When I was researching in Botswana, I endeavored to find racial and tribal statistics. I called on multiple Statistics Botswana officials, but nobody could tell me how many black, white, Bakwena, Bamangwato, etc., there are. That's because they don't believe in those distinctions, and keeping those stats has been forbidden since 1966! In Botswana, everybody is Batswana regardless of the group they were born into.
Being in Botswana is like a big, refreshing drink of water: the awkwardness and tension between members of groups that you find in so many other places around the world is palpably absent there, and bonhomie prevails.
I think this owes to the traditional Tswana notion of "Botho" (a sense of community and connectedness among all groups) and the vision of Seretse Khama (one of history's most underappreciated great leaders). Even before Botswana gained independence in 1966, Seretse's party (the BDP) declared:
"The Bechuanaland Democratic Party shall not allow any form of discrimination, whether political, social or economic, against any minority racial group in the country . . . Neither shall the laws of the country recognise any preferential considerations of a political, economic or social nature for any tribal or racial group in Bechuanaland."
Botswana is a country that we in North America and Europe could learn a lot from.
This is a great piece.
When I was researching in Botswana, I endeavored to find racial and tribal statistics. I called on multiple Statistics Botswana officials, but nobody could tell me how many black, white, Bakwena, Bamangwato, etc., there are. That's because they don't believe in those distinctions, and keeping those stats has been forbidden since 1966! In Botswana, everybody is Batswana regardless of the group they were born into.
Being in Botswana is like a big, refreshing drink of water: the awkwardness and tension between members of groups that you find in so many other places around the world is palpably absent there, and bonhomie prevails.
I think this owes to the traditional Tswana notion of "Botho" (a sense of community and connectedness among all groups) and the vision of Seretse Khama (one of history's most underappreciated great leaders). Even before Botswana gained independence in 1966, Seretse's party (the BDP) declared:
"The Bechuanaland Democratic Party shall not allow any form of discrimination, whether political, social or economic, against any minority racial group in the country . . . Neither shall the laws of the country recognise any preferential considerations of a political, economic or social nature for any tribal or racial group in Bechuanaland."
Botswana is a country that we in North America and Europe could learn a lot from.