Magical Mystery

Two fictional characters fared spectacularly well amid the uncertainty that followed 9/11. One was Harry Potter, whose adventures at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in Scotland provided an exhilarating escape for millions of children, and not a few parents. The other was Precious Ramotswe, whose everyday adventures as boss of the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency in Botswana provided a reassuring escape for millions of adults, and not a few children. Sales of both novel series soared into the tens of millions, making Edinburgh, where J.K. Rowling and Alexander McCall Smith both write, a cradle of superstar authors.

But the parallels, it seemed, ended there: Harry Potter became a multi-billion-dollar movie franchise, while Precious Ramotswe is only now finding her way to the more modest medium of television. Yet, whether in books or on screen, she's not to be underestimated. In the U.K., the bbc will air a two-hour film version of the novel this month, along with a 13-part follow-on series, both of which will also be shown on HBO in the U.S. The high-wattage team behind the production is betting that Precious can help to recast the world's view of Africa.

The problem in bringing Precious to film was certainly not a lack of A-list interest. Director Anthony Minghella (The English Patient, Cold Mountain) and producer Sydney Pollack, both Oscar winners, optioned The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency in January 2001. Minghella co-wrote the screenplay with Oscar nominee Richard Curtis (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill). And Hollywood heavy hitter Harvey Weinstein signed on as the distributor.

But the project was clearly a challenge. For one thing, Minghella would have to confront the question that dogs any filmmaker on the continent: What is the real Africa? Is it the sunsets and savannahs of Out of Africa (which won Pollack his director's Oscar)? Is it the chaos and savagery of Hotel Rwanda, Last King of Scotland and Blood Diamond? Or is it the white man's shame of Cry Freedom and The Constant Gardener? Minghella knew that No. 1 Ladies' demanded a fresh approach.

McCall Smith, a polymathic professor of medical law at Edinburgh University with more than 60 books to his name, originally wrote his African stories in his spare time as Christmas gifts for friends. Born in Zimbabwe, he portrays Africa not as a cauldron of war, disease and children with flies in their eyes, but as a proud, tranquil and hopeful place, where people lead full, ordinary lives and savor redbush tea amid rising prosperity. Often they manage all this without ever meeting a white man. "The books don't ask, 'What's wrong with Africa? What can we fix?'" says Minghella. "They're about what we can learn from Africa, not what we can teach it."

At the center of this other Africa is Precious, "traditionally built," beautiful, independent and wise — the incarnation of a self-assured continent. But Minghella couldn't find her. "Over eight months, I went three times around a lap of England, the U.S. and Africa looking for an actor to play Precious," he says. "We workshopped it with eight or nine people, some very big stars. I basically gave up." Finally, while trawling YouTube two months before shooting was due to start, Minghella came across a poetry performance by Grammy Award–winning R&B singer Jill Scott, and "saw something in her."

Precious Hope
In the real Botswana, Minghella already had a good approximation of McCall Smith's red-dust Eden. This country of 1.8 million is one of Africa's success stories. Since independence in 1966, it has maintained a robust growth rate, and per-capita gdp reached a comparatively healthy $11,000 in 2006. Botswana's diamond wealth has fomented no coups or conflict, and the last assassination was in the 1960s when a tribal chief's brother shot his older sibling. Population growth is under control, and the country's schools, and its green tourism in the Okavango Delta, are the envy of the continent. While Botswana has one of the world's highest HIV/AIDS rates — an estimated 25% of adults between 15 and 49 are infected — it also has an unusually progressive program to deal with the disease. The contrast with neighboring Zimbabwe could not be more stark, as hundreds of thousands of refugees can attest.

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