nobody in the house to hear her. It was always the same prayer, for the soul of her father, Obed, for Botswana and for the rain that would made the crops grow and the cattle fat, and for her little baby, now safe in the arms of Jesus. pages 90-91

Precious is a modern woman. She is self-confident and self-contained. She is proud of living alone. “This was what husbands were for. If she had accepted him long ago, then she would not be driving alone up to Mahalapye. She would have a man with her and he would be getting under the van to poke the snake out of its place.” page 165

I think that paragraph is the best to understand the Mma Ramotswe’s behavior and life:
“God had been kind to her. He had given her a happy childhood, even if her mother had been taken from her when she was a baby. She had been looked after by her father and her kind cousin and they had taught her what it was to give love – love which she had in turn given, over those few precious days, to her tiny baby. When the child’s battle for life had ended, she had briefly wondered why God had done it to her, but in time she has understood. Now his kindness to her was manifest again, this time in the appearance of Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, a good, kind man. God had sent her a husband” page 242”