Suchergebnisse

This article is an account of the relations between independent Botswana and her South African Black homeland neighbour of Bophuthatswana, whom Botswana steadfastly refused to recognise as a sovereign state. Bophuthatswana was used by South Africa to punish Botswana for assisting liberation movement groups such as the African National Congress (ANC) in their struggle against apartheid. Lucas Mangope, president of Bophuthatswana, tried to pressurize Botswana into recognising Bophuthatswana through diplomatic relations. Initially, he tried to capitalise on the common Tswana cultural heritage between Botswana and Bophuthatswana and their long common border to achieve his objective. The paper also looks at how Mangope sought to use Pan-Tswana links and soft power on the main opposition party, Botswana National Front (BNF), to get the international recognition for Bophuthatswana. The focus then shifts to how a failed military coup that sought to oust Mangope in 1988 further strained the relations between Botswana and Bophuthatswana. Finally, the article discusses Botswana's response to the demise of apartheid and Bophuthatswana in 1994. The paper adds to the corpus of literature on the contribution of Botswana to the liberation of South Africa and the Southern African region generally which President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana rather mistakenly lamented in late June 2021 that it has been neglected in terms of documentation. This points to the need for teaching of the history of Botswana in the country's education system which is currently very limited.

The lack of a strict and disciplined adherence to keeping time or punctuality has been an issue of major concern to many authorities in the African public and private sectors. Botswana is no exception, as this article will demonstrate. So pervasive is lack of punctuality among Africans in sub-Saharan Africa that a stereotypical notion of "African time" gained currency a long time ago and is still prevalent to this day. Undoubtedly, this attitude towards time negatively affects the productivity and economic performance of numerous African countries, such as Botswana, in their seemingly futile endeavour to become competitive globally and attract the much sought after foreign direct investment (FDI). In this article we try to make sense of African time from the scholarship on the African traditional socio-economic and environmental factors relating to time, as well as the popular stereotypical views of African time. This article shows that African time among the Batswana is something that frustrated the Victorian missionaries in the late nineteenth century. We also discuss how African time has translated into expression of political power by tribal and national political leaders. The problem of African time continues to be prevalent in the twenty-first century Botswana where a poor work ethic is also believed to be a major impediment to doing business in the country.

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