Botswana

The country's name means "Land of the Tswana", referring to the dominant ethnic group in Botswana. The Constitution of Botswana recognises a homogeneous Tswana state. The demonym Batswana was originally applied to the Tswana, and has also come to be used generally as a term for all citizens of Botswana. In Setswana, Batswana is grammatically plural; its singular form, which can refer to a single member of the Tswana or to a single citizen of Botswana, is Motswana.

Present-day Botswana was primarily forest ten million years ago. Homo erectus lived in the region during the Early Stone Age. Stone tools in present-day Botswana date back to two million years ago. Hominin migration to the Kalahari Desert, which includes Botswana, is estimated to have happened prior to 186,000 years ago. Lake Makgadikgadi began to shrink approximately 50,000 years ago. Roughly 30,000–40,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Khoe and the San lived in the region, adapting their movements to changing water and climate conditions. Rock art dates back to approximately 30,000 years ago, and permanent water sources were widely inhabited by 20,000 years ago.

Around 2,000 years ago, people introduced cattle, sheep, pottery, and agriculture. Crops included millet, sorghum, cowpeas, and more. Bantu-speaking peoples migrated into the region between 2,000 and 1,500 years ago; the Kalanga arrived around 200 CE and ancestors of the Tswana c. 400 CE who introduced iron and copper tools along with establishing permanent settlements. From the 7th century, trade expanded, connecting Botswana with wider southern Africa and eventually the Indian Ocean trade. The Toutswe people, the Kingdom of Mapungubwe, and later Great Zimbabwe became important regional powers, with cattle and gold playing major economic roles.

From the 15th to 18th centuries, Tswana and Kalanga peoples migrated and formed new political communities. Tswana society became organized into merafe (plural form of morafe), a type of tribal government ruled by chiefs known as dikgosi (plural form of kgosi), while cattle became a major asset to the region.

The Difaqane of the late 18th and early 19th century caused widespread warfare and migration, which strengthened Tswana settlement across present-day Botswana. By the 1840s, many states had been re-established and governed through the kgotla, a traditional community council.

European influence expanded after missionaries arrived in 1816, followed by British traders and explorers. David Livingstone established a mission in 1845, while Christianity and European trade spread. Conflict with Boer forces continued, and the discovery of the Tati Goldfields in 1868 led to a gold rush and the growth of Francistown as a major mining and railway centre.

In 1852, a coalition of Tswana chiefdoms led by Sechele I defeated Afrikaner incursions at the Battle of Dimawe and, after about eight years of intermittent tensions and hostilities, eventually came to a peace agreement in Potchefstroom in 1860. In 1884, Batawana, a northern-based Tswana clan's cavalry under the command of kgosi Moremi II, fought and defeated the Ndebele's invasion of northern Botswana at the Battle of Khutiyabasadi. This was the start of the collapse of the Ndebele kingdom in Zimbabwe, helping Tswana speaking authority.

In 1885, Britain established the Bechuanaland Protectorate to prevent German and Afrikaner expansion while maintaining a strategic link between southern and central Africa. Tswana dikgosi supported British protection since they feared settler colonialism by Germany along with incorporation into South Africa and the mining magnate Cecil Rhodes. The protectorate was divided into tribal reserves and British crown land, with eight Tswana groups being recognized. The dikgosi still had considerable authority, while Britain exercised relatively limited direct control, believing the protectorate would be absorbed by a British colony. The territory was economically dependent on South Africa.

In 1895, Khama III, Sebele I, and Bathoen I travelled to Britain and successfully persuaded the British government not to transfer the protectorate to Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company. This mission became an important early example of Tswana political unity.

The protectorate suffered heavily from the rinderpest epidemic of the 1890s, losing livestock and wild game. Britain introduced hut and poll taxes, and the protectorate joined the South African Customs Union in 1910. At this point, all Tswana tribes had adopted Christianity.

During the First World War, hundreds of Batswana served with British forces. British involvement increased during the 1930s, as the administration sought to develop the cattle economy while imposing greater controls on the dikgosi. A severe drought earlier in the decade had killed much of the protectorate's cattle. Bechuanaland sent roughly 11,000 men to serve alongside British forces during the Second World War, with most serving in the British Army's African Auxiliary Pioneer Corps. The war brought shortages, higher prices, taxation, and economic disruption throughout the protectorate; however, relative to other nations in the British Empire, the people of Bechuanaland approved of the war. Following the war; education, wage labour, and civic organizations contributed to the emergence of a new political class that increasingly challenged traditional chiefly authority.

