festivites
Here are some major festivities and holidays in Botswana:
1. Independence Day: Celebrated on 30th September to commemorate the country's independence from British colonial rule in 1966. The day is marked by a grand parade, flag hoisting, speeches by political leaders, and cultural performances.
2. Maitisong Festival: A week-long arts festival held annually in Gaborone during the last week of April. It features a diverse range of musical performances, dance shows, theater plays, and art exhibitions from local and international artists.
3. President's Day: Celebrated on the third Monday of July in honor of the sitting president of Botswana. The day includes a military parade, traditional dances, and cultural events.
4. Dithubaruba Cultural Festival: Held annually in August at Kanye Village in Southern Botswana. The festival showcases traditional music, dance, food, and crafts from the Bakwena people.
5. Christmas: Celebrated on 25th December, like in many other countries, it is a religious and cultural holiday with families gathering for feasting, gift-giving, and attending church services.
6. New Year's Day: Celebrated on 1st January, as a secular holiday with parties, fireworks, and resolutions for the upcoming year.
These celebrations reflect the diversity of Botswana's cultural heritage and showcase its rich artistic and musical traditions.
seasons
In Botswana, there are generally two tourist seasons:
1. Dry season (May to October): This is the peak tourist season in Botswana when the weather is dry and cool, with little to no rainfall. Game viewing is excellent during this time as animals gather around water sources, but it can also be dusty and windy. It's recommended to bring warm clothing for early morning and night drives.
2. Wet season (November to April): This is the low-season when the weather is hot and humid, with occasional rainstorms. The landscape becomes lush and green, and many migratory birds arrive in the country. However, game viewing can be more challenging due to the dense vegetation and animals being more spread out. It's recommended to pack light, breathable clothing and waterproof gear.
It's worth noting that tourism peaks during the holiday period from mid-December to early January, so booking accommodation and activities well in advance is essential.
visa
Citizens of most countries, including the United States, do not need a visa to enter Botswana for tourism or business purposes for stays up to 90 days. However, there are some countries whose citizens require a visa to enter Botswana.
Citizens of certain African countries, such as Nigeria and Egypt, require a visa to enter Botswana. The cost of a single-entry visa for these citizens is usually around $50 USD, while a multiple-entry visa can cost around $150 USD.
Citizens of other countries, such as India and China, also require a visa to enter Botswana. The cost of a single-entry visa for these citizens is usually around $80 USD, while a multiple-entry visa can cost around $280 USD.
It's important to note that visa requirements can change at any time, so it's always a good idea to check with the Botswana embassy or consulate in your country for the latest information.
souvenirs
Some of the best souvenirs to buy from Botswana include:
1. Traditional crafts such as baskets, pottery, and carvings made by local communities. Prices vary depending on the item's size, intricacy, and materials used, but expect to pay around 50-200 BWP ($5-20 USD) for small items and up to several thousand BWP for larger pieces. You can find these at local markets and craft shops.
2. Diamonds are a significant export of Botswana, and you can find them in various jewelry stores throughout the country. Prices vary widely depending on the size, cut, clarity, and color of the diamond, so expect to pay anywhere from a few hundred to tens of thousands of dollars.
3. Traditional clothing, such as a khaftan or shweshwe dress, is another popular souvenir item. Prices depend on the quality of fabric used and where you purchase it, but expect to pay around 200-500 BWP ($20-50 USD) for a basic garment. You can find traditional clothing in local markets or specialty clothes shops.
4. Kalahari salt is a unique product that comes from the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans in Botswana. It's available in various sizes and packaging, with prices ranging from 10-100 BWP ($1-10 USD), depending on the size. You can find Kalahari salt in souvenir shops and grocery stores.
5. Traditional musical instruments such as the Kudu horn and the marimba are also great souvenirs to bring home from Botswana. Prices vary depending on the instrument's size and complexity, but expect to pay around 500-1500 BWP ($50-150 USD). These can be found in local markets or specialty music shops.
It's important to note that prices may vary depending on the location and seller, so it's a good idea to shop around before making a purchase.
If you have 1 week
Great! I'm excited to plan your one week itinerary in Botswana. There are many amazing places to visit and things to do in Botswana, so here are some suggestions for a fun-filled week:
Day 1: Visit the Okavango Delta - Take a scenic flight over the Okavango Delta and then go on a mokoro (traditional dugout canoe) ride through the delta's waterways. This is a unique experience where you can spot numerous bird species, hippos, elephants, and other wildlife.
Day 2: Go on a safari in Chobe National Park - Chobe is home to one of Africa's largest elephant populations, so you're sure to see lots of these magnificent animals. Take a game drive or boat cruise along the Chobe River, where you can also see hippos, crocodiles, buffaloes, and many other wildlife species.
