Botswana Independence
Britain had administered the Bechuanaland Protectorate with minimal investment since 1885, largely to keep the territory out of Boer and German hands; at independence there were around a dozen university graduates in the country and the administrative capital had until 1965 been located outside its borders, in South Africa. Seretse Khama, whose marriage to a British woman had earlier caused his exile at the insistence of apartheid South Africa, became the first president. The Orapa diamond pipe was identified in 1967. Rather than granting concessions on the terms usual at the time, the government negotiated a joint venture with De Beers that eventually gave the state a half share of the operating company and the bulk of revenues, and channelled receipts through the budget into schooling, health and infrastructure. Growth averaged among the highest rates in the world for three decades. The record is not unblemished -- unemployment and inequality remain high, and the state's treatment of the San has drawn sustained criticism -- but Botswana avoided both the coup cycle and the resource-driven civil conflict common to its region.
- Year: 1966 CE
- Category: Political