The most important political crisis came from Seretse Khama, heir to the Ngwato chieftainship, whose marriage to the British white woman Ruth Williams caused controversy. In 1950, Britain banished the couple from the protectorate under pressure from South Africa and racial politics surrounding apartheid. Seretse's supporters protested, and he was eventually allowed to return in 1956. The controversy weakened the authority of the chiefs and strengthened the movement toward representative government. Political parties emerged, including the Bechuanaland People's Party in 1960 and Seretse Khama's Bechuanaland Democratic Party (BDP) in 1962. A new system reduced the political power of chiefs while preserving them in a Ntlo ya Dikgosi (House of Chiefs). Gaborone became the capital in 1965, and the protectorate gained self-government. The BDP won the first general election, and on 30 September 1966, the Bechuanaland Protectorate became the independent Republic of Botswana, with Seretse Khama as its first president.

Botswana gained independence in 1966 and established a liberal democracy based on elections, human rights, and a Westminster system with Seretse Khama as its first president. Traditional chiefs and institutions such as the kgotla were retained but placed under the national legal system. Botswana was extremely poor at independence, with low literacy, little infrastructure, and an economy heavily dependent on cattle farming and South Africa.

Under Seretse Khama, the government invested in roads, schools, and other public services. The discovery of diamonds in 1967 transformed the economy. Partnerships with De Beers and the creation of Debswana allowed the government to gain substantial diamond revenue, helping Botswana become one of Africa's fastest-growing economies.

After Seretse Khama's death in 1980, then Vice-President of Botswana Quett Masire became the president of Botswana. Quett Masire continued Khama's development policies, preserving faith in the government. Strong opposition of the Botswana Democratic Party started gaining traction in the 1980s, with many opposition parties winning local elections. Previously dependent on support by specific ethnic groups, the Botswana National Front gained support among the working class. By the 1984 general election, it was a competitive opposition party. HIV/AIDS had caused the life expectancy to drop from 67 to 50 years in one decade.

Festus Mogae became president in 1998 when Quett Masire stepped down as President. Mogae continued economic development and made HIV/AIDS treatment a major priority. The Botswana–Namibia border came under dispute in 1999 when both countries claimed the Sedudu Island. The dispute went to the International Court of Justice, where it was ruled that the island belonged to Botswana. The San people issued a legal challenge in 2002 to contest their expulsion from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, but the case was dismissed.

Ian Khama, the son of Seretse Khama succeeded to the presidency at the end of Mogae's term on 1 April 2008. His style of leadership was advertised as following the "four Ds": democracy, development, dignity, and discipline. Khama centralised power around the presidency. The 2008 financial crisis pressured Botswana's economy, which remained dependent on diamond mines despite the government's efforts. The diamond industry ended a steady decline when it stabilised at about 39% of the nation's GDP in 2009. The BDP retained its majority in the legislature after the 2014 general election, but for the first time it did so with only a plurality of the popular vote. Ian Khama then appointed Masisi as his vice-president. The decision was controversial because of Masisi's inexperience relative to other possible choices.

Following the 2019 general election, Mokgweetsi Masisi was elected president. He reversed several Khama-era policies and pursued anti-corruption measures. In the 2024 Botswana general election, the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change defeated the Botswana Democratic Party, ending 58 years of BDP rule and making Duma Boko president. His government has emphasized economic diversification, including solar energy and technology, while also confronting a major healthcare crisis caused by shortages of medicines and supplies.

=== Physical geography ===

Botswana's geography features a predominantly flat and dry landscape, with much of the country covered by the Kalahari Desert. The country's terrain consists of sandy soils, rocky hill ranges, grasslands, and more. Much of Botswana's population is concentrated in the southeastern part of the country, where major urban centres are located.

Botswana is a landlocked country in southern Africa, bordered by Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north, Zimbabwe to the northeast, and South Africa to the south and southeast. Botswana features the Okavango Delta located in the northwest, a vast inland river delta where the Okavango River spreads across the Kalahari rather than flowing into the sea. The delta contains numerous channels, lagoons, islands, and seasonal wetlands and supports wildlife. The Chobe River in the north also forms part of Botswana's border with Namibia and contributes to the region's extensive wetlands.

