Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 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, Zambia to the north and Zimbabwe to the northeast. Being a country of slightly over 2.4 million people, and roughly the size of France, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is essentially the nation state of the Tswana people, who make up 79% of the population.
The history of Botswana encompasses the region's ancient and tribal history, its colonisation as the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and the present-day Republic of Botswana. The first modern humans to inhabit Botswana were the San people, and agriculture first developed approximately 2,300 years ago. The first Bantu peoples arrived c. 200 CE, and the first Tswana people arrived about 200 years later. The Tswana people split into various tribes over the following thousand years as migrations within the region continued, culminating in the Difaqane in the late 18th century. European contact first occurred in 1816, which led to the Christianization of the region.
Gaborone is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaborone has per capita income of US$32,000 (PPP), the highest in Africa.
The Tswana are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the population of Botswana in 2011.
The Bakwena or Bakoena are a large Sotho-Tswana clan in Southern Africa of the southern Bantu group. They can be found in different parts of southern Africa such as Lesotho, Botswana, South Africa and Eswatini. "Kwena" is a Sotho/Tswana/Sepedi word meaning "crocodile", the crocodile is also their totem (seboko).
The Bechuanaland Protectorate was a protectorate established on 31 March 1885 in Southern Africa by the United Kingdom. It became the Republic of Botswana on 30 September 1966.
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.
Moshupa is a large village in the Southern District of Botswana with a population of 20,016 per the 2011 census. The people of Moshupa are called the Bakgatla-ba-ga Mmanaana, a group also found in Thamaga. Along with the related Bakgatla-ba-ga Kgafela of Mochudi, they arrived to the region from the Transvaal region in South Africa throughout the eighteenth century.
Kanye is a village in southern Botswana, located 83 kilometres (52 mi) south-west of the capital, Gaborone. It is the administrative centre of the Southern District, and had a population of 48,028 as of the 2022 Population and Housing Census. This is an increase compared to the 45,196 of the 2011 census, making it the ninth-largest village in the country. Kanye is the traditional capital of the Ngwaketse tribe, who first settled in the area in the 1790s. The village is the longest continuously-occupied tribal capital in the country.
The Sotho-Tswana, also known as the Sotho or Basotho, although the term is now closely associated with the Southern Sotho peoples are a meta-ethnicity of Southern Africa. They are a large and diverse group of people who speak Sotho-Tswana languages. The group is predominantly found in Botswana, Lesotho, South Africa, and the western part of Zambia. Smaller groups can also be found in Namibia and Zimbabwe.
Isaac Schapera FBA FRAI, was a British social anthropologist at the London School of Economics specialising in South Africa. He was notable for his contributions of ethnographic and typological studies of the indigenous peoples of Botswana and South Africa. Additionally, he was one of the founders of the group that would develop British social anthropology.
The population of Botswana is divided into ethnic Tswana and other tribes. the ethnic Tswana is split up among eight tribes: Bangwato, Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bakgatla, Barolong,Batlokwa,Balete and Batawana. Other tribes speaks own tribal languages and Setswana as a second language constitute the non-Tswana people,that is Bakgalagadi consisting of numerous sub-groups of Babolongwe, Bangologa, Bashaga, Bakgwatheng,etc. The tribe is spread through more than half of the country and are found in Kweneng West, Ngwaketse West, Kgalagadi South, Kgalagadi North, Ghanzi District, North West District and parts of the Central District. Other tribes are Batswapong, Babirwa, BaKalanga,Ovaherero,Veekuhane,etc. Reliable statistics is not available but postulations are ethnic tswana 45%, Bakgalagadi 35% Kalanga people (18%), and Basarwa (2%). The remaining 7% consist of other peoples, including some speaking the Kgalagadi language, and 1% of non-African people.
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.
Lejwana, Botswana is a small village in the Republic of Botswana in Africa. It is situated in the Southern District of Botswana. It lies between the coordinates 25°24'23S and 25°32'27E. It is situated between the villages of Gathwane, Pitsane, Kgoro, and Digawana. Lejwana is about 30 km from Lobatse and about 100 km by road from the capital Gaborone.
The History of Botswana includes its pre-state history, its colonial period as the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and its modern history as a sovereign state.
Seitlhamo was a kgosi of the Kwena tribe. He ruled from the death of his father Motswasele I c. 1785 until his own death c. 1795. He was succeeded by his son Legwale.
Maleke was a regent of the Kwena tribe. He was the son of kgosi Seitlhamo and the younger brother of kgosi Legwale. Maleke became regent of the Bakwena after Legwale died c. 1798. As kgosi, Maleke led an attack against a Bangwaketse village in Kanye to avenge the death of his father. He burned the village, and he is said to have killed Tawana, the uncle of the village's leader, Makaba. A short time later, Maleke died of rabies after he was bitten by a dog. He was succeeded as regent by his younger brother Tshosa until Legwale's son Motswasele II became kgosi c. 1805.
Tshosa was a regent of the Kwena tribe from 1803 to 1807. He became regent following the death of his brother Maleke, who was also a regent, and he held the position until he passed it to the Kwena heir, his nephew Motswasele II. After Motswasele's death, Tshosa led a group of the fractured Kwena tribe. He was killed in an attack by the Bakololo.
Motshodi or Mochudi was kgosi of the Kwena tribe. He was preceded by his father Kgabo II and succeeded by his grandson Motswasele I.