Day 3: Explore Moremi Game Reserve - Moremi is a beautiful game reserve that boasts vast savannahs, winding waterways, and dense forests. You can take a game drive or guided nature walk to see leopards, lions, cheetahs, wild dogs, giraffes, zebras, and other animals.
Day 4: Visit the Makgadikgadi Salt Pans - These are some of the world's largest salt pans and they offer a hauntingly beautiful landscape. You can see the massive salt flats, spot flamingos, and take part in cultural tours with local tribes.
Day 5: Discover the Tsodilo Hills - This UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to more than 4,500 rock paintings, making it one of the world's most significant rock art sites. You can take a guided tour to explore the different hills and learn about the history and traditions of the San people.
Day 6: Relax at Kasane Hot Springs - After all the adventure and exploration, it's time to relax. The Kasane Hot Springs are a great place to do just that. The hot springs are located in a tranquil setting surrounded by lush vegetation, and the warm water is perfect for soaking tired muscles.
Day 7: Tour Gcwihaba Caverns - This is a unique natural wonder that is also known as the "Cave of the Gods". You can explore the underground caves and marvel at the stalactites and stalagmites, while learning about the history and geological features of the caverns.
I hope this itinerary gives you some ideas on how to spend a fun-filled week in Botswana. Enjoy your trip!
If you have 2 weeks
Exciting! Botswana is a beautiful country with so much to explore. Here is a two-week itinerary that will allow you to experience some of the best attractions the country has to offer.
Day 1-3: Start your trip in Maun, the gateway to the Okavango Delta. Spend your first day exploring the town and learning about the culture of the local tribes. On day two, embark on a mokoro (traditional canoe) safari through the delta's waterways. Observe wildlife such as hippos, crocodiles, elephants, and various bird species. On the third day, take a scenic flight over the delta to get an aerial view of the vast wetland ecosystem.
Day 4-6: Head to Chobe National Park, home to one of Africa's largest elephant populations. Take a boat cruise on the Chobe River and observe animals such as buffalos, antelopes, giraffes, crocodiles, and even lions sipping water from the river banks. You can also go on game drives to explore other areas of the park.
Day 7-9: Visit the Makgadikgadi Pans, the largest salt pans in the world. The landscape is beautifully surreal and offers unique experiences such as quad biking, camping under the stars, and visiting the remote Gweta village.
Day 10-12: Explore the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, the second-largest game reserve in the world. Here you can spot animals such as cheetahs, wildebeests, zebras, jackals, and hyenas on game drives. You can also learn about the San people who have lived in the area for thousands of years.
Day 13-14: End your trip in the Tuli Block, a narrow strip of land at the confluence of the Limpopo and Shashe rivers. The area is known for its baobab trees and rock formations. Visit the Tuli Game Reserve, where you can go on game walks and drives to spot animals such as leopards, elephants, and lions.
These are just a few of the many amazing places to see in Botswana. I hope this itinerary helps you plan your trip and allows you to experience some of the country's unique natural and cultural wonders.
Culture
Besides referring to the language of the dominant people groups in Botswana, Setswana is the adjective used to describe the rich cultural traditions of the Batswana—whether construed as members of the Tswana ethnic groups or of all citizens of Botswana. In Botswana, most ethnic groups have different ways of greeting one another. For easy communication and connection, Batswana use a three-way handshake, greeting one another by saying "Dumelang" as a way of saying "hello" without physical contact. In community celebrations like Dikgafela, or marriage ceremonies, Batswana women show excitement and happiness by using ululations as part of their culture.
Botswana literature belongs somewhere in the strong African literary writing circles. African literature is known for its consciousness and didactic writing styles. Writing as an art form has existed in Botswana for a long while, from the rock painting era — especially in the Tsodilo Hills, known to be 20,000 years old — to the present day, with the movie production of The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency, based on a series of more than 20 novels set in Botswana.
In recent times and to date Botswana has seen a remarkable appearance of distinguished writers whose genres range from historical, political and witty story writing. Prominent amongst these are the South African-born Bessie Head, who settled in Serowe; Andrew Sesinyi; Barolong Seboni (whose works include Images of the Sun, Screams and Pleas, Lovesongs, Windsongs of the Kgalagadi and Lighting the Fire, and several other publications that include a play, Sechele I, and Setswana Riddles Translated into English); Unity Dow, Galesiti Baruti; Caitlin Davies; Lauri Kubuetsile; Albert Malikongwa; Toro Mositi; and Moteane Melamu.
