Botswana country guide — editorial and map references Prepared 26 October 2026 Scope Sixteen city and town pins, twelve heritage and landscape locations, ten illustrated reading topics, thirty answered reading questions and eighty reviewed facts questions. The guide teaches about Setswana and includes sample greetings. No dedicated Setswana lesson course or citizenship test is claimed. Reading and editorial references https://www.botswanatourism.co.bw/ https://www.botswanatourism.co.bw/explore/okavango-delta https://www.botswanatourism.co.bw/explore/tsodilo-hills https://www.parliament.gov.bw/ https://www.gov.bw/ https://www.bankofbotswana.bw/ https://www.statsbots.org.bw/ (2022 Population and Housing Census, final count) https://whc.unesco.org/en/statesparties/bw/ https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1432/ (Okavango Delta, inscribed 2014) https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1021/ (Tsodilo, inscribed 2001) https://www.sacu.int/ https://www.sadc.int/ https://olympics.com/en/athletes/letsile-tebogo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Botswana_general_election https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazungula_Bridge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segaba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Botswana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botswana_cuisine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bessie_Head Dated facts and distinctions The 2022 census final count is 2,359,609, not a current population estimate. Independence: 30 September 1966. The Bechuanaland Protectorate began in 1885; the three dikgosi's 1895 delegation opposed transfer to company control. The 2024 election brought the Umbrella for Democratic Change to power, with Duma Boko taking office in November. The BDP did not win every election. Kazungula Bridge opened in May 2021, not 2020. Botswana and Zambia share a short river border; the four nearby countries do not meet at a quadripoint. Ntlo ya Dikgosi is an advisory body, not an elected second chamber with equal legislative powers. The presidency has a ten-year aggregate constitutional limit. Setswana's national role differs from English's administrative role and from people's home languages. Khoisan is not one established language family. Batswana can name citizens regardless of ethnic identity; San communities do not all share one language or way of life. Kalahari landscapes include vegetation. The delta flood pulse and local rain have different timing; pan wetland extent is seasonal. Conservation is not guaranteed by a timeless tsetse-fly barrier. Map provenance and limitations The retained national outline is Botswana (ISO_A2=BW) extracted unchanged from public/countries.geojson, the site's generalised Natural Earth-derived map. Natural Earth geometry is public domain: https://www.naturalearthdata.com/about/terms-of-use/ Input: scripts/botswana-outline-source.geojson. Curated approximate settlement centres: scripts/botswana-map-places.json. All coordinates use GeoJSON [longitude, latitude]. Settlement names and orientation can be cross-checked in their English Wikipedia articles. Sights: src/lib/country-sights/botswana.json. Park and landscape pins are representative locations, not entrances, boundaries or permanent shorelines. No administrative subdivision map or water geometry is added in this release. The banner's delta coordinate is a representative landscape location, not a claimed camera GPS position. Photographs retain their original source credits. Rebuild offline: node scripts/build-botswana-map.mjs Check: node scripts/test-botswana-guide.cjs Live: NODE_USE_ENV_PROXY=1 BOTSWANA_BASE_URL=https://worldly.academy node scripts/test-botswana-guide.cjs Quiz preservation All eighty original prompts were matched against the public production facts API before release on 26 October 2026. The original seed is unchanged and its content is retained in scripts/fixtures/botswana-facts-questions.json. Read-time patches improve 38 prompts and redistribute the correct answers across all 80 questions, twenty in each answer position. Lesson IDs, question IDs where present, titles and progress remain intact. No database writes or schema changes are needed. Original seed scripts must not be run to publish this guide. Photographs The ten existing local topic photographs are reused, with their credits below. The delta elephant photograph also serves as the country banner. Photographs illustrate specific places or activities rather than representing every citizen. geography: The Makgadikgadi salt pan landscape, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/geography.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Makgadikgadi_Basin_-_Botswana_-_panoramio.jpg diego_cue, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons history: The Three Dikgosi Monument in Gaborone, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/history.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Three_Dikgosi_Monument,_Gaborone,_Botswana.jpg CivArmy, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons language: A training session at the Orange Digital Center in Gaborone, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/language.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WikiChallenge_Botswana_training_at_Orange_Digital_Center_located_at_Finance_Park,_Gaborone.jpg Shoodho, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons culture: Dancers performing the traditional phatisi dance, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/culture.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Phatisi_traditional_dance_in_Botswana.jpg Bonolo Nikita Rankaga, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons economy: The open pit at Jwaneng diamond mine, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/economy.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jwaneng_Open_Mine.jpg Cretep, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons politics: Parliament buildings in Gaborone, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/politics.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Parliament_Buildings,_Gaborone,_Botswana.jpg filippo_jean, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons nature: An elephant wading through the Okavango Delta, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/nature.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wading_elephant,_Okavango_Delta.jpg JackyR, CC BY 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons food: A vendor serving seswaa and dikgobe, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/food.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Food_vendor_dishing_Seswaa_and_Dikgobe_dish_at_a_local_food_outlet.jpg Jay Superthato, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons landmarks: Rock paintings at Tsodilo Hills, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/landmarks.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tsodilo_Hills_rock_paintings4.jpg Joachim Huber, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons people: The central business district of Gaborone, Botswana /images/facts-africa/bw/people.jpg https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Botswana,_Gaborone_Central_Business_District.jpg Jota @ BRAZIL, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons