The following article delves into the thematic collecting of Botswana as related to the celebrated mystery series, The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency. The article was submitted by APS Affiliate Journalists, Authors, and Poets on Stamps (JAPOS) as an Article of Distinction for 2024; the article's author, Jeff Dugdale, passed away in 2021, but was such a prolific contributor that the JAPOS Bulletin could continue to publish his work through 2024. This posthumous award for his final article recognizes his excellent contributions to philately.

To learn more about JAPOS, visit their website.To read other Articles of Distinction, click here.

You are probably aware of the immense success Edinburgh-based writer Alexander McCall Smith has enjoyed with his various books, the most popular of which is arguably The No 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series set in Botswana. But what you may not know is that since 1998, he has published seventeen titles and the narrative is ongoing.

These charming and gently amusing books follow the life and investigations of the proprietor of the agency, Mma Precious Ramotswe’s (eventual) husband, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni, owner of the Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors in Gaborone, the capital of Botswana.

Precious Ramotswe is – to use the essential euphemism – a “traditionally built” Motswana lady, played in the TV serialization of some of the early stories by Jill Scott, as shown in this 2008 stamp celebrating the movie premiere of the first feature-length episode, directed by Anthony Minghella.

Mma Ramotswe is originally from Mochudi (a small town some 20 miles NE of Gaborone) and thinks often about two influential men in her life, her father Obed, whose passion in life was farming his cattle (1976) and Sir Seretse Khama (1975), the first President of independent Botswana, to whom she often attributes words of good sense, some of which Mma Makutsi suspects she has invented herself.

Grace Makutsi is Mma Ramotswe’s “right hand lady.” Originally from Bobonong in Central Botswana, she is employed as a secretary but quickly promoted to Assistant Detective. So efficient was Mma Makutsi that she famously received 97% in her final exams at The Botswana Secretarial College, an often-referenced and satirized statistic in the stories (1986 issue shows Halley’s Comet over Bobonong).

Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni – “the best mechanic in Botswana” – runs the garage, employing two rather indolent young apprentices. Outside, providing shelter from the sun, there is a large acacia tree under which Mma Ramotswe parks her ageing and ailing small white van. Umbrageous Acacia trees appear in many locations in the stories (1990 stamp shows detail and a photo of a typical tree).

Some detail within the many stories can be illustrated with the stamps of Botswana as shown below.

In one of the cases in The Tears of the Giraffe (published in 2000), Mma Ramotswe discovers the circumstances surrounding the death on the edge of the Kalahari Desert, ten years earlier, of young American Michael Curtain. The Kalahari Desert is largely in Botswanan territory and this 1975 issue shows the borders when it was known by its colonial name. Botswana became independent in September 1966: the 2006 issue shows the modern road network and names important places.

In Chapter 20, the lady detective passes through Francistown on her way to Bulawayo (in Zimbabwe) to meet the young man’s girlfriend, as she knows how he came to lose his life and she observes a train as she sits on the veranda of a local hotel. These 1997 stamps are part of a Francistown centenary issue.

By the end of the story, we haven’t encountered a giraffe (1987) as such, but Mma Ramotswe gifts the young man’s mother a traditional Botswanan basket (2001) with a curious woven design.

“These little marks here are tears,” she said. “the giraffe gives its tears to the women and they weave them into baskets.

“A giraffe has nothing else to give – only tears.”

In Morality for Beautiful Girls (2001), one of the cases Mma Makutsi investigates, whilst Mma Ramotswe is working on another, concerns Mr. Pulani, who organizes beauty pageants in Gaborone and who is concerned about the worth of four contestants in the forthcoming Miss Beauty & Integrity competition (This 1999 stamp depicting Motswana woman Mpule Kwelagobe as Miss Universe refers indirectly).

The potentially lethal bite of a Mamba snake (shown on this 2002) stamp forms part of the backstory of Mma Ramotswe’s client, The Government Man, in this novel.

In solving her own case, she discovers the reason why an unhappy cook is behaving badly: all he’d ever wanted to do was look after the cattle on the family farm where he was employed (1981 issue refers).

