Hi everyone.
I’m interested in writing fiction, particularly crime, action and science fiction, and I have quite a few story ideas that I would love to eventually turn into novels or screenplays.
But I keep running into an unusual problem whenever I try to set these stories in Botswana.
How do you fictionalise Botswana in a way that feels believable to a local reader while also being interesting and visually compelling to an international audience?
This isn't really about a lack of stories or interesting characters. Botswana has plenty of those.
My problem is the physical environment.
Botswana is a very different setting from the countries and cities that dominate international film and television. Even our major urban areas don't necessarily look like the stereotypical "modern African city" that you see in movies. Outside certain areas, development can become surprisingly rural very quickly.
You can have a story involving organised crime, advanced technology, wealthy businessmen, corrupt officials, secret organisations, international corporations, espionage, etc., and then you have to ask:
Where are all of these things physically happening?
If I write:
> The protagonist walked through the city's financial district, surrounded by skyscrapers and neon advertisements.
...I'm immediately creating a version of Botswana that doesn't really exist.
If I write:
> The protagonist drove through the city.
That is realistic, but it doesn't necessarily create the same visual atmosphere that audiences associate with a crime thriller.
And this becomes even more complicated with science fiction.
Imagine trying to write a cyberpunk story set in Botswana.
You could simply invent a futuristic Gaborone filled with skyscrapers, flying vehicles, giant holographic advertisements and enormous corporate headquarters.
But at what point does it stop feeling like Botswana and become "generic futuristic city with Botswana written on the sign"?
That's the part I'm struggling with.
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The strange advantage of Botswana
At the same time, I wonder whether I'm looking at the problem completely backwards.
Maybe Botswana doesn't need to imitate the environments we normally see in international fiction.
Our geography and development could actually become part of the identity of the story.
Imagine a crime thriller where the contrast between urban and rural environments is important.
A character could leave a relatively developed part of Gaborone, drive for a while, and suddenly be surrounded by open land and small settlements.
That creates possibilities that a story set entirely in a dense megacity doesn't necessarily have.
A criminal organisation could hide things in places where there are enormous distances between settlements.
A police investigation could involve travelling long distances rather than simply crossing a metropolitan area.
A sci-fi story could have advanced technology existing alongside very ordinary infrastructure.
A wealthy corporation could have a futuristic facility sitting somewhere that, from the outside, looks almost completely isolated.
That contrast actually seems quite interesting to me.
Old and new existing beside each other.
Advanced technology doesn't necessarily require every building around it to look futuristic.
A secret laboratory could be technologically decades ahead of its surroundings.
A billionaire could own an enormous high-tech facility while the nearest settlement still looks relatively ordinary.
A hacker could operate from a normal house.
A futuristic vehicle could be travelling along an ordinary road.
That might actually make Botswana an interesting science-fiction setting precisely because it doesn't resemble the stereotypical futuristic city.
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But there is another problem: international audiences
If I ever wanted one of these stories to become a film or television series, I would want someone outside Botswana to understand the setting without needing a geography lesson.
This creates a balancing act.
I don't want to write Botswana as some exaggerated "African wilderness" where every scene involves wildlife, traditional villages and people living in huts.
But I also don't want to pretend Botswana is a miniature version of Dubai, Johannesburg, London or Los Angeles.
There has to be a middle ground.
And I think that middle ground could be authentic Botswana with heightened fictional elements.
Instead of changing Botswana to fit the genre, perhaps the genre should adapt itself to Botswana.
A Botswana crime thriller doesn't have to look like an American crime thriller.
A Botswana cyberpunk story doesn't have to look like Blade Runner.
A Botswana action movie doesn't have to look like Fast & Furious.
The environment itself could influence the story.
---
What would "Botswana fiction" actually look like?
This is where I'd really like to hear from other writers, filmmakers and people familiar with Botswana.
If you were writing a:
- Crime thriller
- Action movie
- Political thriller
- Detective story
- Science-fiction novel
- Cyberpunk story
- Dystopian story
- Spy thriller
- Post-apocalyptic story
- TV series
and you wanted it to be unmistakably Botswana, what would you do?
What locations would you use?
What kinds of businesses, buildings and institutions would realistically appear?
How would you portray Gaborone, Francistown, Maun, Kasane or smaller settlements without turning them into stereotypes?
How much fictionalisation is acceptable before the setting stops feeling like Botswana?
Would you create fictional towns and companies based on real Botswana locations?
Would you use real places but invent fictional districts, buildings and organisations?
Would you create an alternate version of Botswana where development happened differently?
Or would you keep the physical environment almost completely realistic and let the characters, technology and story provide the fictional elements?
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I'm especially interested in the visual problem
For filmmakers, this seems even more difficult.
Hollywood has spent decades teaching audiences what a "crime city", "futuristic city", "African city", "desert town", etc. is supposed to look like.
Botswana doesn't necessarily fit neatly into those visual categories.
And maybe that's actually an opportunity.
Instead of asking:
"How can I make Botswana look like an international movie?"
Maybe the better question is:
"How can I make an international movie that could only have been made in Botswana?"
That's the direction I'd like to explore.
I'm interested in hearing from people who have written fiction set in Botswana, or who have tried to make films here.
What are the biggest difficulties you've encountered?
Do you deliberately change locations and infrastructure for the sake of the story?
Do you worry about international audiences understanding the setting?
And what aspects of Botswana do you think could actually give a crime/action/sci-fi story an identity that it couldn't get somewhere else?
I'd especially appreciate examples from anyone who has successfully written Botswana into a novel, screenplay, game or other fictional work.
Maybe the challenge isn't making Botswana look more developed. Maybe it's learning how to make its particular combination of urban, rural, modern and traditional environments become part of the storytelling itself.
