Nigerians force McCall-Smith to change Mma Ramotswe's attitude

McCall-Smith, speaking at a book signing ceremony hosted by the US Embassy, said he had to change Mma Ramotswe's attitude towards the West Africans so that when she speaks about them in the following works she does so with affection. When asked if he modelled the famous character around someone he knew in Botswana in particular, McCall-Smith said the name Precious was taken from a young child in Swaziland.

 
He said he visited that country, and a woman he met had a child. He held the child in his hands and when he asked what the child's name was, he was told, "Precious". McCall-Smith said Mma-Ramotswe was a deliberate corruption of Ramotswa, a village situated just outside Gaborone.  He recalled however that his book character was inspired by an incident in Mochudi some years back, when his host, a woman in a red dress, welcomed him in a traditional way by offering him a hen.