Botswana's climate is generally semi-arid. Rainfall is highly seasonal and varies considerably across the country. The northern and eastern areas generally receive more rainfall than the dry southwest. Summers can be extremely hot, while winter nights can become quite cold.

Botswana is vulnerable to several natural and environmental hazards. Drought is a recurring environmental challenge and can have significant effects on agriculture, livestock, water supplies, and wildlife. Periods of heavy rainfall can also cause localized flooding, particularly in the Okavango and Chobe regions and along seasonal waterways. Veldfires typically occur during the winter dry season. These fires are either natural, which are triggered by lightning during the rainy season, or unnatural, which are caused by human intervention during the dry season and often prolonged by delayed rainfall.

Botswana has a high biodiversity, particularly in the Okavango Delta, featuring thousands of plant and animal species including mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish. However, critical data gaps regarding species distribution and status significantly hinder conservation efforts. The country features many protected areas allowing large areas of natural habitat to remain intact. Botswana has some of the largest and most important wildlife populations in Africa. Wildlife is particularly concentrated in the north since wetlands and savannas in the area provide permanent or seasonal sources of water. Northern Botswana has one of the few remaining large populations of the endangered African wild dog.

Since raising livestock has been profitable for the people of Botswana, land continues to be exploited with dramatically increasing numbers of animals. From 1966 to 1991, the livestock population grew from 1.7 million to 5.5 million. Environmentalists report that the Okavango Delta is drying up due to increased livestock grazing. The Okavango Delta is one of the major semi-forested wetlands in Botswana and one of the largest inland deltas in the world; the ecosystem is crucial to the survival of many animals.

Botswana faces two major environmental problems, drought and desertification, which are heavily linked. Three-quarters of the country's human and animal populations depend on groundwater due to drought. Groundwater use through deep borehole drilling has somewhat eased the effects of drought. Surface water is scarce in Botswana, and less than 5% of the agriculture in the country is sustainable by rainfall. In the remaining 95% of the country, raising livestock is the primary source of rural income. Approximately 71% of the country's land is used for communal grazing, which has been a major cause of the desertification and the accelerating soil erosion in the country.

Botswana had a 2018 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 9.13/10, ranking it 8th globally out of 172 countries.

Botswana is a parliamentary republic governed by the Constitution of Botswana. It is the longest uninterrupted democracy in Africa. Its seat of government is in Gaborone. Botswana's governing institutions were established after it became an independent nation in 1966. Botswana's governmental structure is based on both the United Kingdom's Westminster system and the Tswana people's tribal governments. Botswana has a centralised government in which national law supersedes local law. Local laws are developed by local councils and district councils. They are heavily influenced by tribal governments, which are led by the tribe's chief.

The Parliament of Botswana consists of the President and the National Assembly, which serves as the nation's formal and sole legislature, while the Ntlo ya Dikgosi serves an advisory body made up of tribal chiefs and other appointed members. Botswana's executive branch is led by the President of Botswana, who serves as both the head of state and head of government. The members of parliament choose the president, and the president then appoints the vice-president and cabinet members. The president has significant power in Botswana, and the legislature has little power to check the president once appointed. The judiciary includes the High Court of Botswana, the Court of Appeal and Magistrates' Courts. Cases are often settled by customary courts with tribal chiefs presiding.

Elections in Botswana are held every five years and overseen by the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). Botswana operates a multi-party system in which many political parties compete in elections. It was a dominant-party state in which the Botswana Democratic Party had ruled with a majority government from independence in 1966 to 2024. The nation's elections are recognised as free and fair, but the ruling party has institutional advantages that other parties do not. Factionalism is common within Botswana's political parties, and several groups have formed new parties by splitting from established ones. Since 2019, the Umbrella for Democratic Change has operated as a coalition of opposition parties. The most recent election was held in 2024, with the Botswana Democratic Party losing its majority for the first time in history, ending its 58-year rule over the country. The election saw Duma Boko being elected as president.

