Portal:Botswana

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Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 per cent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. With a population of slightly over 2.4 million people and a comparable land area to France, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is essentially the nation-state of the Tswana people, who constitute nearly 80 per cent of the population.

The Tswana ethnic group are descended mainly from Bantu-speaking peoples who migrated into southern Africa, including modern Botswana, in several waves before AD 600. In 1885, the British colonised the area and declared a protectorate named Bechuanaland. As part of the decolonisation of Africa, Bechuanaland became an independent Commonwealth republic under its current name on 30 September 1966. Since then, it has been a parliamentary republic with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections, though dominated by the Botswana Democratic Party until 2024. As of 2024^[update], Botswana is the least corrupt country in mainland Africa according to the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International.

Botswana's economy has generally experienced stable growth since independence. It is dominated by tourism and mining; Botswana produces more diamonds than any other country. Its gross national income per capita (purchasing power parity) of about $20,158 as of 2024^[update] (by some estimates the fourth-largest in Africa) gives the country a relatively high standard of living and the second-highest Human Development Index of continental Sub-Saharan Africa, after South Africa. Despite this, Botswana continues to grapple with high unemployment rates. Botswana is a member of the Southern African Customs Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations. (Full article...)

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White Africans account for around 3% of the population of Botswana.

Botswana became a British protectorate in 1885 and gained independence as a Commonwealth nation in 1966. White settlers in Botswana, mainly Afrikaners and a small number of English-speakers, began arriving in the 1860s and primarily settled on farms near the South African border. The White population in Botswana never exceeded 3,000 individuals. The English spoken by the local population is influenced by South African dialects. (Full article...)

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... that the main tourist attractions of Botswana are its game reserves?

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Dow in 2011

Unity Dow (née Diswai; born 23 April 1959) is a Motswana lawyer, author, human rights activist and Member of Parliament for Kgatleng West since November 2024. She formerly served as a judge on the High Court of Botswana and in various Botswana government ministries. Born in the Bechuanaland Protectorate to a seamstress and a farmer, who insisted on their children obtaining an education, Dow grew up in a traditional rural village before modernisation. She earned a law degree in 1983 from the University of Botswana and Swaziland, though her studies were completed in Swaziland and University of Edinburgh, Scotland, as Botswana had no law school at the time. After her graduation, Dow opened the first all-woman law firm in Botswana and in 1997 became the first woman to be appointed as a judge to the country's High Court.

