Portal:Botswana
Intro
Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 per cent of its territory being the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north and Zimbabwe to the northeast. Being a country of slightly over 2.4 million people and roughly the size of France, Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. It is essentially the nation-state of the Tswana people, who constitute 70 per cent of the population. The Tswana ethnic group were descended mainly from Bantu-speaking tribes who migrated southward of Africa to modern Botswana around AD 600. In 1885, the British colonised the area and declared a protectorate named Bechuanaland. As decolonisation occurred, Bechuanaland became an independent Commonwealth republic under its current name on 30 September 1966. Since then, it has been a parliamentary republic with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections, though as of 2024 the Botswana Democratic Party has been the ruling party since independence. , Botswana is the third least corrupt country in Africa, according to the Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International. The economy is dominated by mining and tourism. Botswana has a GDP (purchasing power parity) per capita of about $20,158 . Botswana is the world's biggest diamond-producing country. Its relatively high gross national income per capita (by some estimates the fourth-largest in Africa) gives the country a relatively high standard of living and the second-highest Human Development Index of continental Sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa). Botswana is a member of the Southern African Customs Union, the Southern African Development Community, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the United Nations. (Full article...)
Selected article -Botswana is a parliamentary republic in which the President of Botswana is both head of state and head of government. The nation's politics are based heavily on British parliamentary politics and on traditional Batswana chiefdom. The legislature is made up of the unicameral National Assembly and the advisory body of tribal chiefs, the Ntlo ya Dikgosi. The National Assembly chooses the president, but once in office the president has significant authority over the legislature with only limited separation of powers. The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) rules as a dominant party; while elections are considered free and fair by observers, the BDP has controlled the National Assembly since independence. Political opposition often exists between factions in the BDP rather than through separate parties, though several opposition parties exist and regularly hold a small number of seats in the National Assembly. Botswana achieved independence from the United Kingdom in 1966. The BDP led by Seretse Khama formed the first government, and continued winning elections every five years. Quett Masire became president following Khama's death in 1980, and the BDP was enveloped by factionalism in the 1990s. This factionalism persisted through the presidencies of Festus Mogae from 1998 to 2008 and Ian Khama from 2008 to 2018. Khama's successor, Mokgweetsi Masisi, became president in 2018 and developed a strong political rivalry with Khama, which came to define politics in Botswana over the following years. (Full article...)Did you know - ... that in the history of Gaborone, the city was attacked by South Africa four times, in 1983, 1985, 1986 and 1988, after being accused of harboring African National Congress terrorists?
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