Botswana is quintessential Africa—vast empty spaces, sparsely populated, often difficult of access, remote, and teeming with wildlife. Most of its 1.6 million inhabitants live on the eastern side and in the northeast with clusters of small towns and villages near the Chobe River and around the Okavango Delta.
With few mountains or hills, Botswana is a fairly uniform 3,281 feet (1,000 meters) above sea level. Located in the center of Southern Africa, it dominates the central plateau and, for the most part, is blanketed by varying depths of aeolian sand known as the Kalahari Desert, a remnant of an ancient desert now anchored by a mosaic of vegetation that varies from substantial woodlands through mixed thorn scrub to open grasslands. Fossil dune forms are still visible in parts of the country.
The Limpopo River and its tributaries drain the eastern side of the country, while the Chobe forms the northern boundary. (The word “river” is often used loosely in Africa, and most frequently refers to a sand-filled riverbed without the slightest evidence of water whatsoever. At this latitude, the Limpopo generally has water in it only in the rainy season). The Okavango is a river of considerable size, rising in the highlands of distant Angola, but in Botswana its waters fan out into an immense delta and evaporate or sink into the sand. With the exception of the border rivers and the Okavango there is no open standing water anywhere in the country: there are no lakes, no rivers, and no streams. Evaporation, which is around six feet (just under two meters) a year, exceeds rainfall in every month of the year.
Botswana straddles the Tropic of Capricorn. It has one rainy season a year that usually starts in November and can last through to March or sometimes April. For the rest of the year, generally speaking, no rain falls. While rainfall diminishes in quantity from northeast to southwest, variability works in the opposite direction. Typically, figures of around 23 to 26 inches (500–600 mm) with a variability of 25 to 30 percent would be recorded for the northeast while, in the southwest, they would more likely be 11 or 12 inches (150 mm) with a variability of 80 percent. In the center and south, temperatures can touch or dip below freezing for a few days in winter and in summer can, rarely, top 104° F (40°C). More usually they hover in the upper 90s (30s).
Commonly, the season for visitors is the winter period, with numbers rising from late March, peaking in July/August, and tailing off as temperatures start to rise at the end of September into the grueling months of October and November. This period is favored for its cool temperatures, its endless, blue-sky, cloudless days, and the fact that, with the grass dying off, game is much easier to see. This is a pity, for those who are prepared to risk the heat of summer and the problems of long grass may have the advantage of seeing wildly dramatic thunderstorms, the most stunning cloud formations, and Africa’s late afternoon, magical, storm-backed photographic light.
The great majority of the people in Botswana are of Bantu-speaking origin, dominated by Tswana pastoralists who, as one entity or another, have been drifting on to the edges of the Kalahari from the east since the fifth century. As pastoralists, Batswana are cattle owners first and subsistence agriculturists second, a situation reinforced by low or unreliable rainfall. The past was characterized by large traditional villages (of 30,000 or more) with lands allocated nearby and, more distantly, in the undeveloped bush, the “posts” at which people keep their cattle.
Bantu-speaking people were not, however, the first inhabitants: the incoming Bantu found so-called Bushmen, or San, already in occupation. As happened elsewhere in Africa, these autochthonous people either moved on, were absorbed, or entered into what has eventually become a subordinate relationship with the newcomers. The San were hunters and gatherers, uniquely adapted to the harsh living conditions of the Kalahari. Today they are in the grip of far-reaching cultural and social change and, as a previously marginalized people, the surviving 60 to 80,000 are struggling for recognition and for a fairer share of national resources.
This is a vexed but very topical issue. It is true that the government is encouraging Bushmen to leave the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR); and the CKGR was allocated in 1961 for the preservation of game and for Bushmen to follow their traditional way of life. The CKGR is a tough environment and its inhabitants would die without government-subsidized food and water—provided at huge cost. A large village outside the reserve has been built and services provided. The fundamental issue is not about game reserves or diamonds, as some think: it is about political leverage and the ability of a cultural minority (the Bushmen) to garner sufficient influence in any way they can (by a claim to the CKGR, for instance) to protect their own long-term cultural interests.
Although remains of mankind’s earliest ancestors have yet to be found in Botswana, the skull of an eight-year old child, 2.5 million years old, was found at Taung in South Africa, less than 110 miles (180 km) from the southern border. There is no doubt that Australopithecines also lived in Botswana.
