ABSTRACT
The territorial extent o f what constitutes the modern Republic o f Botswana was determined in the last decades o f the nineteenth century. Until that time, the dry central plains o f southern Africa had been the focus o f a series o f land struggles. Archaeological evidence1 suggests that the San2 were the earliest human inhabitants o f the region, and that they have been domiciled there for in excess o f 15 thousand years. In approximately 600 A.D., groups began moving in from central Africa, and later from the east. By 1450, the Shona-speaking Butua kingdom, centred at Khami near the site o f modern Bulawayo, had expanded westwards across the Ramokgwebane and Shashe rivers (Van Waarden, 1991), and by 1500, a Sotho group, the Bakgalagadi had moved in from the southeast, and settled near what is now Molepolole.
