Gaborone and its sister cities

Gaborone, the capital, is by far the most important city in Botswana. The other urban centres—Francistown, Maun, Selebi-Phikwe and Jwaneng have specialist functions. The capital has a fascinating history and still offers much for the tourist or the passing businessman to see and do. Gaborone has also become an important arts and crafts centre to tempt the most discerning shopper.

Gaborone, the capital city, is located in the southeast corner of Botswana near the South African border. It has good communications with South Africa through the Sir Seretse Khama International Airport or by road. Gaborone also provides access by air or road to the main tourist attractions—the Okavango, Chobe, Kasane, the Kalahari, the Makgadikgadi saltpans and the Tuli block.

Gaborone is a young city with nearly a quarter of a million inhabitants. It scarcely existed in the 19th century before Chief Gaborone moved his Batlokwa tribe into the area from the Magaliesburg Mountains in the early 1880s. He settled in the Tlokweng area on the Notwane river.

At the time the Bechuanaland Protectorate was actually administered from Mafikeng (then Mafeking) in South Africa. Cecil Rhodes of the British South Africa Company was building his great railway through the country that he hoped would to run from the Cape to Cairo. He had little interest in Chief Batlokwa's village as he pushed the line north. However as the Boer war loomed, he built a fort near the village, to protect the railway line from the Boers who were raiding into Bechuanaland. He built the fort on a railway siding. It was here that Dr Jameson launched his unsuccessful Jameson raid towards Johannesburg. The Boers later took the fort but did not hold on to it for long. After the Boer withdrawal, the area relapsed into a sleepy little backwater.

It was this modest site that was chosen in 1964, just before independence, as the new capital of the country. Enthusiastic town planners set about building an entirely new capital city and the administrative centre was moved from Mafikeng. The town planners of the 1960s created a new parliament, government buildings and Africa's first traffic-free shopping mall where pedestrians could wander and shop, safe from the traffic, under the shade of the original trees.

In 1966 Gaborone became the capital of newly independent Botswana. Two decades later, in 1986, it was declared a city. Today, stimulated by the discovery of diamonds and the rising wealth of the nation, Gaborone has become one of the fastest growing cities in the world, while still preserving its offbeat rural charm.

It offers a choice of modern hotels, good restaurants, casinos, cinemas and nightclubs alive to the local kwaito music. The statue of Sir Seretse Khama stands serene, guarding the approach to the architecturally distinguished parliament building. The main mall is crowded with flourishing shops, cyber cafes, and large institutions while hawkers sell a range of goods in the streets below. Stalls selling carving, leather work, and other local crafts jostle with the food and fruit sellers. A range of local crafts such as African carvings, pottery and traditional and modern weaving are readily available. On Saturdays and Sundays the Barankelo Flea Market sells a range of goods at Broadhurst Mall.

Tourists passing through the capital or hard-pressed businessmen who cannot travel the country can find much to do in the capital. Here are some of the attractions:

Gaborone Game Reserve
Although it is small at only 550 ha the Gaborone Game Reserve, established as late as 1988, is actually the third busiest park in the country. It has a good network of roads where game can be observed—impala, kudu, ostriches, wildebeest, zebra, gemsbok, eland and even two rescued rhino, but no dangerous predators except eagles and other raptors. There is a wide range of birds in the diverse habitat of scrub, woodland and forest. Protected and endangered species breed in the ponds. Tourists will find a visitors education centre, two picnic sites and game and bird hides for viewing the animals. Telephone 304392 for further information.

National Museum and Art Gallery
The National Museum in the centre of the city has a permanent exhibition of historical, natural and cultural history with beautiful exhibitions of life and animals in earlier times. There is also a fine collection of traditional art and craft and rotating exhibitions of modern art and sculpture. Telephone 3974616 for further information.

Gaborone Dam
Surrounded by tall hills and game-filled woodland the dam offers sailing, windsurfing, fishing and other activities. Drinks, snacks and Sunday lunch are available at the Yacht Club open-air bar. There are picnic sites and a well-equipped children's playground.