Stone tools lie scattered, and buried, over all of Botswana, evidence of intermittent human occupation over an immense time-span. Pebble tools found in the Ngotwane riverbed may be more than a million years old. Certainly, well-formed hand axes found in Gaborone and throughout the country testify to the presence of Homo erectus perhaps 500,000 and more years ago.
Middle Stone Age points and scrapers indicate the presence of early Homo sapiens throughout Botswana from Lobatse to Maun, from Francistown to Bokspits, and many other places, dating from perhaps 200,000 or more years ago; while Late Stone Age microlithic tools point to ancestral Bushmen just as widely distributed during the last 4,500 years.
Stone Age peoples lived by foraging for food. They collected wild plants, birds’ eggs, tortoises, and insects, killed small animals like hares, hyrax, and porcupine, and hunted larger ones like antelope. By 600,000 years ago, and possibly from much earlier, they could communicate and use fire; and from about 200,000 years ago they may have mounted stone points in sticks for use as spears. From about 10,000 years ago they hunted with bows and arrows, made jewelry from ostrich eggshell and bone, and engraved and painted images of animals and designs on rock. These were ancestors of modern Bushmen, known in Botswana as Basarwa.
The first Black farming peoples spread west into southeast Botswana in the fifth century CE, bringing with them a sedentary lifestyle, domestic stock, possibly food crops, knowledge of metallurgy and pot-making, and long-distance trade. They lived in settled homesteads, and also collected wild foods and hunted. They must have come into contact with ancestral Bushmen, for the latter’s stone tools are found in farming settlements dating from about the sixth century.
Around 1000 CE, new farming peoples arrived from the east to settle much of eastern Botswana. They built more substantial settlements, sometimes on hilltops, grew crops, raised cattle, sheep, and goats, mined for minerals, worked iron and copper, made pottery, and traded for foreign goods like glass beads and seashells. These were the ancestors of the modern Bakhalagari, some of whose descendants still live in villages in the southeast and also over much of western Botswana.
It is not known when Batswana (the Tswana people) first entered this country, but dated pottery at places such as Modipe, near Gaborone, suggests they had arrived well before 1600 CE. On the other hand, oral history indicates that during the seventeenth century groups of Bakwena, who had been living along the Marico River in South Africa, began moving westward. With them came Bangwaketse and Bangwato, who broke away from them during the eighteenth century after arriving in the country.
When Batswana arrived in Botswana, they came as small but well-organized groups to settle in areas already occupied by Bakhalagari. At first, relations were amicable, but soon Batswana tried to dominate the Bakhalagari, who moved south and west to get away from them.
During the nineteenth century, Christian missionaries played an important role among Batswana, a group hitherto almost untouched by European culture and affairs. By 1810, they had visited as far north as Kanye, although the first mission station in Tswana country was established by the London Missionary Society (LMS) near Kuruman in South Africa.
Much has been written about the missionaries, some of it good and some bad. They came from Europe to spread the Gospel and “civilization” in darkest Africa and, conforming to their times, supported both colonialism and capitalism. Even so, they recognized the oneness of humanity, albeit in a paternalistic manner, believing the Gospel would prosper only if Tswana lifestyle changed, becoming based on good agricultural practices, hard work, and reduced “frivolity.”
They deplored polygamy, alcohol, ancestor-worship, and bride wealth (bogadi), acquiesced in the inferior status of women, and believed control of religious affairs had to remain in superior white hands. To establish a suitable framework for a Christian lifestyle they helped foreign traders to establish themselves commercially and spread a modern economy, creating new avenues of wealth for common people; introduced advanced medical practices, education, foreign crops, and eventually a postal service; acted as liaison between Batswana and the Cape government; helped in the termination of slavery; and advocated the curtailment of Boer expansion into Tswana lands.
Although the missionaries recognized the need to keep the Gospel and politics separate, Boer treatment of Batswana in the Transvaal eventually forced some of them to take a stand. From 1867 onward, the Reverend John Mackenzie begged Britain to occupy Tswana lands in order to prevent Boer encroachment, and the Reverend John Smith Moffat left missionary service to take a British government post and became involved in the establishment of what was to become Bechuanaland Protectorate and, eventually, Botswana.
