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Spinifex Press. This edition published Aug, 2007
Reviewed by Sunny Gill
Naldei Chaba is a lawyer who works for the Bana-Bantle Children's Agency
in Botswana. The agency has long since expanded from the rights of
children. They also assist women who have to navigate Botswana's legal
system.
The book is a series of vignettes set around a main story. All the stories
centre around women facing legal problems. The author, Unity Dow, is
Botswana's first female High Court judge and has made a name for herself
dealing with human rights issues, particularly in relation to women.
Botswana is a very young country still trying to come to terms with the
modern world. That is where the main interest in the book lies. How to
reconcile a modern British Justice system with old traditional ways and
still achieve justice for women is what makes THE HEAVENS MAY FALL so
interesting.
There is the rape of a 13-year old mute girl. Naleda tries to fight the
prosecutor's feelings that as the girl cannot talk she cannot give
evidence. How about the American woman pestering Naleda wanting to sue the
local hospital for giving her the wrong tablets, causing her to wet
herself on safari ? A perfect illustration of old meeting new is the case
of a woman seeking an injunction to force her husband to have a ritual
cleansing because his mother has sent a "thokolosi" (A thokolosi is
similar to an evil spirit) to repeatedly rape her of a night. The husband
is refusing because he cannot believe his mother would do such a horrible
thing and he wants a divorce. Which will prevail? Old customary law that
decrees that the husband must undergo the cleansing or common law which
doesn't recognize the existence of thokolosi?
Unity Dow writes with an obvious love of Botswana but she is not blind to
its flaws. You can't help feeling that the stories Dow tells are probably
based on her own personal experiences with the Botswanan legal system and
that Naleda's fight for justice for women and children mirror Dow's own.
Up until now, the literary world has known Botswana through the delightful
stories of Alexander McCall Smith and the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency.
Comparisons between the two authors are inevitable. Both have chosen a
similar structure in their books. Both love the country. However, McCall
Smith's Botswana is idyllic and Dow's acknowledges that there are problems
to be overcome. The authors make an interesting contrast and perhaps the
truth of Botswana lies somewhere between the two. With Dow's emergence I
hope that more Botswanans are encouraged to write about their country and
give the rest of the world a clearer picture .
Oct 2007 review originally published on Murder and Mayhem
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