In Botswana's early years, its politics were managed by President Seretse Khama and vice-president (later president) Quett Masire. Since the Kgabo Commission in 1991, factionalism and political rivalries have dominated Botswana politics. The Barata-Phathi faction was led by Peter Mmusi, Daniel Kwelagobe and Ponatshego Kedikilwe, while the A Team faction was led by Mompati Merafhe and Jacob Nkate. When Festus Mogae and Ian Khama became president and vice-president, respectively, they aligned with the A Team. Khama effectively expelled the A Team from the party in 2010 after he became president. A new rivalry formed in 2018 when Khama's chosen successor, Mokgweetsi Masisi, became president. He opposed Khama, and the two formed a political rivalry that continues to loom over Botswana politics in the 2020s.

Botswana was ranked as a "flawed democracy" and 33rd out of 167 states in the 2023 Democracy Index (The Economist), which was the second-highest rating in Africa, and the highest ranking in continental Africa (only the offshore island nation of Mauritius bested its ranking). However, according to the 2024 V-Dem Democracy Indices, Botswana has been experiencing an episode of democratic backsliding over the past 10 years, recording its lowest ever score on the indices.

The 2025 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index ranked Botswana as the third-least corrupt country in Africa, just below Cape Verde and the Seychelles.

At the time of independence, Botswana had no armed forces. It was only after the Rhodesian and South African armies attacked the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army and Umkhonto we Sizwe bases respectively that the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) was formed in 1977. The president is commander-in-chief of the armed forces and appoints a defence council. In 2019, Botswana signed the UN treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons.

Following political changes in South Africa and the region, the BDF's missions have increasingly focused on preventing poaching, preparing for disasters, and supporting foreign peacekeeping. The United States has been the largest single foreign contributor to the development of the BDF, and a large segment of its officer corps have received US training. The Botswana government gave the United States permission to explore the possibility of establishing an Africa Command (AFRICOM) base in the country.

Botswana is the 50th most peaceful country in the world, according to the 2024 Global Peace Index. Botswana is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.

==== San and other indigenous tribes ====

Many of the indigenous San people have been forcibly relocated from their land to reservations. To make them relocate, they were denied access to water on their land and faced arrest if they hunted, which was their primary source of food. Their lands lie in the middle of the world's richest diamond field. Officially, the government denies that there is any link to mining, claiming the relocation is to preserve the wildlife and ecosystem, even though the San people have lived sustainably on the land for millennia. On the reservations, they struggle to find employment, and alcoholism is rampant.

On 24 August 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on Minorities, Fernand de Varennes, issued a statement calling on Botswana "to step up efforts to recognise and protect the rights of minorities in relation to public services, land and resource use, and the use of minority languages in education and other critical areas."

Botswana is divided into ten administrative districts. They are Southern District, South-East District, Kweneng District, Kgatleng District, Central District, North-East District, Chobe District, North-West District, Ghanzi District, and Kgalagadi District. There are also seven urban districts; Gaborone, Francistown, Lobatse, Selebi-Phikwe, Orapa, Jwaneng, and Sowa. There are 22 sub-districts. Each district is under the jurisdiction of a district administration, led by a district commissioner.

In 1966, Botswana established the North-West District by merging the Ngamiland and Chobe regions under a single council. This structure remained intact until 2006, when the government officially de-merged the territories, re-establishing Chobe as an independent administrative district.

Since independence, Botswana has had one of the fastest growth rates in per capita income in the world. Formerly one of the world's poorest countries—with a GDP per capita of about US$70 per year in the late 1960s—Botswana has transformed itself into an upper middle-income country. GDP per capita grew from $439 in 1950 to $15,842 in 2018. Although Botswana was resource-abundant, a good institutional framework allowed the country to reinvest resource-income to generate stable future income. By one estimate, it has the fourth-highest gross national income at purchasing power parity in Africa, giving it a relatively high standard of living in Africa, around that of Mexico. As of 2022, the unemployment rate stood at 25.4%, while youth unemployment reached 45.41% in 2023. The latest available data from 2015/2016 estimate that 17.2% of Botswana's population is multidimensionally poor, with an additional 19.7% at risk.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry of Botswana is responsible for promoting business development throughout the country. According to the International Monetary Fund, economic growth averaged over 9% per year from 1966 to 1999. Botswana has a high level of economic freedom compared to other African countries. The government has maintained a sound fiscal policy, despite consecutive budget deficits in 2002 and 2003, and a negligible level of foreign debt. It earned the highest sovereign credit rating in Africa and has stockpiled foreign exchange reserves (over $7 billion in 2005/2006) amounting to almost two and a half years of current imports.

