The Batswana (, singular Motswana) are a Bantu ethnic group native to Southern Africa. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the population of Botswana in 2011.
Batswana inhabit south and eastern Botswana and the North West, Northern Cape, Gauteng, Free State, and other provinces of South Africa.
History Pre-colonial settlement and chiefdom development
The Batswana are a Setswana-speaking ethnic group of several kingdoms, who inhabit Southern Africa (Parts of modern day Namibia, Botswana and South Africa). Before colonial rule, Tswana-speaking communities were organised into chiefdoms (merafe), often structured around clan-based lineages. Political authority was concentrated under dikgosi (chiefs), who governed through advisory councils and traditional institutions. Over time, several Tswana polities expanded and consolidated power through alliances, migration, and settlement formation in the interior regions of Southern Africa.
Tswana political organisation was characterised by settlement hierarchy, cattle-based wealth, and customary law systems that regulated inheritance, marriage, land use, and social discipline. One of the earliest of these settlements was Toutswe in the eastern region of what is now Botswana, relying on Tswana cattle breeds held in kraals as their source of wealth. The arrival of the ancestors of the Tswana-speaking people who came to control the region (from the Vaal River to Botswana) has yet to be dated precisely, although CE 600 seems to be a consensus estimate. This massive cattle-raising complex prospered until 1300 CE or so. All these people were connected to trade routes that ran along the Limpopo River to the Indian Ocean, and goods from Asia, such as beads, made their way to the Batswana, most likely in exchange for ivory, gold, and rhinoceros horn. Traditional craft production historically included pottery, metalworking, woodworking, basket weaving, and leatherwork. Men commonly engaged in metal and wood production, while women were particularly associated with pottery and hut construction.
The first written records relating to modern-day Botswana appeared in 1824. What these records show is that the Bangwaketse had become the predominant power in the region. Under the rule of Makaba II, the Bangwaketse kept vast herds of cattle in well-protected desert areas and used their military prowess to raid their neighbours. Other chiefdoms in the area, by this time, had capitals of 10,000 or so and were fairly prosperous. One of these famous capitals was Kaditshwene, which was the cultural capital of the Bahurutshe people, one of the principal Batswana tribes, and a centre of manufacturing and trading. It had been founded in the late 1400s on the site of iron and copper ore deposits.
The remains of another major Batswana settlement, Kweneng' Ruins, are found in Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve in South Africa. It was occupied from the 15th to the 19th century CE and was the largest of several sizeable settlements inhabited by Setswana speakers before European arrival. Several circular stone-walled family compounds are spread out over an area of 10 km long and 2 km wide.
European missionary contact and Christianisation (mid-19th century) During the mid-19th century, European missionaries increasingly established stations in Tswana territories. Missionary activity contributed to the gradual spread of Christianity and introduced new forms of literacy, education, and institutional influence. Several dikgosi adopted Christianity or allowed its expansion, which led to significant cultural transformation. The Christianization of the Tswana people (Batswana) is a landmark chapter in African history, primarily because it turned a remote mission station in the Kalahari into a global centre for linguistics and printing.
In the early 1800s, the London Missionary Society (LMS) pushed northward from the Cape Colony. Setswana was among the earliest Sotho–Tswana languages to be documented in writing by European travellers and scholars. Early linguistic references include Heinrich Lichtenstein’s 1806 writings, followed by vocabulary collections and linguistic observations produced by missionaries and explorers in the early 19th century. These early texts contributed to later missionary-based translation projects and literacy programmes that facilitated written Setswana usage in religious education and print publications. In 1824, Robert Moffat, a Scottish missionary, established the Kuruman Mission among the Batlhaping (a Tswana group). Unlike many missionaries who relied on interpreters, Moffat realised that for Christianity to "stick," it had to be communicated in the native tongue. He spent years living among the Batswana, mastering the nuances of Setswana. In 1830, the first piece of Scripture was published in Setswana, being the gospel of Luke. In 1857, the first complete Bible was translated and printed in a Sub-Saharan African language.
Traditional religious practices, including ancestral veneration and indigenous rituals, declined in influence in some communities as Christian doctrines became more widespread. Certain customary practices, such as polygyny, were increasingly contested and discouraged by missionary groups and colonial authorities.
Conflicts and warfare in the 19th century Early 1800s: Difaqane/Mfecane Turmoil (1815–1840)
In the early 19th century, the Batswana chiefdoms were heavily affected by the regional instability known as the Difaqane (also called the Mfecane). This period was characterised by widespread warfare, population displacement, and the collapse or reorganisation of many communities across Southern Africa.