Initial efforts to convert Batswana had little success, but the missionaries were accepted by the chiefs, or Dikgosi, for the skills they brought with them and the foreign trade they attracted, particularly in guns and ammunition. To say the missionaries prospered is untrue; by the end of the nineteenth century there were few converts and fewer than ten actual mission stations in Botswana. Their paternalistic attitude upset the new generation of missionary-trained African evangelists, eventually causing some to split away to establish their own churches. Yet the missionary impact on traditional Tswana lifestyle was tremendous. They failed to accept African culture and religion, believing these to be a severe impediment to Batswana’s entering the modern world, yet they recorded in great detail nineteenth-century Tswana life. Some of their records, kept in missionary archives, remain unpublished.
While male missionaries took the lead in all affairs, their wives played an active role teaching reading, writing, homecraft, and the Bible in Sunday schools, visiting Tswana families, and setting an example of friendship and caring for their fellows. Missionary wives probably did more to bring new members to their husbands’ congregations, and certainly their female converts became the most successful evangelists among the Batswana. While it was European missionaries who introduced Christianity, it was Tswana evangelists who had the greatest success with their people.
The earliest missionary societies to operate in Botswana, the LMS and the (Lutheran) Hermannsburgs, recognized the need to keep their activities separate and not to impinge on each other’s flocks. The LMS undertook pastoral work amongst western Batswana, while the Hermannsburgs established themselves in the east. In Botswana, they were followed by the Dutch Reformed Church, which established itself and built a hospital in Mochudi in the 1870s. Through the years of the Protectorate, they were to be followed by other Churches, such as the Seventh Day Adventists, the Roman Catholic Church, the United Free Church of Scotland, and the Anglican Church.
Until 1966 and Independence, and lacking British financial support, Botswana relied heavily for its education and health programs on missions and Churches. It was they who built and staffed the hospitals in Kanye, Ramotswa, Mochudi, Molepolole, Maun, and Mmadinare, and schools throughout the country. Although many Batswana remain animist, Christianity is the major religion, and tribal meetings (kgotla) open with a prayer.
During the nineteenth century, unrest in southeastern Africa and the Afrikaners, in a movement known as the “Great Trek” (see below), caused great disruption in Botswana: new groups, Bakololo and Amandebele, moved aggressively into the area, causing the resident Bakwena and Bangwaketse groups to break up and lose much of their property.
The Bakololo, coming from the borders of Lesotho, attacked the Bakwena and occupied their main village. At the same time the Amandebele, an offshoot of the Zulu, under Mzilikazi, settled first near Rustenburg and then near Zeerust in South Africa, close to present-day Botswana, raiding that country and demanding tribute of white cattle from the Bangwaketse. Many offshoots of Tswana groups then living in South Africa took shelter with the Bakwena and Bangwaketse.
In 1836, Afrikaners, descendants of the original Dutch colonists in the Cape, left that region in large numbers, crossed the Orange and Vaal Rivers into the hinterland of Africa, and settled in the lands where Mzilikazi had defeated Batswana. After attacking and driving the Amandebele north, the Afrikaners, known as “Boers” (Dutch, “farmers”), spread over the area, forcing some of the remaining Batswana groups to move westward into the territory of the Bakwena in modern Botswana.
As Batswana regrouped in the early 1840s and tried to reestablish themselves, they seized the property and lands of the earlier Bakhalagari inhabitants, forcing them to work and hunt for them, and they made serfs of the Bushmen, who became their domestic servants and cattle herders, a situation that was to continue until the end of the nineteenth century.
In 1852, Boer settlers living west of Pretoria, in a determined effort to subdue Batswana, attacked them at Dimawe, southwest of Gaborone. The immediate outcome of the battle was a draw, but Batswana followed up the attack, raiding eastward, burning Boer homesteads, and driving the Boers back to the Magalies Mountains, thus permanently preventing the occupation of their land.
The 1860s were to see the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley in the northern Cape and, in 1886, gold on the ridge south of Pretoria, an area that would first be called Johannesburg and now Gauteng (Setswana, “Place of Gold”). Mining and steady increases in arable farming in South Africa soon attracted Batswana laborers, already long accustomed to traveling over considerable distances to trade their ivory spoons and bangles, copper ornaments, and fur cloaks for sheep and cattle. Now, they offered their labor in the mines for cash wages and on the farms for livestock and grain. Thus, migrant labor in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries became an important part of Tswana life.
