Unity Dows third novel, Juggling Truths portrays the childhood of Monei Ntuka in the Botswanan village of Mochudi in Africa. Go to the past with me, so you can take the past to the future, asks her Nkoko. Nei takes us on an extraordinary journey through the many truths that shape her life; the truths of the colonisers and their churches and of her own people. We travel with her through dreams and share the wisdom of her grandmother as she lets the never-ending stories weave their own reality in face of a universe of conflicting truths. Unity Dow recreates with telling insight and gentle humour a world where the truths of the missionaries and the witchdoctors jostle with those of the generations of women.
Unity Dow is the author of four novels - Far and Beyon', The Screaming of the Innocent, Juggling Truths and The Heavens May Fall. She was Botswanas first female High Court judge.
Unity has a long record as a human rights attorney. She was a founding member of International advocacy organisation Women's Rights Watch and she co-founded the Women and Law in Southern Africa Research Project. Judge Dow was the plaintiff in a ground breaking legal case in which Botswana's nationality law was overturned and that led to passage of legislation through which women were enabled to pass on their nationality to their children. Unity was one of three judges who decided the now internationally acclaimed Kgalagadi (San, Bushmaen or Basarwa) court decision. The case was about the Bushmens Right to return to their ancestral lands. Unity Dow has also written about the link between the Convention on the Rights of the Child and children's legal status in Botswana.
After holding several ministry positions in the Botswana government, since 2019 Unity Dow has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
She lives with her family in Lobatse, Botswana.