Most of Bessie Head's important works are set in Serowe. When Rain Clouds Gather (1968), Maru (1971), and A Question of Power (1973) all have this setting. The three are also autobiographical; When Rain Clouds Gather is based on her experience living on a development farm, Maru incorporates her experience of being considered racially inferior, and A Question of Power draws on her understanding of what it was like to experience acute psychological distress. Head also published a number of short stories, including the collection The Collector of Treasures (1977). She published a book on the history of Serowe, Serowe: Village of the Rainwind. Her last novel, A Bewitched Crossroad (1984), is historical, set in 19th-century Botswana. She had also written a story of two prophets, one wealthy and one who lived poorly, called Jacob: The Faith-Healing Priest.
The 1981 comedy The Gods Must Be Crazy was set in Botswana and became a major international hit; 2000's Disney production Whispers: An Elephant's Tale was filmed in Botswana, starring Hollywood legend Angela Bassett. Later on, during 2009, parts of M. Saravanan's Tamil-language Indian action film Ayan were recorded in Botswana.
The critically acclaimed A United Kingdom, about the real-life love story of Seretse Khama and Ruth Williams, was filmed partly between Botswana and London, and was released internationally in 2016.
There are six television stations in Botswana, one of which is state-owned (Botswana TV), along with Now TV, Khuduga HD, Maru TV, Access TV and EBotswana. There are five local radio stations (RB1, RB2, Duma FM, Gabz FM, and Yarona FM) and thirteen newspapers (Mmegi, Sunday Standard, The Telegraph, Business Weekly, The Botswana Gazette, The Voice, The Guardian, Echo, Botswana People's Daily, DailyNews, Tswana Times, Weekend Post, and The Monitor) that publish regularly.
Botswana's music is mostly vocal and performed, sometimes without drums depending on the occasion; it also makes heavy use of string instruments. Botswana folk music has instruments such as setinkane (a sort of miniature piano), segankure/segaba (a Botswanan version of the Chinese instrument erhu), moropa (meropa -plural) (many varieties of drums), phala (a whistle used mostly during celebrations, which comes in a variety of forms). Botswanan cultural musical instruments are not confined only to the strings or drums. The hands are used as musical instruments too, by either clapping them together or against (goat skin turned inside out wrapped around the calf area, only used by men) to create music and rhythm. For the last few decades, the guitar has been celebrated as a versatile music instrument for Tswana music as it offers a variety in string which the segaba instrument does not have. The national anthem is "Fatshe leno la rona". Written and composed by Kgalemang Tumediso Motsete, it was adopted upon independence in 1966.
In the northern part of Botswana, women in the villages of Etsha and Gumare are noted for their skill at crafting baskets from Mokola Palm and local dyes. The baskets are generally woven into three types: large, lidded baskets used for storage, large, open baskets for carrying objects on the head or for winnowing threshed grain, and smaller plates for winnowing pounded grain. The artistry of these baskets is being steadily enhanced through colour use and improved designs as they are increasingly produced for international markets.
The oldest paintings from both Botswana and South Africa depict hunting, animal and human figures, and were made by the Khoisan (!Kung San/Bushmen) over twenty thousand years ago within the Kalahari Desert.
The cuisine of Botswana mostly includes meat as Botswana is a cattle country. The national dish is seswaa, pounded meat made from goat meat or beef, Segwapa dried, cured meat ranging from beef to game meats & the cut may also vary, either fillets of meat cut into strips following the grain of the muscle, or flat pieces sliced across the grain. Botswana's cuisine shares some characteristics with other cuisine of Southern Africa.
Examples of Botswana food are: Bogobe, pap (maize porridge), boerewors, samp, Magwinya (fried dough bread) and mopane worms. Porridge (bogobe) is made by putting sorghum, maize, or millet flour into boiling water, stirring into a soft paste, and cooking it slowly. A dish called ting is made when the sorghum or maize is fermented and milk and sugar added. Without the milk and sugar, ting is sometimes eaten with meat or vegetables as lunch or dinner. Another way of making bogobe is to add sour milk and a cooking melon (lerotse). This dish is called tophi by the Kalanga tribe. Madila is a traditional fermented milk product similar to yogurt or sour cream.
Many different kinds of beans are grown, including cowpeas, ditloo, and letlhodi. Some vegetables grow in the wild and are available seasonally including thepe and Delele (okra). Many fruits are locally available, including marula. Watermelons, believed to have come originally from Botswana, are plentiful in season. Another kind of melon, called lerotse or lekatane, is also grown. Some kinds of wild melon found in sandy desert areas are an important food and water source for the people who live in those areas. Kgalagadi Breweries Limited produces the national beer, St. Louis Lager, Botswana's first and only local beer brand that has also been a part of Botswana's rich history since 1989, and non-alcoholic beverage Keone Mooka Mageu, a traditional fermented porridge.
