Botswana

Where the name comes from

Botswana is Setswana for “country of the Tswana”; where the word Tswana comes from is uncertain.

First people

San hunter-gatherers have lived here for tens of thousands of years, and Tswana kingdoms grew up later.¹

Known for

Botswana is known for the Okavango Delta, a vast inland delta in the Kalahari that floods each year and draws huge herds of elephants.²

Outside rule

Britain made it the Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1885, but Batswana chiefs resisted plans to merge it into neighbouring colonies.³

The modern country

Their diplomacy, and later a push for independence, kept the territory separate, and it became Botswana in 1966. The republic kept a council of traditional chiefs alongside parliament.⁴