History of Gaborone
Evidence shows that there have been inhabitants along the Notwane River for centuries, all the way back to the Middle Stone Age.
[10] The Toutswe culture started to collapse in the 13th century due to overgrazing and drought; however the prestige of cattle remained in Botswana society.
[12] The Mfecane (the crushing or scattering in Zulu) is a period in the early 19th century marked by major upheavals and migrations of the tribes in southern Africa.
Before the arrival of Europeans to the area, the Batswana were the dominant ethnic group in the southern half of Botswana, subjugating the Bakgalagadi people and the Khoikhoi to become malata or servants.
This movement caused the Amandebele people, led by Mzilikazi, to attack the Batswana as they moved northwards to present-day Zimbabwe in the 1830s, forcing them to pay tribute.
The Bakololo people also fought with the Batswana during this time when they migrated to Barotseland in modern-day western Zambia.
[12] In the 1880s, Kgosi Gaborone of the Batlokoa clan left the Magaliesberg area in the South African province of North West to settle in the southeastern part of Botswana and called the settlement Moshaweng.
On 31 March 1885, United Kingdom created the Bechuanaland Protectorate from the land north of the Molopo River to the Caprivi Strip of German South-West Africa.
Things changed when Cecil Rhodes established the British South Africa Company with a government charter.
Today, in Gaborone, there is a memorial called the Three Dikgosi Monument in honor of the three chiefs who helped the founding of Bechuanaland and later Botswana.
During the city's construction, the chairman of Gaberones Township Authority, Geoffrey Cornish, likened the layout of the city to a “brandy glass” with the government offices in the base of the glass and businesses in the “mall”, a strip of land extending from the base.
2,000 workers helped construct the city, shoveling 140,000 cubic yards (110,000 m3) and making 2,500,000 blocks of concrete.
In 1971, because of the growth of illegal settlements, the Gaborone Town Council and the Ministry of Local Government and Lands surveyed an area called Bontleng, which would contain low-income housing.
The problem was solved in 1975 when Sir Seretse Khama, the president of Botswana, rezoned Naledi from an industrial zone to a low-income housing area.
[23] A quote from a government official summarizes the conundrum: In this part of the country the Botswana people are the refugees.
[28] In 1992, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) was founded in Gaborone, uniting the economies of the member nations.
