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, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. It is connected by the Kazungula Bridge to Zambia, across the world's shortest border between two countries.
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.
Mahikeng, formerly known as Mafikeng and alternatively known as Mafeking, is the capital city of the North West province of South 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 national flag of Botswana consists of a sky blue field cut horizontally in the centre by a black stripe with a thin white frame. Adopted in 1966 to replace the Union Jack, it has been the flag of the Republic of Botswana since the country gained independence that year. It is one of the few African flags that utilises neither the colours of the Pan-Africanist movement nor the colours of the country's leading political party.
Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and the physical geography definition based on the physical characteristics of the land.
Ghanzi is a town in the middle of the Kalahari Desert the western part of the Republic of Botswana in southern Africa. The region is the country's pride in contributing a large portion towards the beef industry. In fact, Ghanzi farmers provide about 75% percent of beef exports, according to the Botswana Meat Commission, primarily to the United Kingdom and the European Union.
East Hanahai is a village in Ghanzi District of Botswana. It is located in the central part of the district, close to the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, roughly 50 km south-east of Ghanzi. East Hanahai has a primary school and a health clinic. The building of the Trans-Kalahari Highway along its new route, rather than using the path of the old Gaborone - Ghanzi road has had a negative effect on East and West Hanahai due to the dramatic reduction in through traffic. The lack of jobs means that many members of the community rely on irregular government piece jobs and/or government food baskets. The population was 532 in 2011 census and is made up of a mixture of Basarwa (Bushmen) and Batswana.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Botswana:
Many languages are spoken, or historically have been spoken, in Zimbabwe. Since the adoption of its 2013 Constitution, Zimbabwe has 16 official languages, namely Chewa, Chibarwe, English, Kalanga, Koisan, Nambya, Ndau, Ndebele, Shangani, Shona, sign language, Sotho, Tonga, Tswana, Venda, Xhosa. The country's main languages are Shona, spoken by only 42% of the population, and Ndebele, spoken by roughly 39%. English is the country's lingua franca, used in government and business and as the main medium of instruction in schools. English is the first language of most white Zimbabweans, and is the second language of a majority of black Zimbabweans. Historically, a minority of white Zimbabweans spoke Afrikaans, Greek, Italian, Polish, and Portuguese, among other languages, while Gujarati and Hindi could be found amongst the country's Indian population. Deaf Zimbabweans commonly use one of several varieties of Zimbabwean Sign Language, with some using American Sign Language. Zimbabwean language data is based on estimates, as Zimbabwe has never conducted a census that enumerated people by language.
Christianity is the largest religion in Botswana. However, the country is officially secular and allows freedom of religious practice.
List of Railway stations in Botswana include:
White Africans of European ancestry refers to people in Africa who can trace full or partial ancestry to Europe. In 1989, there were an estimated 4.6 million white people with European ancestry on the African continent.
Afrikaners are a Southern African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in 1652. Until 1994, they dominated South Africa's politics as well as the country's commercial agricultural sector.
The A2 highway is a road in Botswana running from the Namibian border at Buitepos through Jwaneng, Kanye and Lobatse to the South African border at Pioneer Gate.
The population of Botswana is divided into the main ethnic groups of Tswana people (73%), 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.
Gert Andries Jacobus Alberts was the leader of the First Dorsland Trek. He was a member of the Gereformeerde Kerk and served as a church elder (‘kerkraadslid’).
Hendrik Matthys van Zyl (van Zijl), the "Laird of Ghanzi" (19 October 1828 – June 1880) was the first Afrikaner settler in Ghanzi, Botswana. A former politician in Transvaal, he crossed the Kalahari several times and set up a small trading enterprise in Ghanzi, where was known for his flamboyant character and extravagant wealth. He gained a reputation for ruthlessness in his business dealings, and even initially refused water to the Dorsland Trekkers on their way to Angola in 1875. He shot over 400 elephants, and the ivory from the beasts amounted to over 4 tonnes. With a vast ivory fortune, van Zyl built a two-story mansion with stained glass windows and imported furniture from France, the ruins of which still stand today. His hunting prowess was so well known and remarkable in the region, it was recorded in one single day van Zyl and his sons slaughtered 103 elephants. It is alleged that in the Gcwihaba cave, in northwest Botswana, van Zyl stashed a great fortune in the late 19th century. To this day, he is a legendary regional figure, and many tales have been written about him.
The History of Botswana includes its pre-state history, its colonial period as the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and its modern history as a sovereign state.
