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African chiefs were pivotal to the British colonial policy of ‘Indirect Rule’ in British tropical Africa. With skeletal staff on the ground, the British ruled through the chiefs since it was economic to do so. The British started indirect rule in Nigeria at the turn of the twentieth century after which it spread to East Africa and then Central Africa. In most cases chiefs had to be collaborators with the colonial system to remain in office. In some of these colonies special schools were provided for training chiefs to become ‘cadres’ in the colonial system. Indirect Rule reached Botswana in the early 1930s amidst spirited resistance from Tswana dikgosi (chiefs). Critically, the straightforward Tswana succession system through primogeniture made it difficult or impossible for the Tswana dikgosi to work with the colonial system as collaborators. Consequently, whereas deposition of chiefs was common in other colonies, in Botswana this was rare. Whereas there was no special school for dikgosi in Botswana and they had to be sent to South Africa, the British colonial administration had an idea of the kind of education to be accorded the dikgosi. Mostly utilising archival records, this paper uses the example of Kgosi Mokgosi III of Balete to demonstrate that even in a case of a kgosi (chief) whose behaviour the colonial authorities disapproved of, they had no choice but to accept and nurture him through schooling even when he did not perform well or got expelled for leading a riot. Furthermore, the authorities sought to prepare him for the chieftaincy (bogosi) by enlisting him into the colonial police service, and attempting to have him serve in the Second World War. Mokgosi was the heir apparent of the Balete from 1931 to 1945 after which he became kgosi from 1945 to 1966 and performed his duties well.

Social history is an account of people’s social experiences over time. These experiences can be derived from different social domains or disciplines, such as politics, economy, environment, land, human rights, and sociology. It is, therefore, an integral and objective history, rather than create a parallel history of people. Its focus is to interpret people’s experiences. The Khoisan have a secondary or subaltern position in their social historical development in Botswana. They are under marginalisation, ethnically, linguistically, and culturally. This marginalisation determines current social and historical condition of the Khoisan of Botswana as they find themselves in secondary or inconsequential social historical development. The Khoisan are talked about and planned for without objectivity and specificity as to how imposed social interventions could impact their lives. This is so because in Botswana, the Khoisan have not been constituted as an ethnic group that has rights to land, language, culture, natural resources that they could control for improving their lives. Therefore, the aim of this article is to interrogate issues about which the Khoisan are spoken about such as ethnicity, land, economic development, and how lack of their culture and language in the official government education system reflects their social historical condition of perpetual marginalisation. The paper further calls for socio-political and economic programmes that can preserve the Khoisan’s socio-cultural and economic systems. The reason for this is that without specific social strategies for them, the Khoisan cannot feel emancipated to decide on their lives nor confident to work in ensuring their continued existence as ethnic groups with their unique social and historical identity. Socio-historically, these constitute their most excruciating experiences in the development of Botswana.

Despite concerted efforts by his government and the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Seretse Khama’s localisation of the Botswana Police would ultimately fail in its objective during the period under study. Using archival material obtained from the National Archives of the United Kingdom and some secondary sources, this article explores the localisation programme in the Botswana Police, placing it within the context of similar projects in other African police and military forces during the decolonisation and immediate post-independence periods. It argues that the localisation programme of the Botswana Police was undermined by two factors. Firstly, the absence of adequately trained Africans in the force, which was the result of the Colonial Office’s lack of foresight while preparing Botswana for independence. Secondly, the response of some British expatriate officers following the President’s announcement of the localisation exercise were counterproductive.

The northeastern Kalahari (also called Kgalagadi) border zone between the Bangwato and the Ndebele in northern Botswana and western Zimbabwe was the scene of intense interactions among a variety of different groups, including pastoralists, farmers, and hunter-gatherers. The border area saw conflicts, cooperation, cattle raiding, trade (for example, of salt from the Nata River Delta), exchanges of wild animal meat for ceramics, domestic foods, and iron tools, and shifting alliances in late prehistoric and early historic times. There was competition in the area over grazing land, livestock, high value plants, salt, iron, and copper. There were also struggles over rights to utilize the services of people, including the Tshwa San in the region who the Bangwato and Ndebele defined as ‘servants’ (bolata, izinceku, isisebenzi) in a system of hereditary servitude that lasted until well into the 20th century. We draw on archaeological, ethnoarchaeological, and ethnohistoric data in order to assess the evidence relating to the complex socioeconomic interactions among the various people who resided in this heterogeneous landscape.