The local orphan farm run by Mma Potokwami, a good friend of Mma Ramotswe, features in most of the novels at some point. In this title, Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni begins to connect with a mute and withdrawn child who has possibly been nurtured by a lioness after being abandoned in the bush (Lions of the Chobe 2014 issue). The fictional orphan farm itself may well have been inspired by the real Children’s Village charity in Tlokweng referenced on a 1996 stamp.

In The Kalahari Typing School for Men (2002), a prosperous man, Mr. Molefelo, one of whose interests is in ostrich farming (1982), seeks help from the Agency in atoning for an act of dishonesty perpetrated many years before.

In Chapter 3, unhappy and frustrated young Puso, one of a pair of orphan children fostered by Mma Ramotswe and Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni kills a beautiful hoopoe bird (1967 definitive) with a catapult, hides in the garden, and has to face the consequences:

“Puso!” shouted Mma Ramotswe. “You are there! Come out!”

“I am not here.” The boy’s voice was very clear. “I am not.”

In another plot line in this novel, Mma Makutsi opens a typing school exclusively for men and finds an admirer. This 1996 issue referencing local charities refers indirectly.

In one of the plot lines in Blue Shoes and Happiness (2006), Mr. Polopetsi, taken on by the garage and detective agency as a general factotum, discovers superstition rife at Mokoldi Nature Reserve and finally deduces that this is due to the foreboding presence of an injured Ground Hornbill, which has slightly different markings to the bird shown in this 1967 definitive. He removes the bird, planning to release it in the wild, but his good intentions are thwarted by carelessness.

Towards the end of the novel, Mma Ramotswe becomes increasingly worried about her “traditional shape,” which is much admired by many older Batswana, but struggles to maintain a self-denying diet. A Motswana woman of such stature is shown in this 1971 Important Crops set.

In Chapter 15 of The Good Husband of Zebra Drive (2007), Mma Ramotswe plans to meet Mma Potokwami and some of the children from the orphan farm for a rural picnic, and arriving early at the rendezvous has time to admire some of Botswana’s native fauna roaming the countryside.

And there were many animals here; she spotted a large kudu bull standing under an acacia tree, its horns spiraling up a good four feet. She saw a duiker, too, and a family of warthogs scuttling off into the inadequate cover of the sparse thorn bush. There were dassies, rock hyrax…. Running frantically for the shelter of their familiar rocks…

Kudu bull (2002)

Duiker (1987)

Warthog (1992)

Rock dassie (1987)

Mma Ramotswe looked at the water. It was easy for a crocodile to conceal itself close to the edge… Further out on the Limpopo a kingfisher hovered and then plummeted, stone-like, into the water: a splash of white spray and then up again to a vantage point in the air.

Crocodile (far right on sheet, 2000)

Kingfisher (1967)

In Chapter 2 of The Miracle at Speedy Motors (2008), Cape doves can be heard cooing in the ubiquitous acacia trees near the garage (2005 stamp refers).

Later in Chapter 7, there is one of many references in the novels to the cultivation of sorgum (1971 Important Crops).

For Mma Makutsi’s people good rains meant fat cattle and sleek goats, not to mention good yields of sorghum for the making of flour.

And in Chapter 10, there is evidence of a puff adder (2002) having sloughed off its old skin.

“It is a puff adder,” said Dr. Mwata. “Look at this bit here – you can tell from that. See?”

Mr. J.L.B. Matekani shuddered. “I am glad he is no longer in his skin.”

Other aspects of life in Botswana which make regular appearances in the novels include the University of Botswana, whose campus is on the Tlokweng side of Gaborone: 1967 and 1974 showing the campus.

There are many visits to country villages by Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi where the style of life is largely unchanged and traditional houses have not been replaced by modern prefabrication, as shown on many issues such as 1968 and 1982.

And in her philosophical moments, Mma Ramotswe greatly appreciates the beauty of the clear skies above her native land, in particular being thrilled by seeing the Southern Cross (1973 and 2009) and stunning sunsets (2001).

You can find images of all of these stamps and many more in full color at https://bechuanalandphilately.com/Botswana_Commemoratives_1966_1992.htm, https://bechuanalandphilately.com/Botswana_Commemoratives_1993_2017.htm, and https://www.bechuanalandphilately.com/Botswana_Definitives.htm