60 Fun Facts About Botswana

What is the capital and largest city of Botswana?

It was purpose-built in the mid-1960s because the colonial capital, Mafeking, was actually across the border.

Roughly what share of Botswana's territory is part of the Kalahari Desert?

Kalahari comes from a Tswana word meaning "the great thirst"; the desert is really a semi-arid sandy savanna.

Which country produces more diamonds than any other?

Mining supplies about 40% of government revenue; the state owns half of the Debswana mining company.

Botswana's currency, the pula, takes its name from the Setswana word for what?

Rain is so precious in the Kalahari that pula also means "blessing"; the sub-unit thebe means "shield".

What do the blue field and the black-and-white stripe on Botswana's flag represent?

Designed by a British colonial administrator, it was first hoisted at midnight on independence day, 30 September 1966.

Botswana gained independence from Britain on 30 September of which year?

Until then it had been a British protectorate since 1885.

Under what name was Botswana a British protectorate from 1885 until independence?

Unusually, it was administered from Mafeking, a town outside its own borders.

Who was Botswana's first president, serving from 1966 until his death in 1980?

Britain had exiled him in the 1950s for marrying an Englishwoman, a story told in a 2016 film.

Botswana's future first president married Ruth Williams in 1948. Objections from which government caused a crisis?

Britain kept him in exile in England to avoid souring relations with Pretoria.

Which 2016 film starring David Oyelowo dramatised the marriage of Seretse and Ruth Khama?

Ruth served as Botswana's first First Lady from 1966 to 1980.

Botswana is often called Africa's longest what?

Elections have been held every five years since 1965; power changed hands peacefully for the first time in 2024.

In 2024 Duma Boko became the first president from outside which party, in power since independence?

Boko, a Harvard-trained lawyer, led the opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change to victory.

The Okavango Delta is unusual among the world's great deltas because it does what?

Its water floods in from the north and evaporates in the Kalahari; it became the 1,000th World Heritage Site in 2014.

In June 2014 the Okavango Delta earned what milestone on the UNESCO World Heritage List?

It was also named one of the Seven Natural Wonders of Africa in 2013.

Chobe National Park in Botswana has the world's largest concentration of which animal?

Around 50,000 elephants roam the park, in the biggest herds of any known elephant population.

Botswana's Makgadikgadi Pan, one of the largest salt-flat complexes on Earth, is the remnant of what?

DNA studies suggest modern humans may first have evolved around this once-fertile basin some 200,000 years ago.

The Tsodilo Hills, with over 4,500 rock paintings, are nicknamed what?

They became a World Heritage Site in 2001; the four hills are called Male, Female, Child and an unnamed knoll.

Which Botswana mine, opened in 1982, is the richest diamond mine in the world by value?

Orapa, opened in 1971, is the largest by area; both are run by Debswana.

Debswana, the top diamond producer by value, is a 50-50 venture between Botswana's government and which company?

It was formed in 1968 after De Beers geologists found diamonds at Orapa, a year after independence.

Which sprinter won Botswana's first Olympic gold medal, in the 200 m at Paris 2024?

He was also the first African to win the Olympic 200 m; the country declared a public holiday.

Botswana's first Olympic medal of any colour came in 2012 when Nijel Amos took silver in which event?

His time was also a world under-20 record; he was later handed a three-year doping ban.

Amantle Montsho won Botswana's first world athletics title in 2011 in which event?

Isaac Makwala later won Commonwealth gold in the same event in 2018.

Botswana's national football team is nicknamed what?

They qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 2012 and again in 2025.

Seswaa, the national dish of Botswana, is what?

It is cooked with just enough salt in a three-legged pot and served with bogobe porridge at celebrations.

A kgotla, central to Botswana's political culture, is what?

Decisions there are reached by consensus under the chief; the word simply means "court" in Setswana.

Mma Precious Ramotswe, heroine of a best-selling series set in Botswana, runs what business?

Alexander McCall Smith has published 26 books in the series since 1998.

Which people were controversially evicted from Botswana's Central Kalahari Game Reserve?

A 2006 court ruled the removals illegal; their lands lie over the world's richest diamond field.

Which two languages are Botswana's official language and its national lingua franca?

Setswana is a Bantu language whose prefixes give the country (Bo-), people (Ba-) and language (Se-) their names.

Botswana's name literally means what?

One citizen is a Motswana; several are Batswana, a term now used for all nationals.

Botswana is roughly the size of which European country?

With only about 2.4 million people, it is one of the most sparsely populated countries on Earth.

Botswana had no army at independence. What prompted it to form the Defence Force in 1977?

Ian Khama, later president, commanded the BDF before entering politics.