This paper examines the etymologies and the historical and cultural significance of, and changes over time in toponyms or place names in the Chobe District in northern Botswana. Drawing largely on oral interviews, the paper reveals that the construction of toponyms in general, and the Chobe District in particular, speaks to local communities’ lived experiences and subsequent understanding and appreciation of the intricate interconnectedness between people, the ecology, natural landscapes, and the economy. It argues that besides being practical navigational tools in the people’s geo-locational system, toponyms are also tropes of significant historical contestations which have shaped communities’ socio-economic livelihoods and their spiritual wellbeing. As such, most toponyms also serve as repositories of historical events in and around the district, and cultural heritage which continue to be cherished by these riparian communities. Other than being denotative and connotative in function, toponyms are also contested spaces, resulting in toponymic warfare which can be confrontational or symbolic, where major ethnic groups want to leave their ethnonyms imprinted all over the country.

The vegetation blockages in the Okavango Delta tributaries have been a concern among the local communities, water managers and in tourism industry. The objective of this study is to update historical vegetation blockages reported in 1970s in the Okavango channels and to assess the blockage influences on the channel flow dynamics. The blockages were determined by boat in 2002 in three river systems namely Ikoga-Thaoge, Nqoga-Maunachira and Mboroga-Gomoti Rivers and further assessed at four-to-five-year intervals until 2018. The collected coordinates using GARMIN GPSMAP 62S at the start and end points of the blockages were added to the Okavango Delta feature dataset to ArcMap GIS 10.2 software to map and measure the blockage lengths in km. ‘Papyrus’ is the dominant species blocking the channels while the ‘hippo grass’ is a fringe vegetation. Five types of blockages were categorised based on their growth and spread in different flood regimes. The hydrological data analysis showed that the ‘Intermittent rooted emergent papyrus’ and ‘Emergent papyrus rafts’ in Thaoge River held large volumes of water in the upstream Qaaxhwa and Weboro Lagoons from 2005 onwards causing some flow diversions to Boro River. The ‘Surface blockage debris’ in the origin of Maunachira River did not have significant influence on its downstream flow because of added flows via Khiandiandavhu channel. The Bokoro and Dxerega Lagoons on the blocked Maunachira were reduced in their water surface area by 28.7% and 45.2% respectively between 1984 and 2011. The hippo grass in Mboroga and Gomoti Rivers do not have much impact on channel flow. It is recommended that efficient management of blockages through the engagement of local communities and safari operators in the areas of concern would improve the flow distribution for community resource use and tourism development.

Concentrations of trace elements were determined in sediment and muscle tissues of African sharptooth catfish (Clarias gariepinus) from Lake Ngami in Botswana. Sediment and tissue samples were acid digested and analyzed using ICP-OES. Element concentrations followed the order iron>>manganese>>zinc>copper>chromium>nickel>lead>arsenic in sediment and iron>zinc>arsenic>chromium>copper>lead>manganese>molybdenum in fish. Levels in the sediment were higher than in fish muscles for all but molybdenum, which was below detection in sediment; and arsenic, which was 2.8 times more in fish muscles. The concentration of arsenic in muscle tissues was also 11 times higher than reported in previous studies of catfish from African waters. The cancer risk and target hazard quotient (THQ) for each element in four groups (two Okavango Delta communities, average persons in Botswana and Sub-Saharan Africa) were assessed following the US-EPA risk assessment method. The THQ for only arsenic and chromium were above 1, suggesting that the two elements pose an appreciable risk of deleterious non-carcinogenic effects to human consumers of the fish. The cancer risk from exposure to arsenic in fish exceeded the acceptable level of 10-4 and ranged from 0.0004 to 0.007. These results support the need for future research of arsenic and chromium bioaccumulation in benthivorous fish species, which may be posing health risks to the Okavango Delta communities who rely on these fish as a protein source.

