Portal:Botswana

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Coat of Arms of Botswana	Flag of Botswana

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Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 per cent of its territory part of 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. With a population of slightly over 2.4 million people and a comparable land area to France, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is essentially the nation-state of the Tswana people, who constitute nearly 80 per cent of the population.

The Tswana ethnic group are descended mainly from Bantu-speaking peoples who migrated into southern Africa, including modern Botswana, in several waves before AD 600. In 1885, the British colonised the area and declared a protectorate named Bechuanaland. As part of the decolonisation of Africa, Bechuanaland became an independent Commonwealth republic under its current name on 30 September 1966. Since then, it has been a parliamentary republic with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections, although the Botswana Democratic Party was the only ruling party from independence until 2024. As of 2024^[update], Botswana is the third-least corrupt country in Africa, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International.

The economy is dominated by mining and tourism. Botswana has a per capita GDP (purchasing power parity) of about $20,158 as of 2024^[update]. Botswana is the world's biggest diamond-producing country. Its relatively high gross national income per capita (by some estimates the fourth-largest in Africa) gives the country a relatively high standard of living and the second-highest Human Development Index of continental Sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa). Despite this, Botswana continues to grapple with high unemployment rates. Botswana is a member of the Southern African Customs Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth of Nations and the United Nations. (Full article...)

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Francistown is the second-largest city in Botswana, with a population of about 103,417 and 147,122 inhabitants for its agglomeration at the 2022 census. It is located in eastern Botswana, about 400 kilometres (250 mi) north-northeast from the capital, Gaborone. Francistown is located at the confluence of the Tati and Ntshe rivers, and near the Shashe River (tributary to the Limpopo) and 90 kilometres (56 mi) from the international border with Zimbabwe.

Francistown was the centre of Southern Africa's first gold rush and is still surrounded by old and abandoned mines. The City of Francistown is an administrative district, separated from North-East District. It is administered by Francistown City Council. The main language spoken and used in and around Francistown is Kalanga. Other languages used in the area are isiNdebele, ChiShona as well as SeTswana. Francistown is the only city in Botswana with an English name. There are no English-language named towns and only a couple of villages with English names. (Full article...)

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... that the Motswana ANC activist Fish Keitseng helped anti-Apartheid leaders including Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki to move through Bechuanaland?

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This is a good article, A-class article, featured list, or featured article, one of Wikipedia’s best work.

A natural diamond crystal

Diamond is a solid form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond as a form of carbon is tasteless, odourless, strong, brittle solid, colourless in pure form, a poor conductor of electricity, and insoluble in water. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, but diamond is metastable and converts to it at a negligible rate under those conditions. Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are used in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools. They are also the reason that diamond anvil cells can subject materials to pressures found deep in the Earth.

Because the arrangement of atoms in diamond is extremely rigid, few types of impurity can contaminate it (two exceptions are boron and nitrogen). Small numbers of defects or impurities (about one per million of lattice atoms) can color a diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (defects), green (radiation exposure), purple, pink, orange, or red. Diamond also has a very high refractive index and a relatively high optical dispersion. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Botswana-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Man on donkey herding goats in a dry river bed (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 2CBD Developments (from Gaborone)
Image 3Madila sour cultured milk (from Tswana people)
Image 4Francistown Stadium (from Francistown)
Image 5I-Tower at Central Business District (from Gaborone)
Image 6Orapa House (from Gaborone)
Image 7Gaborone Dam (from Gaborone)
Image 8Festus Mogae alongside foreign presidents Joaquim Chissano, George W. Bush, and José Eduardo dos Santos in 2002 (from History of Botswana)
Image 9Tswana Baskets (from Tswana people)
Image 10Gaborone aerial (from Gaborone)
Image 11Magadi (traditional wedding) (from Culture of Botswana)
Image 12Graduation daggers that were given to Tswana Fighting Regiments (from Tswana people)
Image 13Botswana Gaborone I Towers (from Gaborone)
Image 14Kombi (Minibus taxi) (from Gaborone)
Image 15Rail network map of Botswana (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 16The Jwaneng diamond mine is the second biggest in the world today. (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 17An illustration of a Tswana man and his wife in the early 1800s (from History of Botswana)
Image 18BR Express, the passenger train (from Francistown)
Image 19New CBD (from Gaborone)
Image 20New Construction Developments (from Gaborone)
Image 21Gaborone Hindu temple (from Gaborone)
Image 22View from Kgale Hill (Oodi Hill on horizon) (from Gaborone)
Image 23Christ The King Cathedral (from Gaborone)
Image 24A postage stamp circa 1943, the postmark reading "Gaborone's Village" (from Gaborone)
Image 25A 1960 stamp of the Bechuanaland Protectorate featuring images of Queen Victoria and Elizabeth II, the first and last British monarchs of the protectorate (from History of Botswana)
Image 26Watch house in Gaborone Game Reserve (from Gaborone)
Image 27Tourist resort at Kasane (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 28Prehistoric cave paintings at Tsodilo (from History of Botswana)
Image 29SSKI Airport (from Gaborone)
Image 30Gaborone Mosque (from Gaborone)
Image 31Road map of Gaborone (from Gaborone)
Image 32Francistown City Bus and Taxi Rank (from Francistown)
Image 33I-Towers, Gaborone Central Business District (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 34Botswana traditional baskets (from Culture of Botswana)
Image 35Gaborone Hindu Temple (from Gaborone)
Image 36Rev. Derek Jones, the first mayor of Gaborone
Image 37Aerial view over Okavango Delta (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 38Batswana Men dressed in traditional attire in 1946 (from Tswana people)
Image 39Street scene near the Main Mall (from Gaborone)
Image 40Mokgweetsi Masisi speaking at a conference on the illegal wildlife trade in London in 2018 (from History of Botswana)
Image 41Jan Mashiani and Len Taunyane were the first black participants from Africa in the Olympics (from Tswana people)
Image 42Homestead in the ancient City of Kaditshwene
Image 43Room 52 Roof Top Restaurant (from Gaborone)
Image 44Rhodesia Railways car at the national museum (from Gaborone)
Image 45Francistown Bus Terminal (from Francistown)
Image 46Bechuanaland Boys cleaning Aa Guns in the Twilight after Action, Syracuse, Sicily, 1944 art piece by Leslie Cole (from History of Botswana)
Image 47Flag map of Gaborone (from Gaborone)
Image 48Satellite View of Gaborone. North is to the left of the image. (from Gaborone)
Image 49GDP per capita (current), compared to neighbouring countries (world average = 100) (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 50A road in Gaborone (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 51CBD Mall (from Gaborone)
Image 52Ostriches at Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Botswana (from Gaborone)
Image 53Botswana traditional house at the National Museum (from Culture of Botswana)
Image 54St. Joseph's College students (from Gaborone)
Image 55Sir Seretse Khama International Airport (GBE) (from Gaborone)
Image 56Gaborone Dam (from Gaborone)
Image 57The National Assembly of Botswana (from Gaborone)
Image 58An 1865 portrait of Kgosi Sechele I in Ntsweng Bechuanaland (from Tswana people)
Image 59Seretse Khama signing the oath of office to become Botswana's first President in 1966 (from History of Botswana)