Respect elephants: especially when they charge you in the campsite
Our campsite at Savuti was almost infested with elephants. They see tents as solid objects fortunately, and are very careful not to stand on them, but occasionally you can push them too far…
Born in Kenya and Uganda: settled in Botswana
As I travelled around Botswana recently, I had the pleasure to stay with Cathy and Joe, a delightful couple now living in Maun, in the north of Botswana. They’d fled Idi Amin’s Uganda in 1972 and finally settled in Botswana in 1994. They had some interesting insights from many years living and working in Botswana, and tinged by being able to make comparisons with other African countries.
Seretse Khama: a true African statesman
Botswana is the ‘Switzerland of southern Africa’: a stable, democratic, little known country that has avoided the tragedies and upheavals of its neighbours. For much of this, it owes a huge debt to its first president, Seretse Khama. Read more
“Want our energy? Then support our apartheid regime”
Bechuanaland, later Botswana, had eight principal tribes prior to independence. The king of the Bangwato, and later to become the first president of Botswana, Seretse Khama, travelled to England after WWII to study law, prior to taking up the leadership of his people. While there he married Ruth Williams, a clerk at Lloyds of London, in 1948, the same year that South Africa introduced apartheid.