18 Mar 2021

Veteran photographer and historian Mr Sandy Grant has shared a personal photographic essay of Botswana covering the period between 1965 and 2016.

Grant in his early 80s, full of life and bubbly, said in an interview that the book titled Botswana: Photographs of a Country in Transition, People and their Places 1965-2016, was an ‘unusual’ collection of photographs over such a long period.

“It’s partly luck, you know to get these photos it depends on what you do. You got to look at where I have been.

I’ve spent a long time in Mochudi, where I was involved with the community and I took photos because I was interested and of course I kept them.

A lot of people do not have that opportunity,” he said.

Mr Grant captured many moments of the late Kgosi Linchwe between 1963 until his death in 2007.

According to him, their relationship was a close personal bond.

“He gave me encouragement to take whatever photos I wanted in and around Mochudi,” he added.

He points to a 1968 photo he took at the Kanye kgotla, which remains one of his fond moments behind the lens.

Mr Grant had visited a friend in Kanye, who was a teacher then and according to him he was lucky to have been there when the meeting was convened.

He explains that the photos that he had finally shared were a valuable record of what was going on at the time and that a way of life had gone today.

“A way of life has gone in so many respects, cultures have changed, but the question is did I take photos knowing that life was changing? Somehow yes,” he asked rhetorically, and answers.

Mr Grant said when diamonds were discovered he knew life was changing.

“I asked for the President’s office for permission to photograph and record.

I thought of a project then, but it didn’t work out due to lack of funding, it didn’t quite happen.

But you would have an idea know that I recorded change, change was inevitable,” he said.

He took out a letter written in 1974 by the then Permanent Secretary to the President, Mr Archibald Mogwe, which was a response to his request granting him permission to go ahead.

The idea of collecting and publishing the people of Botswana and their way of life was finally borne last year when he published his photographic essay.

The pictures were taken during the years of transition, Botswana then only known to the rest of the world as remote and poor.

That was when MrGrant was able to pick his lens and direct it to ordinary Batswana doing ordinary things and capture the historic moments.

Mr Grant emphasises in his preface that the book was compiled from the photos he took over a period of 50 years.

They start in Mochudi, the tribal capital of Bakgatla, followed by its surrounding villages, which account for the largest part of the book.

The next section covers the six other tribal capitals and other villages throughout the country.

There is also a section devoted to the four urban centres of Gaborone, Francistown, Lobatse and Selebi Phikwe.

According to Botswana’s third President, Dr Festus Mogae, who wrote the foreword, the photographic story was a visual lesson for all to look back and see what a different country Botswana was.

Dr Mogae said Mr Grant managed to capture the essence of a society that moved at a pace which enabled it to easily blend.

Mr Grant does not do much photography now, save for some priceless moments with his family in Oodi.

He spends much time at home, a home he describes as very beautiful.

He arrived in Mochudi, in the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland late 1963 just three years before independence.

His mission was to set up a combined community and refuge transit centre.

In 1968 he left Mochudi to establish a development office for the Botswana Christian Council in Gaborone, but retained his involvement in Mochudi.

That was the launching pad of his photography journey.

In 1974 when his job was nearing an end, Mr Grant applied to the Office of the President to take photographs and record changes in major traditional towns, which he had taken a keen interest in.

His idea, however, did not take off due to lack of financial support.

He returned to Mochudi in 1975 and established a community museum.

In 1987 he moved to Oodi and continued work in Mochudi, an involvement that came to an end in 2007.

Botswana: Photographs of a Country in Transition, People and their Places 1965-2016 is available at Exclusive Books in Gaborone.  Ends