Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with up to 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. It is connected to Zambia across the short Zambezi River border by the Kazungula Bridge.
The Batswana, a term also used to denote all citizens of Botswana, refers to the country's major ethnic group. Prior to European contact, the Batswana lived as herders and farmers under tribal rule.
The economy of Botswana is currently one of the world's fastest growing economies, averaging about 5% per annum over the past decade. Growth in private sector employment averaged about 10% per annum during the first 30 years of the country's independence. After a period of stagnation at the turn of the 21st century, Botswana's economy registered strong levels of growth, with GDP growth exceeding 6-7% targets. Botswana has been praised by the African Development Bank for sustaining one of the world's longest economic booms. Economic growth since the late 1960s has been on par with some of Asia's largest economies. The government has consistently maintained budget surpluses and has extensive foreign-exchange reserves.
Tswana, also known by its native name Setswana, is a Bantu language spoken in Southern Africa by about 8.2 million people. It belongs to the Bantu language family within the Sotho-Tswana branch of Zone S (S.30), and is closely related to the Northern Sotho and Southern Sotho languages, as well as the Kgalagadi language and the Lozi language.
Gaborone is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 231,626 based on the 2011 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census.
The San peoples, or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and South Africa. In 2017, Botswana was home to approximately 63,500 San people, which is roughly 2.8% of the country's population, making it the country with the highest population of San people.
Sir Seretse Goitsebeng Maphiri Khama, GCB, KBE was a Botswana politician who served as the first President of Botswana, a post he held from 1966 to his death in 1980.
The Bechuanaland Protectorate was a protectorate established on 31 March 1885, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in Southern Africa. It became the Republic of Botswana on 30 September 1966.
Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number of river systems; the Zambezi River is the most prominent. The Zambezi flows from the northwest corner of Zambia and western Angola to the Indian Ocean on the coast of Mozambique. Along the way, the Zambezi River flows over the mighty Victoria Falls on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe. Victoria Falls is of the largest waterfalls in the world anda major tourist attraction for the region.
Southern is one of the districts of Botswana. The capital of Southern district is Kanye, home to the Bangwaketse and Barolong in Botswana. The Southern district is home to Botswana's second largest beef farmers where there are large privately owned ranges, and several government run beef ranges which provide agricultural support to the local farmers. Maize and sorghum, Botswana's staple crop, are also raised in the area. Southern district is where the third diamond mine of Botswana was found, which buoys Botswana's economic state of prosperity. It was the first district to house the capital city before being moved to Gaborone after independence.
The white-bellied yellow bat or white-bellied house bat, is a species of vesper bat in the genus Scotophilus, the house bats. It can be found in Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Ivory Coast, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Togo, Uganda, and Zambia. It is found in dry and moist savanna and open woodland. It is a common species with a very wide range, and the International Union for Conservation of Nature has assessed its conservation status as being of "least concern".
Abraham Erasmus van Wyk, also known as Braam van Wyk is a South African plant taxonomist. He has been responsible for the training of a significant percentage of the active plant taxonomists in South Africa and has also produced the first electronic application (app) for the identification of trees in southern Africa.
The Kalanga or Bakalanga are a southern Bantu ethnic group mainly inhabiting Matebeleland in Zimbabwe, northeastern Botswana and Limpopo Province in South Africa. They are historically related to the Nambya, Lozwi, Karanga and Venda.
The history of Gaborone began with archaeological evidence in the area around Gaborone dating back to 400 BCE, and the first written accounts of Gaborone are from the earliest European settlers in the 19th century. Since the 1960s, when Botswana gained its independence from Britain and Gaborone became the capital, the city has grown from a small village in the Botswana scrubland to a major center in southern Africa.
Big Brother Africa 7 was the seventh season of the Big Brother Africa reality television series produced by Endemol for M-Net. It began on 6 May 2012, and ran for 91 days ending on 5 August 2012. Ikponmwosa "IK" Osakioduwa came back to host the show for the fourth time in a row. The first episode had live performances from American rapper J. Cole, Kenyan hip hop group Camp Mulla, Nigerian musicians P-Square, Naeto C, Flavour and Davido, and South African artist Aemo E'Face in the opening ceremony. On Thursday, 14 February 2013; Goldie died at the age of 29 after returning from the Grammy Awards. She is the first Big Brother Africa ex-housemate to die.
The Raid on Gaborone occurred on 14 June 1985 when South African Defence Force troops, under the order of General Constand Viljoen, crossed into Botswana and attacked the offices of Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), the military wing of the African National Congress, in Gaborone. The raid, the fifth South African attack on a neighbouring country since 1981, killed 12 people including women and children; only five of the victims were members of the African National Congress.
Penguin Random House LLC is a multinational conglomerate publishing company formed in 2013 from the merger of Penguin Group and Random House.
Irreligion in Africa, encompassing also atheism in Africa as well as agnosticism, secular humanism and general secularism, has been estimated at over tens of millions in various polls. While the predominant religions in Africa are Islam and Christianity, many groups and individuals still practice their traditional beliefs. Despite this the irreligious population is notable, especially in South Africa where 15.1% of the population describe themselves as irreligious and in Botswana, where 20% of the population describes themselves as non-religious.
Pollichia campestris, commonly known as waxberry or barley sugar bush, is a herbaceous plant in the family Caryophyllaceae and the only species in the monotypic genus Pollichia. It is found in southern and eastern Africa and in the Arabian peninsula.
Solanum lichtensteinii is a species of plant in the family Solanaceae. The IUCN lists the species as least concern.
