President Masire�s final message to Botswana

I know this because he hired me in March to help write his final memoirs. During April and May I spent many hours with Rra Gaone on the couch in his residence, at which time I honestly (and mistakenly) felt that the fears about his ill-health were overblown.

Rre Masire’s deeply-held beliefs in his final years are unlikely to be universally popular, and publishing them now during the week of his state burial may appear to violate the protocol of the occasion. But Rra Gaone, a master of protocol himself, did not care whether his message would anger weak-kneed souls. He told me he was going to be “very open”, as he hoped to spark a new conversation about matters that he felt could no longer be ignored.