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 AD, 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.
The Tswana are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the population of Botswana in 2011.
Kimberley is the capital and largest city of the Northern Cape province of South Africa. It is located approximately 110 km east of the confluence of the Vaal and Orange Rivers. The city has considerable historical significance due to its diamond mining past and the siege during the Second Anglo-Boer war. British businessmen Cecil Rhodes and Barney Barnato made their fortunes in Kimberley, and Rhodes established the De Beers diamond company in the early days of the mining town.
The term Batlôkwa refers to several Kgatla communities that reside in Lesotho and South Africa.
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.
Griqualand West is an area of central South Africa with an area of 40,000 km2 that now forms part of the Northern Cape Province. It was inhabited by the Griqua people – a semi-nomadic, Afrikaans-speaking nation of mixed-race origin, who established several states outside the expanding frontier of the Cape Colony. It was also ancestral home to the Tswana and Khoisan peoples.
Barolong is a tribe of Tswana people from Botswana and South Africa. Their King, Tau was the descendant of King Morolong who is the founder of Barolong tribe. He reigned around 1240 and adopted Tholo as the Barolong totem. King Tau was a warrior king who reigned around 1660. He fought many battles and consolidated the Barolong tribe to become a very strong kingdom. He had many wives and begot many sons and daughters. The prominent four sons are Ratlou, Tshidi, Seleka and Rapulana. The Barolong tribe later used the names of the warrior King Tau's sons as their clan names. The Barolong tribe spread across the regions covering Botswana, through to Transvaal, Northern Cape and Free State. Its important to note that King Tau’s heir to the throne was Ratlou. After the death of King Tau in Taung, a village in the North West province of South Africa which was named after Kgosi Tau, some Barolong left Taung under Nthua, the younger brother of Tau. They settled in Dithakwaneng, and later, Dithakong, where Nthua died and was buried. Ratlou and the tribe left Dithakong for Mamusa, and later settled in their former capital i.e. Setlagole. This is the place where the kingship of Barolong disintegrated into a number of clans, after Tau's sons. This is after the death of Ratlou. Ratlou had four sons i.e. Mariba, Seitshiro, Mokalaka and Moirwagale. Two of these sons fought for the throne, with Mokalaka supporting Mariba while Moirwagale supported Seitshiro. Moirwagale became the Regent for Seitshiro while Mokalaka became one for Mariba. Finally Barolong disintegrated into four clans, and later five. Their final settlements are as follows; Ratlou; Mariba (Ganyesa); Seitshiro (Khunwana); Tshidi and Makgetla-Mahikeng; Seleka-Thaba nchu; Rapulana-Bodibe.
Galeshewe is a township in Kimberley, South Africa. Within the Sol Plaatje Local Municipality in the Northern Cape Province, it is named after Kgosi Galeshewe.
Kgosi (Chief) Galeshewe,, was a chief of the Batlhaping group in South Africa. He was an anti-colonial revolutionary and orchestrated rebellions against the Cape Colony government. The Galeshewe Township in the Sol Plaatje Municipality, Kimberley, has been named after him. A South African Navy fast attack craft has also been named after him. Galeshewe was born in 1835 near Taung, South Africa.
The South African Wars, including but also known as the Confederation Wars, were a series of wars that occurred in the southern portion of the African continent between 1879 and 1915. Ethnic, political, and social tensions between European colonial powers and indigenous Africans led to increasing hostilities, culminating in a series of wars and revolts, which had lasting repercussions on the entire region. A key factor behind the growth of these tensions was the pursuit of commerce and resources, both by countries and individuals, especially following the discoveries of gold in the region in 1862 and diamonds in 1867.
Dithakong is the name of a place east of Kuruman in the Northern Cape, South Africa, which had been a major destination for several of the earliest nineteenth century expeditions from the Cape to the interior of the subcontinent. In colonial literature the name is often rendered in such ways as Litakun, also Litakoo or Lattakoo.
Richard Miles was a Motswana (Tswana) catechist and preacher "to the native tribes beyond the border" in South 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.
Schmidtsdrift is a town in Pixley ka Seme District Municipality in the Northern Cape province of South Africa. Situated 80 km west of Kimberley, it was originally a ford across the Vaal River which is now bridged on the N8 National Route from Kimberley to Campbell and Griquatown.
Toto Makgolokwe was the paramount chief (kgosi) of the Batlharo tribe of South Africa, dubbed the Freedom Warrior and an icon of the land whose resistance to colonization galvanized the freedom struggle. In 1897, he became the hero of The Langeberg Rebellion (1896–97) after defeating the British military. The British subsequently brought in reinforcements which defeated the Batlharo and captured both Makgolokwe and Kgosi Galeshewe. Kgosi Toto's eldest son Robanyane Toto was also arrested with him at Robben Island.
In the 1890s, an epizootic of the rinderpest virus struck all across Africa, but primarily in Eastern and Southern Africa. It was considered to be "the most devastating epidemic to hit southern Africa in the late nineteenth century." It killed more than 5.2 million cattle south of the Zambezi, as well as domestic oxen, sheep, and goats, and wild populations of buffalo, giraffe, and wildebeest. The effects of the outbreak were drastic, leading to massive famine, economic collapse, and disease outbreak in humans. Starvation spread across the region, resulting in the death of an estimated third of the human population of Ethiopia and two-thirds of the Maasai people of Tanzania.
Batlhaping is one of the Tswana tribes which resides mostly in the Northern Cape and North West of South Africa. The name of the Batlhaping loosely translates to; " those with an affinity for fish". After Barolong settled on the banks of the Vaal River known as Kolong, fish became a staple of their diet. During their migration, the Batlhaping encounted the Korana, a nomadic Khoisan tribe in 1750. The two tribes settled together. There were several harassing raids by the Ndebele which led to most Barolong to move Northwards to modern day Ganyesa. Those who were left behind stayed and fought back against the raids of the Ndebele and they were referred to from that point as "those who remained behind to eat fish", thus this became their name. This however did not mean that they were independent from Barolong. "Tlhapi" means "Fish", and this is not the tribe's totem. The tribe does have the symbol of the fish in usage under some circumstances to differentiate themselves from other Barolong, however since they are Barolong their totem or equivalent is a Kudu, which in Setswana is called Tholo. This is why Barolong affectionately refer to each other as "Tholo".
The Vaalharts Valley is located in the north-east corner of the Northern Cape province of South Africa, bordering the North West province. It gets its name because it is located between two rivers, the Vaal and the Harts. Because of its advantageous position between the two rivers, an irrigation scheme was built in the Vaalharts Valley in the 1930s.
The Langeberg Rebellion of 1896–97, also known as Ntwa ya Bana ba Mokgothu in SeTswana, was a war of resistance waged by two Tswana groups: the Batlhaping and the Batlharo, against British settlers in all of Griqualand area of the Northern Cape. The Rebellion was triggered when the baTswana groups became suspicious about the intentions of the Cape Colonial government as they feared, justifiably, that they stood to lose land and were being marginalised in the growing market economy of the Cape. The Langeberg Rebellion consisted of a series of revolts between December 1896 and August 1897 against British land annexations in the Griqualand area. The Rebellion was led by chiefs Kgosi Luka Jantjie and Kgosi Galeshewe of the Batlhaping and chief Toto Makgolokwe of the Batlharo.
The History of Botswana includes its pre-state history, its colonial period as the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and its modern history as a sovereign state.
