Portal:Botswana

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Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70% of its territory being a part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the south and southeast, Namibia to the west and north, Zambia to the north, and Zimbabwe to the northeast. Its total area is 581,730 square kilometres (224,610 sq mi). Gaborone, in the South-East District, is the country's capital and largest city.

Botswana is one of the most sparsely populated countries in the world. While it is not enshrined by statutory law, Botswana is de facto the nation state of the Batswana people, who constitute nearly 80% of the population while legally undistinguished Kalanga people, who account for another 11%, are the single largest ethnic minority.

The Batswana ethnic group are descended mainly from Bantu-speaking peoples who migrated into southern Africa, including modern Botswana, in several waves before AD 600. In 1885, the British colonised the area and declared a protectorate named Bechuanaland. As part of the decolonisation of Africa, Bechuanaland became an independent Commonwealth republic under its current name on 30 September 1966. Since then, it has been a parliamentary republic with a consistent record of uninterrupted democratic elections, though dominated by the Botswana Democratic Party until 2024, when the Umbrella for Democratic Change won the 2024 Botswana general election. (Full article...)

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Francistown is the second-largest city in Botswana, with a population of about 103,417 inhabitants and 147,122 inhabitants in its agglomeration at the 2022 census. It is located in eastern Botswana, about 400 kilometres (250 mi) north-northeast from the capital, Gaborone. Francistown is located at the confluence of the Tati and Ntshe rivers, and near the Shashe River (tributary to the Limpopo) and 90 kilometres (56 mi) from the international border with Zimbabwe.

Francistown was the centre of Southern Africa's first gold rush and is still surrounded by old and abandoned mines. The City of Francistown is an administrative district, separated from North-East District. It is administered by Francistown City Council. The main language spoken and used in and around Francistown is Kalanga. Other languages used in the area are isiNdebele, ChiShona as well as SeTswana. Francistown is the only city in Botswana with an English name. There are no English-language named towns and only a couple of villages with English names. (Full article...)

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... that The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is the first major film or television production to be shot on location in Botswana?

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This is a good article, A-class article, featured list, or featured article, one of Wikipedia’s best work.

A rough diamond

Diamond is a mineral form of the element carbon with its atoms arranged in a crystal structure called diamond cubic. Diamond is a tasteless, odorless, strong, brittle solid, a poor conductor of electricity, colorless in pure form, and insoluble in water. Another solid form of carbon known as graphite is the chemically stable form of carbon at room temperature and pressure, but diamond is metastable and converts to it at a negligible rate under those conditions. Diamond has the highest hardness and thermal conductivity of any natural material, properties that are used in major industrial applications such as cutting and polishing tools.

Because the arrangement of atoms in diamond is extremely rigid, few types of impurity can contaminate it (two exceptions are boron and nitrogen). Small numbers of defects or impurities—about one per million of lattice atoms—can color a diamond blue (boron), yellow (nitrogen), brown (defects), green (radiation exposure), purple, pink, orange, or red. Diamond also has a very high refractive index and a relatively high optical dispersion. (Full article...)

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The following are images from various Botswana-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1King Khama (III) of Bamangwato (from Tswana people)
Image 2Gaborone aerial (from Gaborone)
Image 3 Tswana tribesmen, first Africans to compete at the Olympics (from Tswana people)
Image 4Universal Plaza building in Gaborone CBD (from Gaborone)
Image 5Batswana men dressed in traditional attire during the visit of King George VI, Queen Elizabeth, and Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret to Lobatse, Bechuanaland, on 17 April 1947 (from Tswana people)
Image 6South African ANC activist, writer and author, (from Tswana people)
Image 7King Bathoen II 1947 of Bangwaketse (from Tswana people)
Image 8The Sir Seretse Khama International Airport, named after the first president of Botswana (from History of Botswana)
Image 9Young Tswana maiden dressed in Leteisi (from Tswana people)
Image 10St. Joseph's College students (from Gaborone)
Image 11Typical Kgotla setting (from Tswana people)
Image 12I-Tower at Central Business District (from Gaborone)
Image 13Duma Boko signing an agreement with the United States in 2025 (from History of Botswana)
Image 14Gaborone Mosque (from Gaborone)
Image 15Rhodesia Railways car at the national museum (from Gaborone)
Image 16Kgosi Sechele I of the Bakwena (c. 1890), commander-in-chief of the Tswana forces at the Battle of Dimawe (1852), pictured with his royal guard. A formidable military leader and strategist, Sechele commanded armed Tswana resistance against Boer incursions and possessed an English-manufactured 6-pounder naval cannon (from Tswana people)
Image 17Gaborone Hindu temple (from Gaborone)
Image 18Kombi (Minibus taxi) (from Gaborone)
Image 19CBD Developments (from Gaborone)
Image 20Ostriches at Mokolodi Nature Reserve, Botswana (from Gaborone)
Image 21Gaborone Dam (from Gaborone)
Image 22Magadi (traditional wedding) (from Culture of Botswana)
Image 23Aerial view over Okavango Delta (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 24Prehistoric cave paintings at Tsodilo (from History of Botswana)
Image 25An illustration of a Tswana man and his wife in the early 1800s (from History of Botswana)
Image 26SSKI Airport (from Gaborone)
Image 27Botswana Gaborone I Towers (from Gaborone)
Image 28Flag of Bophuthatswana (from Tswana people)
Image 29Mokgweetsi Masisi speaking at a conference on the illegal wildlife trade in London in 2018 (from History of Botswana)
Image 30Flag map of Gaborone (from Gaborone)
Image 31Setswana traditional house (from Tswana people)
Image 32I-Towers, Gaborone Central Business District (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 33Quett Masire visiting the United States in 1984 (from History of Botswana)
Image 34South African politician (from Tswana people)
Image 35Watch house in Gaborone Game Reserve (from Gaborone)
Image 36Kgosi Sekgoma II and leaders of the Bangwato Military regiments in Serowe during the royal visit of the Prince of Wales in June 1925. (from Tswana people)
Image 37Festus Mogae alongside foreign presidents Joaquim Chissano, George W. Bush, and José Eduardo dos Santos in 2002 (from History of Botswana)
Image 38Gaborone Hindu Temple (from Gaborone)
Image 394th President of Botswana, King of Bamangwato (Khama IV) (from Tswana people)
Image 40Ian Khama meeting with William Hague in London (from History of Botswana)
Image 41Rev. Derek Jones, the first mayor of Gaborone
Image 4218th Century Tswana Warrior (from Tswana people)
Image 43BR Express, the passenger train (from Francistown)
Image 44Man on donkey herding goats in a dry river bed (from Economy of Botswana)
Image 45Botswana traditional house at the National Museum (from Culture of Botswana)
Image 46Road map of Gaborone (from Gaborone)
Image 47View from Kgale Hill (Oodi Hill on horizon) (from Gaborone)
Image 48Botswana traditional baskets (from Culture of Botswana)
Image 49Orapa House (from Gaborone)
Image 50Christ The King Cathedral (from Gaborone)