BOTSWANA: Academic leader, historian, diplomat dies

Obituary: Thomas Tlou - 1 June 1932 to 28 June 2010
Botswana's Professor Thomas Tlou - historian, academic, vice-chancellor and diplomat - died on 28 June 2010 after a long illness. He will be remembered for positive attributes including humour and an ability to turn words around so that new insights were gained. He was a consummate negotiator, a modest man who accomplished a great deal, a democrat, a man of integrity who stood up for the rights of others, a researcher and an author.

Tributes to Tlou attest to his ability to bring out the best in others - his students and fellow academics - and to his love of history, the history of Botswana and of Africa.

His last major project, with other historians from the region, was to document the Southern African liberation struggle. He is remembered as a 'charmer' by his Motswala (cousin), Michael Dingake, who served 15 years on Robben Island in South Africa for his part in the struggle.

Tom Tlou was born on 1 June 1932 at Gwanda, then Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. The Babirwa were in South Africa, Bechuanaland (now Botswana) and Southern Rhodesia. They speak Sebirwa (close to Sepedi or Northern Sotho).

His involvement in tertiary education in Botswana spanned nearly 40 years. After earning his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in Madison in 1971, he joined the University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland at Roma, Lesotho. There he became head of department and dean of humanities in 1973.

In 1975 he moved to Gaborone to help establish a new University College and set up the department of history. The department was to be grounded in African studies and centred on Botswana's history. He also set out to recruit staff who could teach East and West Africa's history. Tlou's vision was that students should be researchers and he established undergraduate research theses.

According to Professor Fred Morton, who arrived in 1976 to teach East African history, when he asked what he could do for him, Tlou replied: "Freddy, you can lick my boots". Morton gave this as an example of how he "used humour to draw people together".

Tlou was chosen to represent Botswana as its envoy to the United Nations, serving in New York from 1977 to 1980.

He returned to Gaborone to become Deputy Vice-chancellor under Professor John Turner (of Manchester) in 1982, when the university became autonomous, and became the first Motswana vice-chancellor of the University of Botswana in 1984. He served in this position for 14 years, until 1998.

One of his legacies is the development of the university from a small campus with 1,000 students to over 10,000 students, and a shift from undergraduate certificates, diplomas and degrees to include masters and doctorates, through the establishment of a School of Graduate Studies.

Another legacy, following the traditions of the kgotla (public meeting), is decision-making by consensus, with senate and other university committees rarely taking a vote on an issue.

Current vice-chancellor of the University of Botswana Professor B Otlhogile, in his tribute to Tlou, called attention to his role in getting the University of Cape Town in South Africa admitted into the Association of African Universities. A student honoured him as the "teacher of his teachers".

Two of Tlou's books stand out: History of Botswana written with Alec Campbell in 1984 with a second edition in 1997, and his A History of Ngamiland - 1750 to 1906: The Formation of an African State (1985) based on his doctoral dissertation.

After his retirement in 2006 Tlou continued pursuing the development of education. He was professor emeritus in history and could often be seen at the campus in Gaborone.

He was chair of a series of significant bodies at his death, including the Botswana Institute of Development Policy Analysis (starting in 2000), the National Education Council (starting in 2001) and the Tertiary Education Council (starting in 2002). He also served as a member of the councils of the University of Namibia and of the Lutheran World Federation.

Tlou is survived by his wife, Professor Sheila Tlou, former Minister of Health, and their children.

* Sheldon G Weeks is Foundation Director at the Centre for Graduate Studies in Education and Foundation Dean of Graduate Studies at the University of Botswana.