"At the end of each term, those who had done well would receive a prize for their efforts; an atlas perhaps, or a Setswana Bible, or some other book which would be useful at school. Although she was not a great reader, Mma Potokwane was a firm believer in the power of books. The more books Botswana had, in her view, the better. It would be on books that the future would be based; books and the people who knew how to use them."
~The Full Cupboard of Life, Alexander McCall Smith
Fiction aside, there's a real problem with orphans in Africa, because of diseases, famine, and other problems, which leave children without parents to raise them. Mma Potokwane thinks that if she were to write a book, it would be an instructional manual on how to run an orphan farm, with practical advice about management, fund-raising, and child psychology. She's not sure that she's up to the task of writing a book, but if she did, she'd express "the old Botswana morality" by writing something that would help others.
Interestingly, I had a reader from Gaborone, Botswana--the setting for The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency books--visit this blog a few days ago. This person was researching the importance of books!
The Botswana Book Project, established in 1998 by Pam Shelton, is helping to build libraries in beautiful Botswana.