St Clair Lion Park
Set on the banks of the Notwane River, 18 km south of Gaborone, there is a wide range of wildlife including impala, zebra and leopard and especially the lions. Guided walks are offered. There is a children's playground with a small zoo and regular feeding of the vultures.

Odi and Mochudi Craft Villages
The craft villages of Odi and Mochudi are about 18km northeast of Gaborone on the Francistown road. The main attraction in Odi is the cooperative of the Lentswe-la-Odi weavers. They have gained an international reputation with their striking modern designs. In Mochudi there are traditional crafts including handmade jewellery and products of the tin workshop. Mochudi also boasts a museum and the most southerly baobab trees in the country.

Kolobeng Ruins
At the Kolobeng River about 3km outside Kumakwane, on the Kanye road, are the Kolobeng ruins—the remains of David Livingstone's 1840 mission and the site of Botswana's first Christian church. The Boers in one of their raids ransacked the mission. The remains today include Livingstone's house and some graves. Further information from the Botswana Society Tel: 39511500.

Thamanga
To the west of Gaborone on the road to Kanye is Thamanga. It is best known for the Thamanga Pottery Workshop, which produces original ceramic work and household pottery. Botswelelo Handicrafts also sells folding kgotla chairs, intricately carved and originally used by chiefs at important meetings.

Other Cities:

Francistown
Francistown is the oldest town in Botswana. Its name was derived from an early mine prospector, Daniel Francis, who was a director of the Tati concession company in the 1880s. Gold had been discovered earlier in 1867 prompting a local gold rush, but the mines were never very profitable. When the Mafikeng-Bulawayo railway arrived in 1897 the town became a railway depot and an encampment for miners. The town sprang up on a grid pattern with avenues wide enough to allow an ox wagon to turn around. After independence Francistown pioneered a number of light industries such as textiles, chemicals and leather goods.

Today Francistown still keeps its entrepot and commercial character. It has become an important staging point for travellers by road who intend to visit the main tourist destinations—north to the Chobe Game Reserve and Kasane and west to the Central Kalahari and the Okavango Delta. Its population is now over 100,000. It has a museum and a craft shop where locally produced crafts and the locally manufactured Marothodi, hand printed clothing can be purchased. There are excellent hotels—the Marang and the Cresta Thapama.

Jwaneng
Jwaneng grew from a tiny, little known cattle post to one of the richest diamond mines in the world. When the kimberlite pipe bearing the valuable diamonds was discovered in the late 1970s, the late Harry Oppenheimer said that it was the most important discovery since Kimberly in South Africa. Mining began in 1982. Arrangements to visit the mine can be made a week in advance with the Debswana Public Relations Officer in Jwaneng Tel: 267 380 220.

Maun
Maun is the gateway to the Okavango. It is where most tour, lodge and camp operators have their head offices. It offers good accommodation in Riley's Hotel and elsewhere in other more recently established hotels. There is a nine-hole golf course at the Okavango River Lodge and hippo live in a pool behind the Sedia hotel. In Maun, equipment, provisions and petrol are readily available for those on self drive safaris. Approximately 12km from the centre of Maun is Crocodile Camp, which can provide five-star luxury accommodation or mobile camping safaris, bird walks and horse rides.

Selebi-Phikwe
Selebi-Phikwe situated off the road to Francistown, is a pleasant, well-planned town set in undeveloped land that was used for little more than raising livestock. It grew up in 1967 when Bamangwato Concessions (BCL) discovered cupro-nickel and cobalt deposits in the area. Like Gaborone the city centre boasts a mall with shops and restaurants. The roads in the business district are planted with flowering trees and shrubs. Selebi-Phikwe is now Botswana's third largest town.

Legend of Matsieng Footprints

At the dawn of mankind Matsien decided the time had come to lead his Batswana people out of darkness and the cold confines of the cave into the wide world that lay beyond the entrance. He summoned them and their animals together and they marched out into the daylight. They were astonished at the new world that God had given them. So they settled and multiplied in the beautiful country that is today's Botswana. Matsien never returned to the cave but he left his footprints behind him to remind future generations from whence they came.

The Matsieng hole is accessible on a rough track that turns off the main Francistown road 8km north of Pilane—3km north of the Lentsweleatu turn-off.

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