From about 1870, political dissatisfaction and a shortage of farming land within the South African Republic (the Boer state north of the Vaal River that eventually became the Transvaal) led some of its citizens to attempt the establishment of their own mini-republics in the area between modern Kuruman and the Molopo Rivers. They fomented trouble between different groups of Batswana and took advantage of this to seize land, eventually establishing the Republics of Goshen and Stellaland on tribal territory. Upset by these events and fearing further strife spreading into modern Botswana, the missionaries, led by John Mackenzie and John Smith Moffat, petitioned the British government to take action.
Bechuanaland, as it was originally called, came into formal existence in several stages. The first occurred early in 1884 when John Mackenzie declared a protectorate over an area south of the Molopo River (Botswana’s present southern border). This was not initially recognized by the British government, but in January of the following year the region proclaimed by Mackenzie did formally come into “the British sphere” and, at the same time, administrative jurisdiction was extended northward, for Whites only, to Latitude 22° South (which included about the lower third of modern Botswana). One of the effects of this was to cut in half the lands of the Ngwato people but, in truth, the declaration had little effect for, as Khama III, who would prove to be one of the truly great Tswana chiefs, pointed out, the northern boundary followed no natural line on the ground so no one knew where it was!
There was not then any intention by Britain to expand her colonial holdings through the Protectorate of Bechuanaland. Indeed, the High Commissioner noted: “Our obligations and interests in Bechuanaland are limited to securing suitable locations for our allies … and to keeping open the trade road to the interior of the country.” The identities of the “allies” were not stipulated. By Proclamation No. 1, on September 30, 1885, probably as a result of behind-the-scenes manipulation by Cecil John Rhodes on behalf of his British South Africa Company, the area south of the Molopo shed its protectorate status, and was declared British territory (and thus became a colony). It was named “British Bechuanaland.” The area north of the river up to Latitude 22°, formerly only “within the British sphere” was now declared a Protectorate.
For six years, no further changes took place but then, in May 1891, two more steps were taken in the establishment of modern Botswana. British Bechuanaland, the colony to the south of the Molopo, ceased to exist as it was incorporated into the Colony of the Cape of Good Hope.
The Protectorate, that is the portion north of the Molopo and up to Latitude 22°, was extended northward to the Chobe River but excluded the Tati Concession, an area around modern Francistown where gold had been found and over which an exclusive mining concession had been granted by Lobengula, Chief of the Matabele and Mzilikazi’s successor, then located at Gubulawayo in southern Zimbabwe (now Bulawayo).
The boundaries of the newly expanded Protectorate were also deliberately vague about the area known as the “Disputed Territory.” This was land between the Shashe and Motloutse Rivers that was claimed both by Lobengula and by Khama III. However, on September 27, 1892, both these areas were included in the Protectorate and, in 1899, the final boundary between Bechuanaland and the newly created Rhodesia was decided.
During those early years and right up to 1965, in fact, Bechuanaland was administered from outside its own borders: surely one of the only countries in the world to have an external capital. Initially, the administrative capital was at Vryburg, in the Cape Colony, but on the incorporation of British Bechuanaland into that colony, the capital moved to the town of Mafeking, 22 miles (35 km) south of the Protectorate’s borders. (Note; this town, too, has changed its name, and is now correctly known as Mafikeng, “Place of Rocks.”)
The modern capital city of Gaborone was built practically from scratch to house the new government that took over the country following Independence on September 30, 1966. At the time of Independence, Botswana was counted among the ten poorest nations on earth. No one then could have predicted the great treasure of diamonds that was to be discovered in the late 1960s and 1970s.
