ABSTRACT
Botswana lies at the heart of the southern African subcontinent. The country is completely landlocked, being surrounded by South Africa in the south, Zimbabwe in the east, and Namibia in the west and north-west. Physically, Botswana is a very large country. Its total land area is 582,000 square kilometres, about the size of France, or the state of Texas in the USA. Botswana was colonised by Britain in the mid 1880s, but for the entire colonial period the country remained undeveloped, and was used mainly as a labour reserve colony for South Africa. At the time of Independence Botswana was listed amongst the world’s poorest countries. It was uncharitably labelled a "hopeless basket case". Since Independence the country has undergone rapid economic transformation. There have been significant changes in the country’s social, economic and physical landscape. Freund points out that Botswana is a country unusual in its tolerance of autonomous civil institutions by African standards.