The constitution provides for an independent judiciary, and the government respects this in practice. The legal system is sufficient to conduct secure commercial dealings, although a growing backlog of cases prevents timely trials. Botswana is ranked second only to South Africa among sub-Saharan African countries in the 2014 International Property Rights Index.

In Botswana, the Department of Mines and Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security maintains data regarding mining throughout the country. Debswana, the largest diamond mining company operating in Botswana, is a joint venture, 50% owned by the government.

The mineral industry provides about 40% of all government revenues. Botswana has not begun mining uranium; however, the Letlhakane Uranium Project in Africa is one of the largest undeveloped uranium projects. The government announced in early 2009 that they would try to diversify their economy and avoid overreliance on diamonds.

The Botswana Tourism Organisation is the country's official tourism group. Other destinations in Botswana include the Gaborone Yacht Club and the Kalahari Fishing Club. The country has natural attractions such as the Gaborone Dam and Mokolodi Nature Reserve. There are golf courses that the Botswana Golf Union (BGU) maintains. In 2014, the Okavango Delta of Botswana, the largest inland delta in the world, was inscribed as the 1,000th World Heritage Site.

Botswana has 971 kilometres (603 mi) of railway lines, 18,443.8 kilometres (11,460.4 mi) of roads, and 92 airports, of which 12 have paved runways. Of these roads, 7,383.2 kilometres (4,587.7 mi) are paved, while the other 11,060.6 kilometres (6,872.7 mi) are unpaved. The national airline is Air Botswana, which flies domestically and to other countries in Africa. Botswana Railways is the national railway company, operating primarily in the Southern African regional railway system. Botswana Railways offers rail-based transport facilities for moving a range of commodities for the mining sector and primary materials industries, as well as passenger train services and dry ports.

In terms of power infrastructure in Botswana, the country produces coal for electricity and imports oil. Recently, the country has taken a large interest in renewable energy sources and has designed a comprehensive strategy to attract investors in the wind, solar and biomass renewable energy industries. Botswana's power stations include Morupule B Power Station (600 MW), Morupule A Power Station (132 MW), Orapa Power Station (90 MW), Phakalane Power Station (1.3 MW) and Mmamabula Power Station (300 MW), which is expected to be online in the near future. A 200-MW solar power plant is in the planning and design stage at the Ministry of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security.

As of 2024, the Tswana are the majority ethnic group in Botswana, making up approximately 79% of the population, followed by Kalanga at 11% and the San (Basarwa) at 3%. The remaining 7% consists of White Batswana/European Batswana, Indians, and a number of other smaller Southern African ethnic groups.

Native groups include the Bayei, Bambukushu, Basubia, Baherero and Bakgalagadi. The Indian minority is made up of both recent migrants and descendants of Indian migrants who arrived from Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius and South Africa.

Since 2000, because of deteriorating economic conditions in Zimbabwe, the number of Zimbabweans in Botswana has risen into the tens of thousands. Fewer than 10,000 San people are still living their traditional hunter-gatherer way of life. Since the mid-1990s, the central government of Botswana has been trying to move the San out of their historic lands, likely because they live in a diamond-rich region.

In 2010, James Anaya, as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people for the United Nations, described loss of land as a major contributor to many of the problems facing Botswana's indigenous people, citing the San's eviction from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) as a special example. Among Anaya's recommendations in a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council was that development programmes should promote, in consultation with indigenous communities such as the San and Bakgalagadi people, activities in harmony with the culture of those communities such as traditional hunting and gathering activities.

The official language of Botswana is English, while Setswana is widely spoken across the country. In Setswana, prefixes are more important than they are in many other languages, because Setswana is a Bantu language and has noun classes denoted by these prefixes. They include Bo, which refers to the country, Ba, which refers to the people, Mo, which is one person, and Se which is the language. For example, the main ethnic group of Botswana is the Tswana people, hence the name Botswana for its country. The people as a whole are Batswana, one person is a Motswana, and the language they speak is Setswana. Other languages spoken in Botswana include Kalanga (Sekalanga), Sarwa (Sesarwa), Ndebele, Kgalagadi, Tswapong, !Xóõ, Yeyi, and, in some parts, Afrikaans.