The last decades of the nineteenth century read today like chapters from a novel by Wilbur Smith. In and around Bechuanaland events were taking place that were to have important effects upon the country, in some ways subtle and in some direct. Among the key events are the discovery of diamonds in Kimberley in 1869, of gold around Francistown in 1867, and on the Witwatersrand in 1886; the death of Mzilikazi, King of the Amandebele, in Gubulawayo; the increasing number of hunters and traders who traveled more and more extensively in what was to become Rhodesia and who returned with reports of gold and great wealth there; the growing wealth, power, and imperial ambitions of Cecil John Rhodes; his Pioneer Column and occupation of Mashonaland in 1890; his abortive “Jameson Raid” against the South African Republic in 1896; the Mashona and Matabele uprisings against British rule of the same year; and, also in 1896, the viral disease rinderpest, which swept the subcontinent slaying untold numbers of wildlife, cattle, oxen, sheep, and goats; and the rapid construction of railways.
On a more regional scale the “Scramble for Africa” manifested itself in the southern continent when Germany occupied Angra Pequina (Luderitz in today’s Namibia) in 1884, and soon laid claim to what is known today as Namibia. This event alone changed, almost overnight, like the shaking of a kaleidoscope, the perceptions of both Boer and Briton and provided powerful leverage for those with grand visions of empire (whether for personal or national gain).
All of these events, one way or another, had important secondary effects for Botswana. Her minerals, suddenly, were in demand and there was a flood of prospectors, miners, and concession seekers into the Tati area. Tension over rights to the northeast of the country quickly acquired a more visible profile as both Lobengula and Khama laid claim to the so-called “Disputed Territory.” The stream of hunters and traders became a river and the eastern side of the country, the only practical route to the north for missionary, miner, colonist, and adventurer, a busy highway for people and goods moving in both directions. Rhodes’ machinations created mistrust with the local people and helped destabilize the region: the infamous “Rudd Concession” (a concession to the BSA Company, given by Lobengula, conceding mining rights in what was to become Rhodesia) was little more than a modern con trick. The maneuvering of Rhodes’ British South Africa Company and the activities of other concession seekers who were whittling away at Tswana tribal lands so concerned Khama III and two senior chiefs that in 1895 they journeyed to London to present their case to Queen Victoria. As a result, Botswana remained under the protection of the British Crown.
Over the border in Rhodesia, both the Mashona and the Amandabele reacted quickly, albeit unsuccessfully, against White occupation of their lands. Their rebellions did not stop the “Pioneer” occupation of Rhodesia, however, and served only to multiply the demands upon the ox-powered transport system. When rinderpest laid the oxen low, Cecil Rhodes’ railway from Mafeking to Salisbury took their place, and with the installation of the telegraph there was no stopping the twentieth century from riding roughshod into hitherto largely tribal territories. Change had arrived with a vengeance.
Under a benign British administration the Bechuanaland Protectorate moved slowly into the twentieth century, responding only in the 1960s to Harold Macmillan’s “Winds of Change” speech in Cape Town. There was no fight for independence: under the eventual leadership of Seretse (later Sir Seretse) Khama, it came in an orderly, nonviolent, and negotiated manner that delivered the country on to the world stage on September 30, 1966.
Botswana’s capital is the city of Gaborone, with a population of some 200,000 to 250,000 residents. The country, since Bechuanaland Protectorate days, had been administered from outside its borders, and with the coming of Independence in 1966 it was realized that there would have to be a capital inside the country. The small administrative post of “Gaberone’s” (a wrongly spelled reference to Chief Gaborone of the Batlokwa, near whose principal village it lay) was chosen, and in the nearby bush and in great haste the new capital arose: it was only just ready by September 1966. It has seen phenomenal growth.
Light Humor!
I witnessed the switching on of the first set of traffic lights in 1985 and remember well the large crowd gathered for the ceremony, their applause as the lights changed color, and their still louder applause and enthusiasm when a minor accident occurred within minutes of the formal opening.
Now the city has divided highways, railway flyovers, and many imposing, glass-fronted modern buildings, as well as forty to fifty traffic lights—or “robots,” as they are sometimes known in this part of the world.
The only other city is Francistown, 273 miles (440 km) to the north, with a much smaller population. Other major towns (following the railway up the eastern side of the country) include Lobatse, Mahalapye, Palapye, and Selebi-Phikwe. In the west is the remote ranching town of Ghanzi, and in the north the tourist centers of Maun, at the foot of the Okavango Delta, and Kasane/Kazungula, on the banks of the Chobe River.
