PvR, Trevor Bottomley and the Early Daysa

Sandy Grant | Wednesday June 7, 2017 18:10

Standard Bank at that time was, like Barclays, a very modest affair being limited to a pre-fab building near the railway station where the two sat side by side. Luisa (Travaglini), however, who sent me this photo provided the background to it implicitly explaining that those who picked up contracts to help build the new capital did not live in the sort of luxury that is today enjoyed by their counterparts.

‘The Costain’s Camp had 18 rondavels where the subcontractors slept and a house made of 400 blocks (not cemented together) where Alberto and Alvaro slept. The roof was of corrugated iron held down by more bricks.’

 I must say that I worry about what seems to be the very limited archival record -  both written and photographic - of Gaborone in the pre-diamond years. The 50th anniversary was the ideal opportunity to pull these threads together, but no one was interested and the chance was blown.

Remarkably, there was not even a photographic exhibition of those first years. There really does need to be greater awareness that the record of the past is rapidly slipping out of our reach. Within a matter of days, two major stalwarts of those early years have passed away, first Patrick van Rensburg and now Trevor Bottomley.

It is a sobering thought that only a relatively few people knew Patrick in his heyday in Serowe. Even fewer will remember Trevor Bottomley not least because he left the country a year after Independence, in 1967. Proper tribute has recently been paid to Pat in the local press, but we are only likely to get a more rounded understanding of his personality, vision and accomplishments when the detail of the Government’s changing attitude to him over the years, its fears, its assumptions are better known.

At the moment, we lack the complete picture so that we can better place him in context. Hopefully, Pat’s biographer Kevin Shillington will provide us with a multi-dimensional portrait doubtless, making much use of the archival material available about him.

Trevor Bottomley who died in England last week aged 97, was the country’s first Registrar of Cooperatives being appointed by Fawcus in 1964 and leaving Botswana the year after Independence in 1967. So many of Trevor’s contemporaries are now gone, Naomi Mitchison, Kgosi Linchwe, Brian Egner, Phil Steenkamp, Hugo Going  and of course, Fawcus himself.

Within a very short time, Trevor had made an enormous impact on this country with new co-ops both in Gaborone and outside in places such as Mochudi and Thamaga. Fortunately, he recorded his experiences here in his self-published autobiography Happy Highways.

Of the books, 243 pages, 43 or six chapters were devoted to this country. For those researching the history of co-operatives in this country, this book is a must. It is listed by Amazon which however has no copies available. If I possess the one and only copy, I suggest that arrangements need to be quickly made to have it photocopied.