AFOVA New Letter 2 of Year 2021

Section 6 - Memoirs CV 2 No. 02 / 2021 Page 201 of 332 Firstly, a brief introduction about the country. The Republic of Botswana is a landlocked country, bordering South Africa (south), Namibia (west), Zambia (north) and Zimbabwe (northeast). It has a land area of about 508 lakh sq km, which is about four and half times the size of the State of Tamil Nadu. The population is only about 2.2 million. Thus, the country has a very low density of population. Compounding this low population density is AIDS, which affects about 25% of its population. The average life expectancy is around 69 years. Some archeological researchers describe this country as the cradle of humanity, based on their findings of tools and fauna that point to humanoids around 200,000 years ago. The original inhabitants were known as Bushmen (hunter gatherers) and one can still find some in the vicinity of their wildlife reserves. The country was a British protectorate and became an independent Commonwealth republic on 30 September 1966.The economy is driven by minerals (primarily diamonds), cattle farming and tourism. The major tourist attractions are Chobe National Park (wild life reserve) and Okavango Delta, a vast inland river delta about 16,000 sq km where the river empties into open land instead of an ocean, thereby generating huge swathes of vegetation, swamps and streams that house a large number and wide variety of wildlife. There are many tribes and consequently diverse ethnic cultures in Botswana, each with its own heritage of myths, legends, rituals and traditional artistic norms. Rites and ceremonies differ considerably between tribes. While working in the government, I could sense an underlying feeling of inter- tribal superiority/ inferiority among people from differing tribes. Despite the sense of identity and immense pride in their respective tribal heritage, none of these tribal hierarchies or differences affect their inter personal relationships or official functioning. There is a strong sense of unity linking them all to the democratic and peaceful development of their country. This, I could see in the decisions being taken by the government as well as in the attitude of the people. They would stand together, united, for a national cause. We found it unique that the government