Police stations we have known

Michael - Thursday

Stan and I have been launching Dead of Night in South Africa, and that often raises questions about settings and sense of place. I talked a bit about out choices here last month. But I'm still wondering how much the setting affects the story and how much is the other way around. Even the police stations have an impact.

Baboons on Kgale Hill

A Carrion Death was set in several places, but Gaborone was the pivot. Kubu hangs out in an office at the the headquarters of the Criminal Investigation Department in the Millennium Park complex west of the city.  Characterless, it's surrounded by parking covered by shade-cloth that loses a daily battle with the sun. It's a newish building and encroaches on the base of Kgale Hill which is about the only bit of topography in the area.  When researching the book, we visited the director of the CID there on a Saturday, but went back for another sortie around the area on Sunday.  We were delighted to see that a troop of baboons had come down from their haunts in the rocky cap of Kgale Hill and taken over the area around the CID. They were sorting through bins and any other items of interest left as the human tide went out for the weekend. It seemed a wonderful metaphor for the juxtaposition of old and new in Africa. One we were not able to resist bringing into the stories. On several occasions Mabaku worries about what they might do to, or on, his car as he looks out of his office window.

The Linyanti where much of our second book takes place

Baobab

The Second Death of Goodluck Tinubu is set up north. The Kasane police station also has an interesting feature. Kasane lies on the confluence of two major rivers – the Chobe and the Zambezi. It's also at the meeting point of four countries – Botswana, Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe - clearly not an entirely comfortable location these days. However, the town is thriving with fancy modern hotels overlooking the broad Chobe river and packed with tourists taking trips into the Chobe National Park a short distance away.  Built on the site of the old prison, a modern multi-story building houses the police. The architect took care to design it in such a way that two ancient baobabs could be preserved. Both are hollowed out with once locking doors that allowed prisoners to be held within the tree itself. One tree for the men and one for the women. No more than two in each at a time one hopes! You can climb in, but it’s not a very comfortable or salubrious place to spend any time. We were shown around the inside of the police station - including the modern prison cells - but nothing was as interesting as the baobab prison.

The semi-arid country of the Kalahari  

Ground Hornbill

Our third book, Death of the Mantis, was set in the Kalahari desert part of Botswana, so we made the acquaintance of the police there. As usual they were charming and helpful. Tshane is a small village in the heart of the southern Kalahari. It has neighbours of the same type: Hukuntsi – the “commercial centre” sporting a petrol station and guest house, Lehututu – named after the cry of the Ground Hornbill, and Lokgwabe. The villages are there because of the usually dry salt pans which provide subterranean water. The only police station for the group of villages is at Tshane. Unlike the usual Botswana police building, this is an old style colonial one-story dating back to the days of British rule - the Bechuanaland Protectorate. It has the prime site in town: overlooking one of the salt pans. We were told it is the second oldest permanent police post in Botswana. Obviously someone thought this area would grow. Perhaps the old building survived because it didn’t.

The View from Tshane Police Station

Tsabong police station features in the same book

The next three Kubu books take place in Gaborone, Mochudi, and Ganzi. Dead of Night is set in South Africa, Geneva, and Vietnam. But I must admit that we haven't visited any Vietnamese police stations. Maybe just as well!

Commerce - Botswana style

Unity Dow

 

Michael and I just returned from Botswana where we were researching our fourth book.  (You may ask, where is our third?  Sore point!  It has been with our editor for 8 months!).  It was a very successful trip that included a wonderful interview with Unity Dow, first female High Court, current judge on the Kenyan Constitutional Court, and prolific author.  You must read Screaming of the Innocent. 

We wanted to talk to her because the third book Death of the Mantis has as its back story the plight of the Bushmen, and she was on the court that heard the famous case challenging the government's order that the Bushmen had to move from traditional lands within the Central Kalahari Game Reserve.  The court ruled largely in favour of the Bushmen although, as usual, the issues are more complicated than some of the Bushmen supporters (eg. Survival International) like to make out.

Our fourth book, in progress, deals with the harvesting of body parts for the purposes of witchcraft - they're called muti murders.  Screaming of the Innocent deals with the same subject. 

Botswana's formal economy is simple - diamonds and tourism.  Botswana is home to the two richest diamond mines in the world – Orapa and Jwaneng, owned by Debswana – a 50-50 partnership between Botswana and De Beers.  It is the revenues from these that have made Botswana economically stable. These two mines are modern, well run, and immensely profitable - when people are buying diamonds.

Orapa mine

Also important is the tourism industry.  Botswana has taken the approach of “low impact, high revenue”.  That is, they want a few tourists paying a lot of money.  Although fine for the environment, this also means that locals find it difficult, if not impossible to visit the great game reserves of Botswana.  Probably if I were advising the Botswana Government, I would also suggest this approach.  Actually in some parts of Botswana normal people encounter wild animals every day.  In Kasane, for example, it is not unusual to have elephants walking through town, disrupting travel.  It is a wonderful sight.  

However it is the informal economy that is the most fascinating.  One of the pleasures of roaming around Gaborone and Mochudi and other small Botswana towns is looking at the signage of roadside entrepreneurs.  There is nothing slick about it, but there is enormous appeal.  When Kubu drives through Mochudi to visit his parents, for example, this is typical of what he would see.

Garage

Garage

Tuckshop

Where's Part 1?

Caterer

Here's Part 1

Where's Part 2?

Barbershops are big business in Botswana.  Unfortunately we could not photograph our favourite place – the sign had disintegrated – the Taliban Hair Cut and Car Wash.  But the other signs give you the idea!

 

 

 

 

Stan - Thursday

Update:

Earlier in the year I wrote about Kulula Airlines in South Africa (http://murderiseverywhere.blogspot.com/2010/08/love-to-fly.html) and the innovative approach they take to keep passengers entertained.  On Tuesday, I flew from Johannesburg to George on Kulula, and was I in for a treat.  As the doors shut, the lead flight attendant asked the passengers to welcome a staff member, Kay Lula, who had just returned to duty from having triplets.  Could we give her a big round of applause?  Which we dutifully did.  She then said that Kay would handle all the announcements thereafter.  At that moment, Kay emerged from the cockpit, all six feet of her!  Tall, elegant, attractive, she caught the attention of the male passengers.  She then proceeded to give one of the funniest cabin briefings I have ever heard.  Of course I should have taken notes, but was laughing so hard that I forgot.

Once en route, Kay came back on the intercom to invite all kids and any adults to join her at the back of the aircraft to have their faces painted, free of course.  I wasn’t surprised to see several kids dash back, but I was taken aback by the fact that several adult Hasidic Jews, yarmulkes and all, headed back there for their decorations.  It was weird to sit there looking at people wearing yarmulkes painted like Long John Silver and other literary reprobates.

Before landing, Kay told some very funny jokes – that unfortunately don’t work in print.  And as the plane  rolled to a stop on the tarmac at George, she thanked us, hoping we "didn’t find the flight a drag!"

Fly Kulula!