In continuing our series on groundbreaking authors of African descent on The Bagus NG, today’s spotlight is on Botswana’s Unity Dow.
Unity Dow born in 1959 is a judge, human rights activist, and writer from Botswana. She came from a rural background that tended toward traditional values of the African kind. Her mother could not read English, and in most cases decision-making was done by men. She went on to become a lawyer, with much of her education completed in the West. Her Western education caused a mixture of respect and suspicion.
In her new book, The Heaven May Fall, the legal thriller offers an insider’s perspective on the triumphs and failures of the law. After taking up the case of an assaulted teenager, an up-and-coming lawyer must face manipulative opponents and an unreliable judge to fight for what she believes is right. An uncompromising expose on the ways in which the law can sometimes fail, this novel acts as a homage to the sights and sounds of everyday life in Botswana.
Credit: Fantastic Fiction