Botswana Flag

The Flag of Botswana

The Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. 70% of its territory is in the Kalahari Desert, it is bordered by South Africa to the South, Zimbabwe to the East, Zambia to the north and Namibia to the west.

Botswana was originally settled by hunter-gatherers and bushmen (perhaps the Khoi-san peoples?), eventually these peoples were displaced by the Bantu-speaking people who were from what we know today as South Congo. These included the Tswana peoples, which are the largest Bantu-speaking ethnic group in Botswana at around 85%. During the mid 19th Centuary, the people in Botswana were having problems with the Boer settlers from the south, and other tribes to the west, the leaders asked Britain to protect it, to which Britain made it a Protectorate and eventually a colony by 1911. For the next 50 years the British worked together with the Tswana and other peoples of Botswana to help devolve the government back to Botswana which eventually led to Botswana's independence in 1966. Since then Botswana has transformed from one of the poorest countries in the world into one of the worlds fastest-growing economies, with an average salary (GDP PPP) around $18,000 per year per person. It is also currently Africa's oldest continuous democracy.

The National flag of Botswana consists of a light blue field cut horizontally in the centre by a black stripe with a thin white frame. It is one of the few African flags that utilises neither the colours of the Pan-Africanist movement (black,green,yellow) nor the colours of the country's leading political party.

On the flag, the light blue stripes represent rainwater, as it is a precious resource in Botswana, which relies on agriculture, and most of the country is located in the Kalahari Desert. The black band with the white frame has two meanings. Firstly, they symbolise harmony and cooperation between the people of different races and ethnicities who live in Botswana, as well as the racial diversity of the country. Furthermore, they represent the stripes of the zebra, the national animal of Botswana.

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Botswana Flag 🇧🇼 (SVG, CSS, Canvas)