Botswana

Botswana is a landlocked country that shares borders with South Africa in the east and south, Zimbabwe in the north and northeast, Zambia in the north and northwest, and Namibia in the west. It is a multiethnic, multilingual nation with a population of 2.065 million. The citizens are called Batswana, English is the official language, and Setswana is the national language.

Called Bechuanaland Protectorate when it was under British rule, the semiarid and drought-prone country was considered to be a burden to British taxpayers and was colonized only because of its strategic geographical position in southern Africa. Taxes were introduced to help raise funds for the protectorate’s administration, causing untold misery on households and driving many people to work in South African mines in order to ...