Football is the most popular sport in Botswana, with qualification for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations being the national team's highest achievement to date. Other popular sports are softball, cricket, tennis, rugby, badminton, handball, golf, and track and field. Botswana is an associate member of the International Cricket Council. Botswana became a member of The International Badminton Federation and Africa Badminton Federation in 1991. The Botswana Golf Union offers an amateur golf league in which golfers compete in tournaments and championships. Botswana won the country's first Olympic medal in 2012 when runner Nijel Amos won silver in the 800 metres. In 2011, Amantle Montsho became world champion in the 400 metres and won Botswana's first athletics medal at the world level. High jumper Kabelo Kgosiemang is a three-time African champion, Isaac Makwala is a sprinter who specialises in the 400 metres, he was the gold medalist at the Commonwealth Games in 2018, Baboloki Thebe was a silver medalist in the 200 metres at the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics and reached the semi-finals at the 2014 World Junior Championships in Athletics, and Ross Branch Ross, a motor-biker, holds the number one plate in the South African Cross Country Championship and has competed at the Dakar Rally. Letsile Tebogo set the world junior record in the 100 metres with a time of 9.94 at the 2022 World Athletics Championships.
On 7 August 2021 Botswana won the bronze medal in the Men's 4 × 400 metres relay at the Olympics in Tokyo.
The card game bridge has a strong following; it was first played in Botswana over 30 years ago, and it grew in popularity during the 1980s. Many British expatriate school teachers informally taught the game in Botswana's secondary schools. The Botswana Bridge Federation (BBF) was founded in 1988 and continues to organise tournaments. Bridge has remained popular and the BBF has over 800 members. In 2007, the BBF invited the English Bridge Union to host a week-long teaching programme in May 2008.
Religion
An estimated 77% of the country's citizens identify as Christians. Anglicans, Methodists, and the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa make up the majority of Christians. There are also congregations of Lutherans, Baptists, Roman Catholics, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Dutch Reformed Church, Mennonites, Seventh-day Adventists, and Jehovah's Witnesses in the country. According to the 2001 census, the nation has around 5,000 Muslims (mainly from South Asia), 3,000 Hindus, and 700 of the Baháʼí Faith. Approximately 20% of citizens identify with no religion.
Demographics
As of 2012, the Tswana are the majority ethnic group in Botswana, making up approximately 79% of the population, followed by Kalanga at 11% and the San (Basarwa) at 3%. The remaining 7% is made up of White Batswana/European Batswana, Indians, and a number of other smaller Southern African ethnic groups.
Native groups include the Bayei, Bambukushu, Basubia, Baherero and Bakgalagadi. The Indian minority is made up of both recent migrants and descendants of Indian migrants who arrived from Mozambique, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritius and South Africa.
Since 2000, because of deteriorating economic conditions in Zimbabwe, the number of Zimbabweans in Botswana has risen into the tens of thousands.
Fewer than 10,000 San people are still living their traditional hunter-gatherer way of life. Since the mid-1990s the central government of Botswana has been trying to move San out of their historic lands. James Anaya, as the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous people for the United Nations in 2010, described loss of land as a major contributor to many of the problems facing Botswana's indigenous people, citing the San's eviction from the Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) as a special example. Among Anaya's recommendations in a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council was that development programs should promote, in consultation with indigenous communities such as the San and Bakgalagadi people, activities in harmony with the culture of those communities such as traditional hunting and gathering activities.
The official language of Botswana is English, while Setswana is widely spoken across the country. In Setswana, prefixes are more important than they are in many other languages, since Setswana is a Bantu language and has noun classes denoted by these prefixes. They include Bo, which refers to the country, Ba, which refers to the people, Mo, which is one person, and Se which is the language. For example, the main ethnic group of Botswana is the Tswana people, hence the name Botswana for its country. The people as a whole are Batswana, one person is a Motswana, and the language they speak is Setswana.
Other languages spoken in Botswana include Kalanga (Sekalanga), Sarwa (Sesarwa), Ndebele, Kgalagadi, Tswapong, !Xóõ, Yeyi, and, in some parts, Afrikaans.
An estimated 77% of the country's citizens identify as Christians. Anglicans, Methodists, and the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa make up the majority of Christians. There are also congregations of Lutherans, Baptists, Roman Catholics, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Dutch Reformed Church, Mennonites, Seventh-day Adventists, and Jehovah's Witnesses in the country. According to the 2001 census, the nation has around 5,000 Muslims (mainly from South Asia), 3,000 Hindus, and 700 of the Baháʼí Faith. Approximately 20% of citizens identify with no religion.
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