The Republic of Botswana is a parliamentary democracy, and elections are held every five years. The Botswana Democratic Party, which, under the leadership of Sir Seretse Khama, won the 1966 elections, has remained in power ever since. There are a number of opposition parties but they are disunited and have not enjoyed great support from the electorate.
There are sixty-three seats in Parliament, of which fifty-seven are elected representatives; an additional four are specially elected members (appointed by the President who is, in turn, appointed by the governing party); and seats are reserved for the President and for the Speaker.
While founded on the so-called “Westminster model,” Botswana’s present system of government comes from a strong and ancient tradition based on democratic principles. To this day every village has what is called the kgotla, a central meeting place usually defined by a high, semicircular enclosure made of tree trunks and located in the shade of a large tree, near the Tribal Offices. Here the chief (kgosi) consults his people, here many decisions are made and, above all, it is the place where the people have their say—they are “consulted.” It is true that, until fairly recent times, women were not allowed to attend the kgotla, and it is also true that it is only superficially “democratic” since, while the people might have had their say, the kgosi will still go ahead and do what he thinks is best.
There has been a very small but steady decline in the government’s popularity in the years since independence but, at the time of writing, opposition parties hold only thirteen of the fifty-seven elected seats.
In recognition of the profoundly traditional nature of the country at the time of independence and of the then power and status held by tribal chiefs, a fifteen-member House of Chiefs was instituted, which continues to this day and serves the government in an advisory capacity.
At Independence in 1966 the new Republic of Botswana was said to be among the ten poorest nations in the world. In eighty-one years of “protection” the British government had sought to raise sufficient funds only to cover the cost of administering Bechuanaland and had invested very little more than was necessary for this purpose. As a result, in 1966 the economy was largely undeveloped. There were no government secondary schools and a total of only some 950 students attending mission secondary schools. Obviously, there was no university, and the handful of graduates had read for their degrees outside the country.
This situation led to a heavy dependence on expatriate expertise that, to a somewhat lesser extent, persists into modern times and manifests itself in occasional outbursts of resentment against foreign workers.
The economy today has its foundations firmly embedded in diamond wealth. There are four diamond mines owned by the government jointly with De Beers in a company known as Debswana. The country is one of the largest diamond producers in the world and the largest producer of gem-quality stones. Debswana is responsible for the running of all the mines and the sorting and marketing, and operates at the very highest levels of professional management: security is of world standard: there are no “blood diamonds” in Botswana.
The government, wisely, has been trying hard to develop the economy away from an unhealthy dependence on a single commodity. Mining is a big contributor to gross domestic product. Apart from diamonds, copper, nickel matte, and, of more recent date, gold, are equally important. Botswana has vast coal reserves, said to be the second biggest in Africa, that are as yet unexploited, and coal bed methane holds the promise of yet another basic energy product.
In pursuit of diversification a great deal of government money has been put into developing the tourist industry. Blessed not only with the peerless Okavango Delta but with huge herds of game also, tourism is an obvious development option. Much of the potential exists in Ngamiland District (the northwest of Botswana), but strenuous efforts are being made to exploit other parts of Botswana that, although different, have just as many, if not more, attractions.
Cattle ranching received a considerable boost after independence when a contract for 19,000 tons of deboned beef for delivery to the European Union was put in place. The country has never met the full quota but, in the early days, the arrangement was undoubtedly of great benefit. Today one has the sense that the industry is being eclipsed by tourism and other investment opportunities that are more attractive to younger Batswana. Increasingly it is an activity confined to individuals more strongly linked to the traditional past or to a small but growing number interested in professional ranching, with its emphasis on techniques, efficiency, and productivity.
Botswana’s credit rating is at a very high level: both Moody’s and Standard and Poor’s give the country an “A” for the foreign currency and an “A+” for local currency.
Despite its small size, Botswana is highly respected internationally. It is, of course, a member of the United Nations and subscribes to all standard treaties. It maintains embassies in many countries including the U.S.A., the U.K., Sweden, Ethiopia, Japan, Europe, and China, and, as a member of the Commonwealth, has High Commissions in, among others, the U.K., South Africa, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Its small defense force is extremely well-equipped and well-disciplined, and it has played its part in providing troops in Somalia, Lesotho, and Mozambique. Under the leadership of ex-President Sir Ketumile Masire, Botswana facilitated peace negotiations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Gaborone houses the headquarters of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).