Ketumile Masire, former Botswana president, dies, 91

Ketumile Masire, a cattle herder turned statesman who, as president of Botswana from 1980 to 1998, helped solidify his country's standing as one of the most richly thriving nations in Africa, died June 22 at a hospital in the capital city of Gaborone. He was 91.

His death, announced in a statement by his family, was reported by the Associated Press. The cause was not disclosed.

Masire was widely heralded as a model leader in a model nation on a continent where poverty, corruption and violence had crushed many hopes for stability and prosperity.

"We have seen the promise of a new Africa whose roots are deep here in your soil, for you have been an inspiration to all who cherish freedom," U.S. President Bill Clinton declared to Masire during a visit to Gaborone in 1998.

Clinton noted that in 1966 when Botswana — then known as Bechuanaland — obtained independence from Britain, it had two miles of paved roads and a single public high school. Its chief export was beef. The discovery of diamond reserves transformed the country's prospects, and under Masire and his predecessor, Seretse Khama, the nation used its revenue to build roads and schools, to improve health care and expand access to clean water, to advance farming techniques and to extend life spans.

Khama, who had been the first president of independent Botswana, was featured in last year's film "A United Kingdom," starring David Oyelowo, with Rosamund Pike portraying the white Englishwoman Khama married in defiance of British authorities.

Masire — a self-described "farmer who has been drawn into politics" — was credited with leading his landlocked nation through a drought that dragged on for much of the 1980s. In 1989, he shared the Africa Prize for Leadership, valued $100,000, from the charitable organization the Hunger Project in recognition of the food distribution efforts that helped the country avoid starvation during the crisis.

He navigated a delicate relationship with South Africa, Botswana's neighbor to the south. While South Africa was Botswana's major economic partner, Botswana opposed the apartheid system of racial segregation under which South Africans were ruled for decades before its dismantlement in the early 1990s.

"He had to walk a line [in] a really rough neighborhood," said Chester Crocker, a Georgetown University professor and former assistant secretary of state for African affairs.