Botswana, a land of staggering beauty, is ideally located in the heart of Southern Africa. This is the country where the river ends in the sands of the Kalahari. Its natural beauty lies in its land constellation, its wilderness, wildlife and cultural diversity. Botswana is a land of contrast, here one experiences contrasting life styles as one travels from the busy urban centres, to rural-villages, and even to the most remote dweller life of the San people.
Since Botswana became independent, it has gone from one of the poorest countries in Africa to one of the richest, but the wealth is is not fairly distributed and over one-third of the population still live in poverty. Botswana is one of the most stable and proserous countries in Africa, and is completely landlocked. A very unusual strip of land, the Caprivi Strip, which is Namibian territory that runs for 500 km between the countries and is only 10 km wide, separates Botswana from Angola. The Western part of the country is covered by desert. In the north are the Okavango swamps, formed where the Okavango river forms a delta before its waters disappear beneath the desert.
Come to Botswana and feel that constant sense of being close to nature.
Wild Kalahari with its vast and incredible night skies is a spectacular phenomenon. More than 2750 ancient rock paintings from the San people can be found at 200 sites in the Four Tsodilo Hills (male, female, child & north hill). There are estimated 73,000 elephants in Chobe Park.
Culture:
Culture
Traditionally, Botswana was ruled by chiefs and settled in large villages near rivers and hills. They were successful agro-pastoralists and fought many wars to protect their livestock. They have attained the skill of smelting copper, iron, gold and traded salt with neighbouring states. Hunting and gathering was practised by all tribesmen but guided by very strict traditional conservation strategies combined with sustainable environmental plans embedded in taboos and myths. This cultural heritage enabled Botswana to preserve vast and diverse species of wildlife and natural resources. The tradition of the Kgotla practised from the iron-age period laid a very strong and disciplined foundation for modern democracy and prudent resource utilisation.
Economy:
Since independence Botswana's economic progress has been one of the few success stories of the African continent. Twenty years ago, the country was one of the 20 poorest countries in the world. Today, it is considered the richest non-oil producing country in Africa. Botswana has one of the 3 richest diamond-bearing formations in the world and is now the world's largest producer of diamonds (by value), providing 29.3% of the world's diamonds. Only 5% of Botswana is cultivated, and produces maize and sorghum. Cattle, goats and sheep are bred and exported. Traditionally 10% of the workforce is employed on the South African mines. Nickle and copper come from the Selibe Pikwe mines.
History:
Botswana was a British Protectorate from 1885 until it achieved independence in 1966. Sir Seretse Khama was elected the country’s leader under the banner of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). He was succeeded in an orderly transition by Quett Ketemile Masire who retired in March 1998. Most of Botswana's population is Tswana.
The British connection with Botswana began in the 1840s when the explorer, Dr Livingstone, started a mission station in the land of the Bakwena, one of the eight main Tswana tribes. In the succeeding three decades, Botswana was threatened by the Boer farmers from the Transvaal, and from raiding parties of the Matabele. In 1895 the Crown Colony of British Bechuanaland, including Mafeking, became part of the colony of the Cape of Good Hope which in turn, from 1910, became part of the Union of South Africa. It was presumed that the Bechuanaland Protectorate would eventually be incorporated into South Africa. In 1960, a Legislative Council was formed. The British Government was willing to give Bechuanaland self-government and elections were held in March 1965. In 1966 Botswna won its independence after the victory of Sir Seretse Khama at the elections. It adopted a parliamentary constitution and joined the Organisation for African Unity (the OAU).
