Mmadinare is a village that is located in the Central District of

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 Kal ...

, 15 kilometers from

Selibe Phikwe Selebi-Phikwe (also spelt ''Selibe Phikwe'') is a mining town located in the Central District of Botswana. It had a population of 42,488 in 2022. The town is an administrative district, separate from the surrounding Central District. Mining ...

. The village is slowly growing into a town, with a population estimate of about 13 000 (estimates from the 2004 census) people of different tribes including Bangwato, Batalaote, Babirwa, and others. Mmadinare is located in the center of hills; like other villages in

Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the African continent, south of the Congo and Tanzania. The physical location is the large part of Africa to the south of the extensive Congo River basin. Southern Africa is home to a number o ...

it was started during wars and hills were used as a form of protection from enemies, as they were able to see them from a distance.

Geography

Motloutse River The Motloutse River is a river in Botswana, a tributary of the Limpopo River. The catchment area is . The Letsibogo Dam on the Motloutse has been built to serve the industrial town of Selebi-Phikwe and surrounding local areas, with potential for ...

passes on the northern part of the village called, which supplies the

Letsibogo Dam The Letsibogo Dam is a dam on the Motloutse River in Botswana, built to initially provide water to the industrial town of Selebi-Phikwe and surrounding local areas, with potential for use in irrigation. The dam now supplies Gaborone, the capital ...

with water, on its way to

Shashe River The Shashe River (or Shashi River) is a major left-bank tributary of the Limpopo River in Zimbabwe. It rises northwest of Francistown, Botswana and flows into the Limpopo River where Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa meet.sand mining Sand mining is the extraction of sand, mainly through an open pit (or sand pit) but sometimes mined from beaches and inland dunes or dredged from ocean and river beds. Sand is often used in manufacturing, for example as an abrasive or in conc ...

by the

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pink ...

mine in

, which gets sand from the river to wash their

ores Ore is natural rock or sediment that contains one or more valuable minerals, typically containing metals, that can be mined, treated and sold at a profit.Encyclopædia Britannica. "Ore". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 7 April ...

. The area also has a high potential for

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

and

wildlife Wildlife refers to undomesticated animal species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wild in an area without being introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous to game: those birds and mammals that were hunted ...

resources, as there are many animals in the surrounding areas especially

elephant Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantida ...

s which destroy people's crops and properties. Sometimes lives are lost in the process.

History

The village was founded around 1900 by the Batalaote when they gave up the settlement of

Palapye Palapye is a growing town in Botswana, situated about halfway between Francistown and Gaborone ( from Francistown and from Gaborone). Over the years its position has made it a convenient stopover on one of Southern Africa's principal north–sout ...

. Batalaote settled and lived near the Makome hill and occupied the Kelele and Seboo wards. Those from South Africa settled and stayed near Maretemagolo hill and formed

Manga Manga ( Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is ...

and Matabi wards. The royal families of Kelele and Seboo were burnished out of Mmadinare in 1908 by the colonial administration. They latter settled in Senyawe according to village elders and historians.

Culture and sports

The people of Mmadinare prefer a very quiet life and low profile lifestyle and like their customs and traditions like eating traditional food (

mabele Commercial sorghum is the cultivation and commercial exploitation of species of grasses within the genus ''Sorghum'' (often ''Sorghum bicolor, S. bicolor'', sometimes ''Sorghum arundinaceum''). These plants are used for grain, fibre and fodder. T ...

) while at the same time trying to develop into a small town without losing its past as it gets a major influence from the neighbor town of Selibe Phikwe. There is an annual 10 km race that takes place in the village held on

Christmas Day Christmas is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, ...

and is one of the main attraction of visitors to the village especially in December. Mmadinare usually organise seasonal football tournaments sponsored by different organisations.

Infrastructure

The village contains a police station, a senior secondary school and the

. The village has two junior secondary schools (Makome and Merementsi). Mmadinare has six primary schools which are St Peters,

Mmadinare School Mmadinare is a village that is located in the Central District of Botswana, 15 kilometers from Selibe Phikwe. The village is slowly growing into a town, with a population estimate of about 13 000 (estimates from the 2004 census) people of differ ...

, Phethu-mphoeng, Tapalakoma, Kelele and Letsibogo, and a few preschools. Mmadinare Primary Hospital is a government-run

district hospital A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emergen ...

located in Mmadinare.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Botswana