Tswana
The
Tswana
people are associated with the country of Botswana, whose name means
'Land of the Tswana.'
The area
now called Botswana was first inhabited by San Bushmen. Legend suggests
that the three sons of Masilo, a great Sotho chief of about 1500, were
the ancestors of the three main Tswana tribes of modern Botswana:
Kwena, Ngwato and Ngwaketse. Another version says Ngwato and Ngwaketse
were sons of Kwena. Historically the three became separate lineages in
the 18th century. In the early 1800's the Sotho were still moving
slowly south and had reached to the area of modern Swaziland and almost
to the Orange River on both sides of the Vaal, where the San still
lived.
The Tswana are a southern Bantu people closely related to the Sotho (of
Lesotho and South Africa).
About three-fourths of the Tswana people live in South Africa. Only
about one-fourth live in Botswana, the country named after them.
The Kalahari Desert, supporting nomadic San (Bushmen) and wildlife,
spreads over the Southwest; farming areas and swamplands in the north;
rolling plains supporting livestock in the east.
Industries: Cattle raising, farming, mining
Chief crops: Corn, sorghum, beans.
The Tswana migrated into central southern Africa in the 14th century.
As hunters, herders and cultivators they found the high plains to their
liking, the grass excellent for cattle.
Homesteads consist of one or more houses with grain storage areas in a
courtyard, surrounded by a reed or wooden fence or a mud wall. The
houses are used mainly for sleeping with cooking and other social
activities being done outdoors in the courtyard area.
Tswana
Dumela ~ Greetings
!