During her time in law, Dow was involved in three historic cases in Botswana. In 1992, she was the plaintiff in the landmark legal case, Unity Dow v Attorney-General, which ended the gender discrimination in the nation's nationality laws that had previously not allowed children to derive nationality from their married mothers. The case gained Dow international attention and sparked a wave of changes eliminating gender disparity in nationality laws across Africa. In 2006, as the presiding judge in the case of Roy Sesana and Others v. the Government of Botswana, Dow ruled against the government's actions to prohibit the Basarwa indigenous people from living and hunting on their ancestral lands, forcing them to resettle outside the Central Kalahari Game Reserve. She ruled that the government had to restore basic services, allow the Basarwa to return to the land and obtain hunting permits, and pay damages to those who had been forcibly relocated if they chose not to return. In 2014, Dow served as legal counsel for LEGABIBO (Lesbians, Gays & Bisexuals of Botswana) in their case to register their organisation with the Department of Civil and National Registration and successfully received a ruling for the government to allow the organisation to be registered. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Botswana-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1I-Tower at Central Business District (from Gaborone)
Image 2Ministry of Labour and Home Affairs building (from Gaborone)
Image 3New Construction Developments (from Gaborone)
Image 4Tswana girl dressed in Leteisi (from Tswana people)
Image 5Homestead in the ancient City of Kaditshwene
Image 6Royal Bafokeng Stadium, Phokeng (from Tswana people)
Image 7Room 52 Roof Top Restaurant (from Gaborone)
Image 8Gaborone Hindu temple (from Gaborone)
Image 9Ian Khama meeting with William Hague in London (from History of Botswana)
Image 10Watch house in Gaborone Game Reserve (from Gaborone)
Image 11A road in Gaborone (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 12Botswana traditional baskets (from Culture of Botswana)
Image 13Street scene near the Main Mall (from Gaborone)
Image 14Setswana traditional house (from Tswana people)
Image 15Orapa House (from Gaborone)
Image 16Gaborone Mosque (from Gaborone)
Image 17Gaborone aerial (from Gaborone)
Image 18Festus Mogae alongside foreign presidents Joaquim Chissano, George W. Bush, and José Eduardo dos Santos in 2002 (from History of Botswana)
Image 19Ostriches at Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Botswana (from Gaborone)
Image 20Francistown City Bus and Taxi Rank (from Francistown)
Image 21Prehistoric cave paintings at Tsodilo (from History of Botswana)
Image 22Quett Masire visiting the United States in 1984 (from History of Botswana)
Image 23Tswana Baskets (from Tswana people)
Image 24Bechuanaland Boys cleaning Aa Guns in the Twilight after Action, Syracuse, Sicily, 1944 art piece by Leslie Cole (from History of Botswana)
Image 25South African politician (from Tswana people)
Image 26The Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, named after the first president of Botswana (from History of Botswana)
Image 27New CBD (from Gaborone)
Image 28South African ANC activist, writer and author, (from Tswana people)
Image 29The Jwaneng diamond mine is the second biggest in the world today. (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 30Botswana Gaborone I Towers (from Gaborone)
Image 31Mokgweetsi Masisi speaking at a conference on the illegal wildlife trade in London in 2018 (from History of Botswana)
Image 32St. Joseph's College students (from Gaborone)
Image 33Tebogo Letsile, the 2024 Summer Olympics 200 metres gold medalist (from Tswana people)
Image 34Francistown Stadium (from Francistown)
Image 35View from Kgale Hill (Oodi Hill on horizon) (from Gaborone)
Image 36A 1960 stamp of the Bechuanaland Protectorate featuring images of Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II, the first and last British monarchs of the protectorate (from History of Botswana)
Image 37 Tswana tribesmen, first Africans to compete at the Olympics (from Tswana people)
Image 38Gaborone Hindu Temple (from Gaborone)
Image 39Graduation daggers that were given to Tswana Fighting Regiments (from Tswana people)
Image 40Aerial view over Okavango Delta (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 41An 1865 portrait of Kgosi Sechele I in Ntsweng Bechuanaland (from Tswana people)
Image 42Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (GBE) (from Gaborone)
Image 43Botswana traditional house at the National Museum (from Culture of Botswana)
Image 44CBD Mall (from Gaborone)
Image 454th President of Botswana, King of Bamangwato (Khama IV) (from Tswana people)
Image 46Man on donkey herding goats in a dry river bed (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 47BR Express, the passenger train (from Francistown)
Image 48SSKI Airport (from Gaborone)
Image 49South African billionaire mining businessman, CAF President (from Tswana people)
Image 50Road map of Gaborone (from Gaborone)
Image 51Kombi (Minibus taxi) (from Gaborone)
Image 52I-Towers, Gaborone Central Business District (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 53King Bathoen II 1947 of Bangwaketse (from Tswana people)
Image 54An illustration of a Tswana man and his wife in the early 1800s (from History of Botswana)
Image 55GDP per capita (current), compared to neighbouring countries (world average = 100) (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 56A postage stamp circa 1943, the postmark reading "Gaborone's Village" (from Gaborone)
Image 57King Khama (III) of Bamangwato (from Tswana people)
Image 58CBD Developments (from Gaborone)
Image 59The National Assembly of Botswana (from Gaborone)
Image 60Magadi (traditional wedding) (from Culture of Botswana)
Image 61Duma Boko signing an agreement with the United States in 2025 (from History of Botswana)
Image 62King Molema of Barolong (from Tswana people)
Image 63Rhodesia Railways car at the national museum (from Gaborone)
Image 64Satellite View of Gaborone. North is to the left of the image. (from Gaborone)
Image 65Rail network map of Botswana (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 66Rev. Derek Jones, the first mayor of Gaborone
Image 67Seretse Khama signing the oath of office to become Botswana's first President in 1966 (from History of Botswana)
Image 68Tourist resort at Kasane (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 69Batswana Men dressed in traditional attire in 1946 (from Tswana people)
Image 70Christ The King Cathedral (from Gaborone)
Image 71Flag map of Gaborone (from Gaborone)
Image 72Gaborone Dam (from Gaborone)
Image 73Gaborone Dam (from Gaborone)
Image 74Francistown Bus Terminal (from Francistown)