The end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994 raised hope that the post-apartheid African National Congress (ANC) government would help drive economic growth, and prosperity in Botswana and other neighbouring smaller countries. For generations, black people in these countries had contributed to economic growth and industrialisation of South Africa with cheap labour. These countries also provided a captive market for manufactured goods and services from South Africa. This paper uses Botswana as a case study to analyse this historical scenario through Underdevelopment and Dependency theory. Botswana played a significant role in giving sanctuary to people fleeing oppression and exploitation from the south as early as the 1850s. This continued despite military reprisals on those Tswana states that hosted such refugees. As British ‘dependents’ Batswana also played a critical role in the South African War of 1899 to 1902 which culminated in the establishment of the white-controlled Union of South Africa in 1910 which ironically tried to incorporate Botswana. After Botswana’s independence in 1966, the country actively supported the South African liberation struggle despite military reprisals by the powerful apartheid regime. The paper also utilises Realist theory of International Relations to conclude that the new ANC-led post-apartheid government brazenly pursued a foreign policy that continued the underdevelopment and dependence of Botswana on South Africa despite promises to reverse the entrenched historical trend. This flew in the face of the objectives of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) championed by, among other African leaders, South African President Thabo Mbeki at the turn of the new millennium.

This paper examines gendered livelihoods and women’s contribution to food security at a household level in Botswana. It focuses on the planting, harvesting, processing, and marketing of the morogo (vegetable/leaves) and dinawa (beans) which come from the cowpeas plant –a member of the legume family. This kind of vegetable leaves are also called morogo-wa-dinawa. The current work also assesses the utility of traditional practices and knowledge systems in the attainment of food security for improved livelihoods among rural and urban households in Botswana. It focuses on female-led households, utilizing cases from both urban and rural areas to also explore mobility and transformation of society. The paper also analyses how women access markets in urban informal economy to address livelihoods. In line with similar studies, it is revealed here that food production at the rural household level is highly gendered as most of the work is carried out by women who employ indigenous knowledge systems and practices associated with food production, processing, storage, and marketing. The paper has adopted the case study approach and through in-depth interviews profiled the agricultural practices of households. The interviews were conducted over a long period of time between 2008 and 2021 at different sites in the country, capturing activities of gendered livelihoods and food security. This is even more imperative with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic which has impacted all the sectors of the economy.

Fungi have recently come to the fore as important etiologic agents of infectious diseases, especially in immunocompromised patients. While the role of food as an avenue of spread of foodborne fungal disease remains unclear, the virulence potential and genetic diversity associated with street food fungi remains to be determined. Therefore, the present study sought to investigate the occurrence of fungi in various foods sold by ambulatory and stationary street vendors at three geographical areas of Gaborone (BBS Mall, Train Station and Bus Rank) from October 2018 to March 2019. From a total of 685 ready-to-eat street foods cultured, 480 (70.1%) tested positive for fungi. Statistical analyses revealed that the detection of different fungal species was neither influenced by the three sampling areas studied in Gaborone nor the six food commodities analysed (p = 0.001). Out of the 28 strains pooled thereafter, virulence studies by activities of protease and lipase as well as biofilm formation suggested virulence potential of various fungi such as Candida albicans and Aspergillus fumigatus. Assessment of genetic diversity of the pooled 28 isolates detected some genetic differentiation of the fungi studied herein especially Candida albicans, Aspergillus fumigatus, Rhodotorula glutinis and Aspergillus niger. The unprecedented levels of incidence of fungi in food, virulence potential and high genetic diversity warrant further investigations on source tracking of food-borne fungi and evaluation of the reasons of high genetic diversity to protect the vulnerable population consuming these ready-to-eat foods.