Botswana - bŏtswäˈnə, officially Republic of Botswana, republic (1996 est. pop. 1,438,000), 231,804 sq mi (600,372 sq km), S central Africa. It is bordered by Namibia on the west and north, by Zambia at a narrow strip in the north, by Zimbabwe on the east, and by South Africa on the east and south. Gaborone is the capital and largest city. In addition to the capital, important cities are Francistown and Selebi-Phikwe.

Land and People

The terrain is mostly an arid plateau (c.3,000 ft/910 m high); in the east are hills. The Kalahari Desert lies in the south and west. In the northwest the Okavango (Cubango) River drains into the vast region of the Okavango Delta and Lake Ngami, thus forming a huge marshland. Rainfall varies from less than 9 in. (23 cm) per year in the southwest to about 25 in. (64 cm) in the north. The climate is subtropical, but droughts are common.

The country's population is mainly Tswana, who speak a Bantu language and are divided into eight major groups. There are also small minorities of Kalanga, Basarwa, Kgalagadi, and other poeples. English is the official language, but Tswana is also widely spoken. About half the population is Christian and half adheres to traditional practices.

Economy

Cattle raising and the export of beef and other cattle products are the chief economic activities, though migration to urban areas in search of economic opportunity has been an important recent trend. The country's water shortage and consequent lack of sufficient irrigation facilities have hampered agriculture, and only a small percentage of the land is under cultivation. Corn, sorghum, millet, and beans are the principal subsistence crops, and cotton, peanuts, and sunflowers are the main cash crops.

The only known minerals in the country at the time of independence were manganese and some gold and asbestos. Large nickel and copper deposits have since been found, as well as salt and soda ash. Vast coal deposits are also being worked, and antimony and sulfur are known to exist. Botswana's three diamond mines collectively make up one of the largest diamond reserves in the world, with stones mined by the government and a South African mining concern. Deposits of plutonium and platinum have also been found.

Although Botswana's mineral wealth has made it one of the wealthiest nations of S Africa, high unemployment remains a problem. Development of the tourist industry has been based partly on the attraction of the country's game reserves. Botswana, because of its landlocked position, remains heavily dependent on South Africa, which provides port facilities. Many Botswanans work in South Africa's mines, although their numbers have diminished. There are rail and road links with South Africa and Zimbabwe, its chief trade partners. Botswana is a member of the Southern African Development Community.

Government

Botswana is a multiparty parliamentary republic operating under a 1966 constitution. The country is headed by an elected president, and there is a bicameral legislature. The upper house consists of a 15-seat advisory House of Chiefs. The lower house, the National Assembly, has 40 elected members and four appointed members. Administratively, the country is divided into 10 districts and four towns.

History

San (Bushmen) were the aboriginal inhabitants of what is now Botswana, but they constitute only a small portion of the population today. The Tswana supplanted the San, who remained as subjects. Beginning in the 1820s, the region was disrupted by the expansion of the Zulu and their offshoot, the Ndebele. However, Khama II, chief of the Ngwato (the largest Tswana nation), curbed the depredations of the Ndebele and established a fairly unified state.

A new threat arose in the late 19th cent. with the incursion of Boers (Afrikaners) from neighboring Transvaal. After gold was discovered in the region in 1867, the Transvaal government sought to annex parts of Botswana. Although the British forbade annexation, the Boers continued to encroach on native lands during the 1870s and 80s. German colonial expansion in South West Africa (Namibia) caused the British to reexamine their policies, and, urged on by Khama III, they established (1884–85) a protectorate called Bechuanaland. The southern part of the area was incorporated into Cape Colony in 1895. Until 1961, Bechuanaland was administered by a resident commissioner at Mafikeng, in South Africa, who was responsible to the British high commissioner for South Africa.

Britain provided for the eventual transfer of Bechuanaland to the Union of South Africa; in succeeding years, however, South Africa's attempts at annexation were countered by British insistence that Bechuanaland's inhabitants first be consulted. The rise of the National party in South Africa in 1948 and its pursuit of apartheid turned British opinion against the incorporation of Bechuanaland into South Africa. Although Bechuanaland spawned no nationalist movement, Britain granted it internal self-government in 1965 and full independence as Botswana on Sept. 30, 1966. Shortly after, Botswana became a member of the United Nations. Seretse Khama, grandson of Khama III, was elected the first president.

In the period after independence, the country generally maintained close ties with its white-ruled neighbors and refused to let its territory harbor guerrilla operations against them. Prior to Zimbabwe's independence in 1980, however, Botswana became a refuge for guerrillas. In the years before a multiracial government was established in South Africa, Botswana was the target of South African reprisals.

Despite the increased importance of mining in the Botswanan economy, unemployment has been a problem since the 1970s, as subsistence farming has become less profitable and migrant workers have returned from the South African mines in search of work. By 1997, Botswana also had one of the highest rates of HIV infection (25%). On the political scene, the Botswana National Front, an organization acting on behalf of labor, has been growing in popularity, although elections in 1989 and 1994 gave the ruling Botswana Democratic party (BDP) a majority in the national assembly. Dr. Quett Ketumile Joni Masire, who had been president since 1980, resigned in 1998 and was succeeded by his vice president, Festus Mogae. Mogae won election to the presidency in Oct., 1999, and the BDP retained its hold on the national assembly.

Bibliography

See Z. Cervenka, Republic of Botswana (1970); A. Sillery, Botswana (1974); J. M. Chirenje, A History of Northern Botswana, 1850–1910 (1976); C. Colclough and S. McCarthy, The Political Economy of Botswana (1980); L. A. Picard, The Politics of Development in Botswana (1987).

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