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History Of Botswana
The history of Botswana encompasses the region's ancient and tribal history, its colonisation as the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and the present-day Republic of Botswana. The first modern humans to inhabit Botswana were the San people, and agriculture first developed approximately 2,300 years ago. The first Bantu peoples arrived , and the first Tswana people arrived about 200 years later. The Tswana people split into various tribes over the following thousand years as migrations within the region continued, culminating in the ''Difaqane'' in the late 18th century. European exploration of Africa, European contact first occurred in 1816, which led to the Christianization of the region. Facing threats from German South West Africa and the Afrikaners, the most influential Tswana chiefs negotiated the creation of a protectorate under the United Kingdom in 1885. The British divided the territory into tribal reserves for each of the major chiefs to rule, giving the chiefs more power than ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Ruth Williams Khama
Ruth Williams Khama, Lady Khama (née Williams; 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. Early life Khama was born in Meadowcourt Road, Blackheath in South London, the daughter of George and Dorothy Williams. Her father had served as a captain in the British Army in India, and later worked in the tea trade. She had a sister, Muriel (later Muriel Sanderson), with whom she remained close. She was educated at Eltham Hill Grammar School and then served as a WAAF ambulance driver at various airfields in the south of England during the Second World War. After the war, she worked as a clerk for Cuthbert Heath, a firm of underwriters at Lloyd's of London. Marriage In June 1947, at a dance at Nutford House organised by the London Missionary Society, her sister introduced her to Prince Seretse Khama. He was the so ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Lake Makgadikgadi
Lake Makgadikgadi (, ) was a paleolake that existed in what is now the Kalahari Desert in Botswana from 2,000,000 years BP to 10,000 years BP. It may have once covered an area of from and was deep. The Okavango, Upper Zambezi, and Cuando rivers once all emptied into the lake. Its remains are seen in the Makgadikgadi salt pans, one of the largest salt pans in the world. DNA research suggests the lake region is the homeland of ''Homo sapiens'', where humans first evolved as a distinct species about 200,000 years ago, before expanding to other parts of Africa about 70,000 years later. Origin and history Approximately 3 million years ago, strong easterly winds formed long dunes, which ran from east to west across the middle of the Kalahari Desert. During wetter times, these dunes channeled the great rivers of the area, the Okavango, Chobe, and Upper Zambezi, southeastward to join with the Limpopo River and drain into the Indian Ocean. Northern Botswana has a series ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Paleolake
A lake is often a naturally occurring, relatively large and fixed body of water on or near the Earth's surface. It is localized in a basin or interconnected basins surrounded by dry land. Lakes lie completely on land and are separate from the ocean, although they may be connected with the ocean by rivers. Lakes, as with other bodies of water, are part of the water cycle, the processes by which water moves around the Earth. Most lakes are fresh water and account for almost all the world's surface freshwater, but some are salt lakes with salinities even higher than that of seawater. Lakes vary significantly in surface area and volume of water. Lakes are typically larger and deeper than ponds, which are also water-filled basins on land, although there are no official definitions or scientific criteria distinguishing the two. Lakes are also distinct from lagoons, which are generally shallow tidal pools dammed by sandbars or other material at coastal regions of oceans or large la ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Tsodilo Hills Rock Paintings4
The Tsodilo Hills () are a UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS), consisting of rock art, rock shelters, depressions, and caves in Botswana, Southern Africa. It gained its WHS listing in 2001 because of its unique religious and spiritual significance to local peoples, as well as its unique record of human settlement over many millennia. UNESCO estimates there are over 4500 rock paintings at the site. The site consists of a few main hills known as the Child Hill, Female Hill, and Male Hill. Geography There are four chief hills. The highest is 1,400 metres AMSL, one of the highest points in Botswana. The four hills are commonly described as the "Male" (the highest), "Female", "Child", plus an unnamed knoll. They are about 40 km from Shakawe and can be reached via a good graded dirt road. There is a managed campsite between the two largest hills, with showers and toilets. It is near the most famous of the San paintings at the site, the Laurens van der Post panel, after the South- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
2024 Botswana General Election
General elections were held in Botswana on 30 October 2024 to determine the composition of the 13th Parliament of Botswana as well as local councils across the country. Up for election were 61 seats of the National Assembly of Botswana, National Assembly as well as 609 local council seats, all elected through the first-past-the-post voting system. The centre-right Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which had dominant-party system, dominated the country's politics since independence in 1966, was decisively beaten by the centre-left opposition Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC). Large voter swings toward opposition parties led to the BDP falling to fourth place. The UDC took first place with 36 seats, a majority of five. This ensured Duma Boko, leader of both the UDC and its largest component, the Botswana National Front (BNF), would be elected as President of Botswana. The Botswana Congress Party (BCP) took second place, becoming the Parliamentary opposition, official opposition. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Umbrella For Democratic Change
The Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) is a centre-left politics, centre-left to Left-wing politics, left-wing Electoral alliance, alliance of political parties in Botswana. Since the 2024 Botswana general election, the UDC has been the governing alliance of political parties. The UDC has campaigned on a progressive platform, advocating for a welfare state, wealth redistribution, renewable energy and democratic reforms, particularly in the electoral and judicial spheres. Since it was created as a political coalition with the primary aim of representing an alternative to the Botswana Democratic Party government, it has remained an ideologically pluralistic formation, though most of its member parties (both past and present) are positioned on the left-wing politics, left-wing or centre-left politics, centre-left of the political spectrum and is generally considered a social democracy, social democratic alliance. Some analysts have labeled the alliance and its discourse as "left-wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Dominant Party
A dominant-party system, or one-party dominant system, is a political occurrence in which a single political party continuously dominates election results over running opposition groups or parties. Any ruling party staying in power for more than one consecutive term may be considered a ''dominant party'' (also referred to as a ''predominant'' or ''hegemonic'' party). Some dominant parties were called the ''natural governing party'', given their length of time in power. ''Dominant'' parties, and their domination of a state, develop out of one-sided electoral and party constellations within a multi-party system (particularly under presidential systems of governance), and as such differ from states under a ''one''-party system, which are intricately organized around a specific party. Sometimes the term "''de facto'' one-party state" is used to describe dominant-party systems which, unlike a one-party system, allows (at least nominally) democratic multiparty elections, but the exis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Kgabo Commission
The Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Land Problems in Mogoditshane and Other Peri-Urban Villages, also known as the Kgabo Commission, was a 1991 commission of inquiry established by the government of Botswana. It was created to investigate allegations that land was being sold and purchased illegally in peri-urban villages such as Mogoditshane without the authorisation of land boards. Englishman Kgabo was appointed as its chairman. It published its findings and recommendations in the Kgabo Report, which found that due to housing shortages and a failure of the land board system, most land sales in Mogoditshane were unauthorised. The commission caused a major political scandal when it implicated Vice-President Peter Mmusi and Minister of Agriculture Daniel Kwelagobe, both of whom held leadership positions in the dominant Botswana Democratic Party (BDP). They resigned from their positions, but the party reelected them as party leaders in the subsequent congress. The ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Political Faction
A political faction is a group of people with a common political purpose, especially a subgroup of a political party that has interests or opinions different from the rest of the political party. Intragroup conflict between factions can lead to schism of the political party into two political parties. The Ley de Lemas electoral system allows the voters to indicate on the ballot their preference for political factions within a political party. Political factions can represent voting blocs. Political factions require a weaker party discipline. Research indicates that factions can play an important role in moving their host party along the ideological spectrum. George Washington's Farewell Address The first president of the United States, George Washington, warned of political factions in his famous farewell address from 1796. He warned of political parties generally, as according to Washington, political party loyalty when prioritized over duty to the nation and commitment to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
HIV/AIDS In Botswana
Botswana is experiencing one of the most severe HIV/AIDS epidemics in the world. The national HIV prevalence rate among adults ages 15 to 49 is 24.8 percent, which is the third highest in the world, behind Lesotho and Eswatini. HIV/AIDS threatens the many developmental gains Botswana has achieved since its independence in 1966, including economic growth, political stability, a rise in life expectancy, and the establishment of functioning public educational and health care systems. The prevalence and impact of HIV/AIDS in Botswana is notoriously hard to estimate. For example, it was in 2006 calculated that high HIV infection rates should cause slight annual population decline. However the 2011 census showed robust population growth averaging 1.9% per year since the previous census in 2001. Prevalence Botswana is in general well-equipped and with strong infrastructure to test the population for HIV, meaning that the prevalence may in fact be on par with other African nations, wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Debswana
Debswana Diamond Company Limited, or simply Debswana, is a mining company located in Botswana, and is the world's leading producer of diamonds by value. Debswana operates four diamond mines in the eastern and central parts of Botswana, as well as a coal mine. Debswana is a joint venture between the government of Botswana and the South African diamond company De Beers; each party owns 50 percent of the company. Mines The mines Debswana owns and operates are: * Orapa diamond mine, opened in 1971 * Letlhakane diamond mine, opened in 1975 * Jwaneng diamond mine, opened in 1982 * Damtshaa diamond mine, opened in 2003 History Debswana was formed as the De Beers Botswana Mining Company on 23 June 1968, after De Beers geologists identified diamond-bearing deposits at Orapa in the 1960s. Over the next five years, the government of Botswana increased its ownership stake from an original 15 percent to 50 percent. On March 25, 1992, the name of the company was changed to Debswana Diamond ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
