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"Botswana is emerging from a national shutdown."
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Unity DowUnity Dow
Unity Dow
Unity Dow is a Motswana lawyer, author, human rights activist and Member of Parliament for Kgatleng West since November 2024. She formerly served as a judge on the High Court of Botswana and in various Botswana government ministries. Born in the Bechuanaland Protectorate to a seamstress and a farmer, who insisted on their children obtaining an education, Dow grew up in a traditional rural village
"Botswana is emerging from a national shutdown."
"Reforming the African Union, will open great opportunities in areas of trade, employment and economic growth in Africa."
"I was born into a Botswana where there was no tarmac road, no telephone, where you had to hold water on your head and firewood as well. I think I saw my first refrigerator when I was a teenager."
"It wasn’t that simple. But in the end, I won. It not only changed the law on citizenship, so that men and women were equal in citizenship, it actually influenced other laws."
"On a personal level, that was hard. It wasnt just my case, my issue, but the focus was on me personally. At the time I was young and thought everything was possible but there was a real cost both financially and emotionally. I always say at the start I was driving a BMW and by the end of the case I was in a pick-up truck. I had to take my kids out of private school and put them in public school."
"It has turned out to be the most expensive and longest-running trial this country has ever dealt with. It has also attracted a lot of interest as well as a fair amount of bandwagon jumpers, both nationally and internationally, than perhaps any other case has ever done.The Bushmen belong to an ethnic group that has been historically looked down upon,, said the judge - the names for them common terms of insult in the same way as nigger and kaffir."
"The language of law is very masculine. The culture of law is so masculine. At one point, I started to think that it shouldnt be like this and that I have a right to be where I am."
"It got me thinking about the issue on a broader scale, How do you retain a cultural identity, which everyone says is a good thing, without being isolated."
"ultimately about a people demanding dignity and respect."