Botswana's History
The San people (Bushmen) are believed to have inhabited Botswana for
at least 30,000 years. They were followed by the pastoral Khoi-Khoi (Hottentots)
and later by Bantu groups, who migrated from the north-western and eastern
regions of Africa sometime during the 1st or 2nd century AD and settled
along the Chobe River. Different Bantu groups, including the Tswana, lived
relatively amicably in small groupings across the Kalahari until the 18th
century. Disputes were solved through fragmentation: the dissatisfied
party simply gathered together and tramped off to establish another domain
elsewhere.
By 1800, all suitable grazing lands around the fringes of the Kalahari
had been settled by pastoralists, and peaceful fragmentation was no longer
a feasible solution to disputes. Furthermore, Europeans had arrived in
the Cape and were expanding northward, and aggression after the 1818 amalgamation
of the Zulu tribes in South Africa made the scattered Tswana villages
highly vulnerable. In response, the Tswana regrouped and their society
became highly structured. Each Tswana nation was ruled by a hereditary
monarch, and the king's subjects lived in centralised towns and satellite
villages.
The orderliness and structure of the town-based Tswana society impressed
the Christian missionaries, who began to arrive in the early 1800s. None
managed to convert great numbers of Tswana, though they did manage to
advise the locals, sometimes wrongly, in their dealings with the Europeans
who followed. Meanwhile, the Boers began their Great Trek over the Vaal,
crossing into Tswana and Zulu territory and attempting to impose white
rule on the inhabitants. Many Tswana went into service on Boer farms,
but the association was rarely happy and often marred by rebellion and
violence. By 1877, animosity had escalated to such a level that the British
finally stepped in to annex the Transvaal, thereby launching the first
Boer War. The Boers dawdled after the Pretoria Convention of 1881 but
moved back into Tswana lands in 1882, prompting the Tswana to again ask
for British protection.
The British stepped in but didn't dance to the Tswana tune. Lands south
of the Molopo River became the British Crown Colony of Bechuanaland, while
the area north became the British Protectorate of Bechuanaland (which
is now Botswana). Apart from a few years when it seemed Britain was going
to cede control of Bechuanaland to Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa
Company, Britain maintained control of Bechuanaland until 1966. Nationalism
built during the 1950s and '60s, and as early as 1955 it had become apparent
that Britain was preparing to release its grip. Following the Sharpeville
Massacre of 1960, the Bechuanaland People's Party was formed with independence
as its aim. General elections were held in 1965, and Seretse Khama was
elected president. On 30 September 1966 the Republic of Botswana gained
independence.
Botswana was economically transformed by the discovery of diamonds near
Orapa in 1967. While most of the population remained in the low income
bracket, this mineral wealth provided the country with enormous foreign
currency reserves, pushing the pula to its position as Africa's strongest
currency. Then in 1999 the international diamond market slumped, which
led to Botswana's first budget deficit in 16 years. However, compared
to the rest of the African continent, it still has tremendous wealth and
stability. Botswana's government is regarded as pragmatic and pro-western,
although there are concerns about the country's increasing military expenditures.
Currently, Botswana's biggest problems are unemployment, urban drift and
a rocketing birthrate.
*The above information was obtained from
www.lonelyplanet.com and Youth International
wants to acknowlege all due credit to the source of the information.
