"It was a good thing to be an African. There were terrible things that happened in Africa, things that brought shame and despair when one thought about...

A traditional house smelled of wood smoke, the earth, and of thatch; all good smells, the smell of life itself.
~ Alexander McCall Smith ~












A traditional house smelled of wood smoke, the earth, and of thatch; all good smells, the smell of l...
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More Alexander McCall Smith quotes
"The ordinary people of Africa tended not to have room in their hearts for hatred. They were sometimes foolish, like people anywhere, but they did not ...
"Africa was full of people in need of help and there had to be a limit. You simply could not help everybody; but you could at least help those who came...
"Africa had a way of coming back and simply covering everything up again.
"Then there was Mr Mandela. Everybody knew about Mr Mandela and how he had forgiven those who had imprisoned him. They had taken away years and years o...
"Everything, all those great things, had happened so far away--or so it seemed to [Mma Ramotswe] at the time. The world was made to sound as if it belo...
"They sang that song which distills all the suffering and the hope of Africa; that song which had inspired and comforted so many, “Nkosi Sikeleli Afrik...
"It was hard to disappear completely in Botswana, where there were fewer than two million people and where people had a healthy curiosity as to who was...
"She believed in getting as much use as possible from everything, and thought that as long as machinery, or anything else, could be cajoled into operat...
"I said to him that Zululand sounded fine, but that every man has a map in his heart of his own country and that the heart will never allow you to forg...
"There are many sadnesses in the hearts of men who are far away from their countries.
"The only thing that makes me sad is that I shall be leaving Africa when I die. I love Africa, which is my mother and my father. When I am dead, I shal...
"There was a great deal of progress being made, right under their noses, particularly in Africa, and this progress was good. Life was much harder for t...