Botswana (bots-WAH-nah), republic (231,804 sq mi/600,372 sq km; 1996 estimated population 1,438,000; 2004 estimated population 1,561,973), S central Africa; (cap.) Gaborone. Bordered N by Zambia at a narrow strip, N and W by Namibia, E by Zimbabwe, and E and S by South Africa. Divided into ten districts (Central, Chobe, Ghanzi, Kgalagadi, Kgatleng, Kweneng, Ngamiland, North-East, Southern, and South-East) and four Town Councils (Francistown, Gaborone, Lobatse, and Selebi-Phikwe).
Geography
The terrain is mostly an arid plateau (c.3,000 ft/910 m high); in the E are hills. The Kalahari Desert lies in the S and W. In the NW the Okavango River drains into the vast region of the Okavango swamp and Lake Ngami, thus forming a huge marshland. Rainfall varies from less than 9 in/23 cm per year in the SW to about 25 in/64 cm in the N. The climate is subtropical.
People
The country’s people are known as Batswana, which is also the name of the largest tribe (constituting 50% of the total population); other groups living here include the Bakalanga, Bakalagari, Bayei, Basubiya, Hambukushu, Khoi, Ovaherero, San, and a small number of Europeans. English and Setswana (a Bantu language) are Botswana’s official languages. The majority of the people are Christians, but some adhere to traditional practices as well.
Economy
Cattle raising and the export of beef and other cattle products are the chief economic activities, though migration to urban areas in search of economic opportunity has been an important recent trend. Droughts are common; the country’s water shortage and consequent lack of sufficient irrigation facilities have hampered agriculture. Only a small percentage of the land is under cultivation. Sorghum, maize, millet, and beans are the principal subsistence crops, and cotton, groundnuts, and sunflowers are the main cash crops. Many citizens of Botswana work in the mines of South Africa. Botswana’s bleak economic outlook was dramatically brightened during the 1960s with the discovery of significant quantities of several minerals. The only known minerals in the country at the time of independence were manganese and some gold and asbestos. Large nickel and copper deposits have since been found, as well as salt and soda ash; antimony and sulfur are also known to exist. Vast coal deposits are also being worked. Three diamond mines collectively make up one of the largest diamond reserves in the world (15 million-carat annual average output, 1990–1995). Diamonds are mined by the government and a South African mining concern. Deposits of plutonium and platinum have also been found; Botswana’s mineral wealth has made it one of the wealthiest nations of S Africa. However, high unemployment, which runs up to 40%; 2001 estimate (official rate is 21%), remains a problem. Development of a tourist industry has been based partly on the attraction of one of Africa’s largest natural game reserves. Despite the promise of growing wealth and economic diversification, Botswana, because of its landlocked position, remains heavily dependent on its neighbor, South Africa, which provides port facilities. In addition, the EU has supported economic development in Botswana, which is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. Botswana operates the railroad from Cape Town that passes through the country. There are also road links with South Africa and Zimbabwe, its chief trade partners. Botswana established its own currency (called the pula) in 1976.
History to 1900
San (Bushmen) were the aboriginal inhabitants of what is now Botswana, but they were supplanted by the Tswana, and they constitute only a small portion of the population today. Beginning in the 1820s, the region was disrupted by the expansion of the Zulu and their offshoot, the Ndebele. However, Khama, chief of the Ngwato (the largest Tswana nation), eventually established a fairly unified state. After gold was discovered here in 1867, the government of neighboring Transvaal sought to annex parts of the area. Although the British forbade annexation, the Boers (Afrikaners) from Transvaal continued to encroach on native lands during the 1870s and 1880s. German colonial expansion in Southwest Africa caused the British to make the region (1884–1885) a protectorate called Bechuanaland. The S part of the area was incorporated into Cape Colony in 1895. Britain provided for the eventual transfer of Bechuanaland to the Union of South Africa, which administered it from Mafeking, but resisted South Africa's continued attempts to annex the territory.
History 1900 to Present
Britain granted Bechuanaland the right to internal self-government in 1965 and full independence on September 30, 1966. Shortly after, Botswana (as it was now called) became a member of the UN, and Seretse Khama, grandson of Khama, was elected its first president. In the period after independence, the country generally maintained close ties with its white-ruled neighbors and refused to let its territory harbor guerrilla operations against them. More recently, however, Botswana became a refuge for guerrillas from Zimbabwe, prior to that country’s independence in 1980. It was also a haven for African National Congress guerrillas and South African refugees, although less so than some other African nations because of pressure from South Africa. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s unemployment increased as subsistence farming became less profitable and as migrant workers returned from the mines in South Africa in search of work. The rise of the Botswana National Front, an organization acting on behalf of labor, was fuelled by these trends and challenged president Ketumile Masire (in office since 1980) in the 1989 elections; Masire’s Botswana Democratic Party, however, won an overwhelming victory. Masire was reelected to another five-year term in 1994.
Government
Botswana’s 1996 constitution provides for a parliament with a president, an advisory House of Chiefs, and a national assembly of forty-four seats (forty elected; four appointed by majority party). The current chief of state is President Festus Mogae. Note the president is both chief of state and head of government.
