White people in Botswana are Botswanan people whose ancestry lies within the continent of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, most notably the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Currently, White Africans are a minority ethnic group in Botswana, accounting for around 3% of the country's population. The White population usually speak

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gra ...

, with a small Serbian community in the country’s capital. The Afrikaner population is centred around farming communities in the Ghanzi Region (descendants of the Dorsland Trekkers). After the Zimbabwean Land Reforms, a small amount of Anglo-Zimbabwean Farmers moved to Botswana (as well as South Africa and Zambia) to start new lives.

History

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

people began to immigrate into what is today the nation of Botswana in the 19th century, starting with the

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape Colony, Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controll ...

people. The Dorsland Trek in the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw thousands of Boer families migrate from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

to present-day

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

by way of Botswana. Many families stayed, especially in

Ghanzi Ghanzi is a town in the middle of the Kalahari Desert the western part of the Republic of Botswana in southern Africa. The region is the country's pride in contributing a large portion towards the beef industry. In fact, Ghanzi farmers provides ...

, which is in the

Kalahari Desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal de ...

. White Botswana people are primarily of

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from Free Burghers, predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: ...

descent, but smaller numbers are also of British/Rhodesian ancestry as well. Additionally, there is a fairly significant Serbian community in the country, mainly families of immigrants from

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label=Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavija ...

who came beginning in the 1950s. There is a Serbian Society in Gaborone, which regularly hosts a variety of cultural events. In 2016 construction began on the first

Serbian Orthodox The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous (ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the population in ...

church in Botswana, the St. Nicholas Church. The St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church also operates in Gaborone.“History of Serbs in Botswana.” Saint Sava Botswana, Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Gaborone, Botswana, www.saintsavabotswana.org/history-of-serbs-in-botswana.

Notable people

Roy Blackbeard Roy Warren Blackbeard (born 16 April 1953) was the High Commissioner from the Republic of Botswana to the United Kingdom until December 2018. After working for De Beers and Price Waterhouse, as well as operating his own company, he became a Memb ...

, MP, High Commissioner from Botswana to the

* Ross Branch, motorcycle racer *

Christian de Graaff Christian de Graaff (born late 1950s) was the Minister of Agriculture of Botswana from 2011 to 2015 and currently is a Member of Parliament for the Ghanzi District. "Christian DeGraaf." Tsena. Tsena.co, n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2016. He is an ethnic Afr ...

, MP, Minister of Agriculture *

James G. Haskins James George Haskins (born 1914, died 1990) was a politician and businessman from Botswana. Haskins was born in Bulawayo. His father was James Haskins from Bristol who run coffee business in Tati Concessions Land and later a trading store chain he ...

, MP,

Speaker of the National Assembly of Botswana The Speaker of the National Assembly is the presiding officer of the unicameral Parliament of Botswana. Since Botswana's independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, eight men and women have served as Speaker. The first, Alfred Merriweather, a ...

* Derek Jones, Mayor of

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaboron ...

Ruth Williams Khama Ruth Williams Khama, Lady Khama (9 December 1923 – 22 May 2002) was the wife of Botswana's first president Sir Seretse Khama, the Paramount Chief of its Bamangwato tribe. She served as the inaugural First Lady of Botswana from 1966 to 1980. ...

First Lady of Botswana The first lady of the Republic of Botswana is the wife of the president of Botswana. The current first lady is Neo Masisi, the wife of President Mokgweetsi Masisi. The role is largely ceremonial and has no salary. President Masisi has said that ...

Alfred Merriweather Alfred Musgrave Merriweather OBE, CBE (19 August 1918 – 8 October 1999) was a Scottish missionary in Botswana, who was a member of the National Assembly of Botswana and its first Speaker. He helped improve public health in Botswana. Biography ...

, MP,

Samantha Paxinos Samantha Paxinos (born 25 February 1988) is a Botswana swimmer, who specialized in sprint freestyle events. She became one of the first-ever Botswana swimmers, alongside John Kamyuka, to compete at the 2008 Summer Olympics, and the first female to ...

, Olympic swimmer for Botswana * James Freeman, Olympic swimmer for Botswana * Benjamin Steinberg, MP, first Treasurer of the

Botswana Democratic Party The Botswana Democratic Party ( abbr. BDP) is the governing party in Botswana. Its chairman is the Vice-President of Botswana, Slumber Tsogwane, and its symbol is a lift jack. The party has ruled Botswana continuously since gaining independenc ...

Hendrik van Zyl Hendrik Matthys van Zyl (van Zijl), the "Laird of Ghanzi" (19 October 1828 – June 1880) was the first Afrikaner settler in Ghanzi, Botswana. A former politician in Transvaal, he crossed the Kalahari several times and set up a small trading ente ...

, famed trader and politician in

References and footnotes

Serbian Society of Botswana

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

Ethnic groups in Botswana White culture in Africa {{Africa-ethno-group-stub

History

Notable people

See also

References and footnotes