Ian Khama, president 2008-2018, fell out with successor Mokgweetsi Masisi over lifting a ban on what?

Botswana holds the world's largest elephant population; Masisi once threatened to send 20,000 to Germany.

The 2021 Kazungula Bridge linking Botswana and Zambia curves to avoid the borders of which two countries?

Four countries almost meet at the point; the Botswana-Zambia border there is just 135 m long.

Which Botswana city, the second largest, grew up around southern Africa's first gold rush in the 1860s?

It sits near the Zimbabwe border at the meeting of the Tati and Ntshe rivers.

Which Bangwato king (1875-1923) went to London to keep Cecil Rhodes' company out?

His grandson became Botswana's first president.

In November 2021, scientists in Botswana were the first in the world to identify which COVID-19 variant?

The Botswana Harvard HIV Reference Laboratory sequenced it; the country's HIV programme was among the first anywhere to offer free antiretrovirals, in 2002.

In 2002, Botswana became the first country in the world to do what in the fight against HIV/AIDS?

Mother-to-child transmission fell from about 40% in 2003 to 4% by 2010.

Botswana's Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, opened in 1999, straddles the border with which country?

Three-quarters of its 38,000 km2 lie in Botswana; it is famous for black-maned lions.

The colonial protectorate that became Botswana had an unusual administrative arrangement. What was it?

The seat of government finally moved to a newly built town inside the country in 1965.

The pula replaced which currency at par when it was introduced on 23 August 1976?

The rand ceased to be legal tender 100 days later; the pula is now pegged to a basket of currencies.

Botswana has the world's largest population of the heaviest living land animal. Which animal?

Bulls average over 3 m at the shoulder and can top six tonnes.

Which river forms about 640 km of Botswana's south-eastern border?

Kipling's "great grey-green, greasy Limpopo" flows on through Mozambique to the Indian Ocean.

Botswana's Khama Rhino Sanctuary lies near which historic Bangwato village?

Serowe was the Khama family's capital and the childhood home of the first president.

Bogwera and bojale are what in Tswana tradition?

Held over months, they taught history, cosmology and obedience to elders and royalty.

Which baobab-studded granite outcrop rises from Botswana's Makgadikgadi salt pans?

It is a national monument and a sacred site for local people.

Which body was set up in 1965 in Lobatse to buy, slaughter and market the nation's beef?

Beef was the economic mainstay before diamonds and still ships to the EU.

Botswana borders four countries. Which of these is NOT one of them?

The Zambia border is a tiny stretch on the Zambezi; the fourth neighbour lies to the south.

Botswana's Musi cattle, unveiled in 2011, were bred to optimise what?

The composite breed mixes Tswana, Bonsmara, Brahman, Tuli and Simmental stock.

Botswana's first satellite, from the Sat-1 Project, reached orbit aboard whose rocket?

The programme launched in Gaborone in December 2020, with BIUST leading development.

As of 2024, roughly what share of Botswana's population is Tswana?

Kalanga make up about 11% and the San around 3%, with the rest a mix of smaller groups.

Which card game has a strong following in Botswana, spread by British expatriate teachers?

It grew in popularity during the 1980s and the Botswana Bridge Federation was founded in 1988.

Which coalition won Botswana's 2024 general election, ending the ruling party's unbroken run since 1965?

Its leader was sworn in as president on 1 November 2024.

In which year did Botswana's High Court strike down the law criminalising homosexual acts?

The 11 June ruling removed Criminal Code provisions on 'carnal knowledge against the order of nature'.

Who became president of Botswana on the death of its first president in 1980?

The sitting vice-president was then elected in his own right in 1984 and re-elected in 1989 and 1994.

By area, Botswana ranks where among the world's countries?

Its 581,730 square kilometres sit at a mean altitude of about 1,000 metres on gently rolling tableland.

What was Botswana's approximate GDP per capita in the late 1960s, when it ranked among the world's poorest?

By 2018 the figure had climbed to $15,842, one of the fastest per-capita growth stories anywhere.

Botswana was ranked Africa's third-least corrupt country in 2023, behind Cape Verde and which nation?

The Economist's 2023 Democracy Index also placed it second in Africa, behind only Mauritius.

Who served as president of Botswana from 1998 to 2008?

He was elected in 1999 and re-elected in 2004 before handing over to the son of the country's first president.

Women in which northern villages are renowned for weaving baskets from mokola palm?

They weave lidded storage baskets, open carrying baskets and plates, coloured with local dyes.

Which chief led the Tswana coalition that defeated Afrikaner incursions at the Battle of Dimawe in 1852?

Peace came at Potchefstroom in 1860, fixing the modern border between Botswana and South Africa.