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Botswana (English: Land of the Tswana; / b ɒ t ˈ s w ɑː n ə / ⓘ, also UK: / b ʊ t-, b ʊ ˈ tʃ w-/), officially the Republic of Botswana (Setswana: Lefatshe la Botswana, [lɪˈfatsʰɪ la bʊˈtswana]), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa.
- Demographics of Botswana
Demographic features of the population of Botswana include...
- Gaborone
Gaborone (UK: / ˌ ɡ æ b ə ˈ r oʊ n i, ˌ h æ b-/...
- Kazungula Bridge
Kazungula Bridge is a road and rail bridge over the Zambezi...
- Geography of Botswana
Botswana is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa,...
- Energy in Botswana
Energy in Botswana is a growing industry with tremendous...
- Politics of Botswana
Botswana is a parliamentary republic governed by the...
- Mokgweetsi Masisi
Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi (/ m ɔː k ˈ w eɪ t s i /;...
- Parliament of Botswana
Parliament of Botswana is the supreme legislative authority....
- Flag
When Botswana's national flag was created in 1966, it was...
- History of Botswana
Botswana was dependent on the Apartheid regime in South...
- Demographics of Botswana
- Overview
- Land
- Relief
- Drainage
- Soils
Botswana, landlocked country in the centre of Southern Africa. The territory is roughly triangular—approximately 600 miles (965 km) from north to south and 600 miles from east to west—with its eastern side protruding into a sharp point. Its eastern and southern borders are marked by river courses and an old wagon road; its western borders are lines of longitude and latitude through the Kalahari, and its northern borders combine straight lines with a river course. Within the confines of Botswana’s borders is a rich variety of wildlife, including many species of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish.
Before its independence in 1966, Botswana was a British protectorate known as Bechuanaland. It was also one of the poorest and least-developed states in the world. The country is named after its dominant ethnic group, the Tswana (“Bechuana” in older variant orthography). Since its independence the Republic of Botswana has gained international stature as a peaceful and increasingly prosperous democratic state. It is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the African Union (AU), and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The secretariat of SADC is housed in the capital of Botswana, Gaborone (until 1969 spelled Gaberones—i.e., Gaborone’s town, after the tribal chief who had his capital at the site during the colonial period).
Botswana is bounded by Namibia to the west and north (the Caprivi Strip), Zambia and Zimbabwe to the northeast, and South Africa to the southeast and south. The Zambezi River border with Zambia is only several hundred yards long. The border along the main channel of the Chobe River up to the Zambezi was disputed with Namibia until a 1999 ruling by ...
Botswana extends from the Chobe River (which drains through the Zambezi to the Indian Ocean) in the north to the Molopo River (part of the Orange River system, which flows into the Atlantic) in the south. To the east it is bordered by the Limpopo River and its tributaries, the Ngotwane (Notwani), Marico (Madikwe), and Shashe.
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The country has a mean altitude of 3,300 feet (1,000 metres) and consists largely of a sand-filled basin, with gently undulating plains rising to highlands in neighbouring countries. The highest point is 4,888 feet (1,490 metres) in the hills north of Lobatse in southeastern Botswana; the lowest point is 2,170 feet (660 metres) at the country’s easternmost point, in the Limpopo valley.
The country is divided into three main environmental regions. The hardveld region consists of rocky hill ranges and areas of shallow sand cover in eastern Botswana. The sandveld region is the area of deep Kalahari sand covering the rest of the country. The third region consists of ancient lake beds superimposed on the northern sandveld in the lowest part of the Kalahari Basin.
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Drainage through the marshes of the Okavango delta is complex and imperfectly understood. The perennial Okavango River runs southward into its delta across the Caprivi Strip from the highlands of Angola. Most of its water evaporates from the 4,000 square miles (10,000 square km) of the delta wetlands. Floodwater reaches down through the eastern side of the marshes to the Boteti River, which flows sporadically to Lake Xau (Dow) and the Makgadikgadi Pans (also roughly 4,000 square miles in area). Less and less water flowed through the western side of the Okavango marshes during the 20th century, so that the 70-square-mile (180-square-km) Lake Ngami—famous a century ago—is today dry and almost unrecognizable as a lake. Meanwhile, the eastern Makgadikgadi Pans are flooded annually by the otherwise ephemeral Nata River from the Zimbabwe highlands, while the southern tributaries of the pans are now dry fossil valleys.
The Molopo River and its Ramatlhabama tributary, on the southern border of Botswana with a course flowing into the Orange River, today rarely flood more than 50 miles (80 km) from their sources. Most rivers in Botswana are ephemeral channels, usually not flowing aboveground except in the summer rainy season. The two great exceptions to this rule are vigorous channels fed by the rains of central Africa—the Okavango River above its delta and the Chobe River flowing through its marshes along the northern border to join the Zambezi above the Victoria Falls.
The soils of the eastern hardveld consist of moderately dry red loamy mokata soils on the plains, or mixed chalky and sandy chawana soils, with brownish rocky seloko soils on and around hills. Seloko soils are considered best for grain crops. The fertility of all soils is limited by the amount of rainfall, which is sometimes inadequate on the hardveld and regularly unable to support any cultivation on the sandveld.
The alluvial soils of the ancient lake beds include gray loamy soils in the wetlands, gray-green saline soils on the pans, gray clayish soils to yellowish sandy soils around the wetlands, and very chalky light gray soils around the pans. There are also areas of gray to black cracking clay in former wet areas, such as those around Pandamatenga.
- Neil Parsons
A survey of notable events and people in the history of Botswana to the present day. Botswana is a landlocked country in the center of Southern Africa. The country is named after its dominant ethnic group, the Tswana (“Bechuana” in older variant orthography).
- Neil Parsons
The countries that border Botswana are Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Namibia. It is also possible to travel from Botswana directly into Zambia by crossing the Zambezi River by ferry. Botswana is landlocked. All of Botswana's trade must be brought in over land or by airplane.
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May 22, 2024 · Botswana. Africa. Page last updated: May 22, 2024. Photos of Botswana. view 30 photos. Introduction. Background. In the early 1800s, multiple political entities in what is now Botswana were destabilized or destroyed by a series of conflicts and population movements in southern Africa.