As migrating armed groups moved northwards from present-day South Africa, several Tswana settlements were raided or forced to relocate. Some Batswana communities strengthened their defensive strategies, reorganised settlements, and consolidated political authority in response to these disruptions. This period contributed to the development of stronger centralised Tswana states such as the Bangwaketse, Bakwena, and Bangwato.
1852–1860: The Batswana–Boer War: Battle of Dimawe This era saw a growing militarisation of Tswana communities, including the acquisition of firearms and horses through trade networks. During the 1840s and 1850s, trade with Cape Colony-based merchants opened up and enabled the Batswana chiefdoms to rebuild. The Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bangwato, and Batawana cooperated to control the lucrative ivory trade, and then used the proceeds to import horses and guns, which in turn enabled them to establish control over what is now Botswana. This process was largely complete by 1880, and thus the Bushmen, the Bakalanga, the Bakgalagadi, the Batswapong and other current minorities were subjugated by the Batswana.
Following the Great Trek, Afrikaners from the Cape Colony established themselves on the borders of the Tswana-inhabited ancestral homelands in the Transvaal. In 1852, a coalition of Tswana chiefdoms led by Sechele I resisted Afrikaner incursions, which culminated in the pivotal showdown of the Battle of Dimawe fought with artillery and long range rifles as well as musket fire. Although it was the Boer Commando led by the Boer Commandant-General Pieter Scholtz and Paul Kruger, as officers leading the Boer advance, who started the offensive, it was they who ended up on the retreat, followed by Batswana's retaliatory attacks into the then Transvaal's Marique district, in which Boer settlements, villages, and farms were scorched. After about eight years of intermittent tensions and hostilities, they eventually came to a peace agreement in Potchefstroom in 1860. From that point on, the modern-day border between South Africa and Botswana was agreed upon, and the Afrikaners and Batswana traded and worked together peacefully.
1880-1884: Tswana–Ndebele War: Battle of Khutiyabasadi
While the Tswana borders in the South were secured primarily due to an agreed peace agreement with the Boers, danger still lurked in the northern frontiers as Batswana experienced occasional incursions and raids by marauding Ndebele armies who had settled in Southern Zimbabwe. Ndebele raiding parties periodically attacked communities near the Okavango region, targeting cattle and captives.
In 1884, the Batawana under Kgosi Moremi engaged Ndebele forces near Toteng and later at the swampy terrain of Khutiyabasadi. The conflict culminated in the Battle of Khutiyabasadi, where the Batawana, supported by Wayeyi allies, defeated the Ndebele raiders using a combination of firearms, cavalry tactics, and ambush strategies suited to the Okavango environment.
The battle is remembered as a major Tswana victory, contributing to the decline of Ndebele influence in the region and strengthening Batawana authority in northwestern Botswana. While the battle at Khutiyabasadi was a great victory for the Batawana and a defeat for the AmaNdebele, for the Wayeyi of the region, the outcome is said to have been a mixed blessing. While they had shared in the victory over the hated Amandebele, one of its consequences was a tightening of Batawana authority in the area over them as Moremi settled for a period at nearby Nokaneng.
1893–1894: Tswana Involvement in the First Matabele War
The First Matabele War was fought between 1893 and 1894 in modern-day Zimbabwe. The British South Africa Company had no more than 750 troops in the British South Africa Company's Police, with an undetermined number of possible colonial volunteers and an additional 700 Tswana (Bechuana) allies who marched on Bulawayo from the south commandeered by Khama III, the most influential of the Batswana chiefs, and a staunch ally of the British. The Salisbury and Fort Victoria columns marched into Bulawayo on 4 November 1893. The Imperial column from Bechuanaland was nowhere to be seen. They had set march on 18 October heading north for Bulawayo and had a minor skirmish with the Matabele near Mphoengs on 2 November. They finally reached Bulawayo on 15 November, a delay which probably saved the Chartered Company's then newly occupied territory being annexed to the imperial Bechuanaland Protectorate. The involvement of Batswana reflected both strategic alliance-building and the desire of some Tswana rulers to counter Ndebele power, which had previously threatened Tswana territories through raids. Following the defeat of the Ndebele, British colonial influence expanded further north, increasing imperial control over the region.
Dynasties and tribe
Botswana
The republic of Botswana (formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland) is named for the Tswana people. The country's eight major tribes speak Tswana, which is also called Setswana. All have a traditional Paramount Chief, styled Kgosikgolo, who is entitled to a seat in the Ntlo ya Dikgosi (an advisory body to the country's Parliament). A person who lives in Botswana is a Motswana and the plural is Batswana. The principal Tswana tribes are the: Kwena tribe Bangwaketse Rolong tribe Kgatla tribe Mangwato tribe Taung tribe Batlhaping tribe Tlôkwa tribe Tlharo tribe Royal Bafokeng Nation
South Africa