Botswana 2

Botswana, so ancient but still so vibrant, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. It is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world, with just 2.3 million inhabitants. Botswana has a diversity of landscapes, from the great Kalahari Desert that blankets almost three-quarters of the country, to rocky hills, savannah grasslands, woodlands, forest patches and papyrus-bordered lagoons and rivers. The spectacular Okavango Delta is the world’s largest inland delta. It includes the Moremi Game Reserve and Chobe National Park, which support some of the largest herds of elephants and other game in Africa. The lowest part of the Kalahari Basin consists of three palaeolake basins (Lake Ngami, the Mababe depression and the Makgadikgadi salt pans) – all once part of the Makgadikgadi mega-paleolake. The Makgadikgadi salt pans contain evidence for early anatomically modern humans.

The people of this land are as diverse as its landscapes. Several ethnic groups have called this country home for over 20,000 years. Collectively all these ethnic groups are called ‘Batswana’. Although some are smaller in number than others, each group preserves unique customs, languages, and ways of life that reflect the broader story of Botswana. For example, the Batswana practice of kgotla, a communal meeting place for decision-making and discussion, underscores the importance of democracy and community. Expressions such as ‘Mafoko a kgotla a mantle otlhe‘ – a Setswana phrase that loosely translates to ‘all views in a gathering add value and are welcome’ are deeply rooted in practice. It is at these public forums where people respond with cries of ‘Pula’ (in its literal sense, ‘let there be rain’) as their traditional expression of well wishing. In fact, “Pula!” has been adopted in both the national motto of the modern state of Botswana and its currency unit.

Botswana’s varied history dates back to prehistoric times. Its two UNESCO World Heritage Sites (WHS) include the sacrosanct site of Tsodilo Hills and the Okavango Delta which was inscribed as the 1,000th UNESCO WHS in 2014. A tentative list of seven further sites has been submitted to UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Most of these sites are archaeological, representing the cultural diversity from around 90 million years ago to the Farming Community Period.

Below are just a few of Botswana’s diverse cultural heritage sites. Click through the gallery to uncover the stories of these sites and read more about DNMM.

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Heritage fieldwork in Botswana

Staff from the Botswana Department of National Museum and Monuments (DNMM) and Botswana-based researcher, Thabo Kgosietsile, undertook the first pilot of field verification for Botswana in 2024. Covering a large area between the Serowe and Mahalapye districts, the team confirmed the presence of 35 archaeological sites based on remote sensing surveys and assessed a further 3 sites based on existing paper-based museum records. This fieldwork forms part of ongoing work to ground truth, document, and update condition and threat assessments for archaeological sites and monuments in the country.

Click on the image gallery below.

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