I was online this evening and decided to see what my old friend Logong Raditlhokwa was up to these days. Sadly, I learned that he had passed away in late January of diabetes in his native Botswana. He was only 50.

Logong was my housemate for nearly a year while I was an undergraduate at Carleton University in the early 1990’s. He also attended Carleton where he was pursuing his MSW. 

Logong was one of the most engaging people I’ve ever met. We spent many an evening around the kitchen table discussing politics sometimes one on one and at other times with other housemates. He had a way of making people take an interest in what he was saying even if the subject was far removed from your experience. 

So it came as little surprise that Logong would become a successful lecturer at the University of Botswana and a prominent political commentator in his country. Needless to say, his countrymen have taken his death very hard. Me too.

I meant to get in touch with him. I’m not sure why I didn’t do so, but I never got around to it. All I know is that now it is too late. It would have been great to have had another conversation even if the chat was online. There is a lesson to be learned here.