Tswana people

The Tswana (Batswana, singular Motswana) are a Sotho-Tswana ethnic group native to Southern Africa. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 85% of the population of Botswana in 2011. Batswana are the native people of south and eastern Botswana and the Gauteng, North West, Northern Cape and other provinces of South Africa, where the majority of Batswana are located. The Batswana are descended mainly from Bantu-speaking tribes, along with the Khoi-San. The Tswana tribe migrated southward to Africa around 600 CE, living in tribal enclaves as farmers and herders. Several Iron Age cultures flourished around 900 CE, including the Toutswemogala Hill Iron Age settlement. The Toutswe were in the eastern region of what is now Botswana, relying on Tswana cattle breeds held in kraals as their source of wealth. The arrival of the ancestors of the Tswana-speaking people who came to control the region (from the Vaal River to Botswana) has yet to be dated precisely. Although CE 600 seems to be a consensus estimate, This massive cattle-raising complex prospered until 1300 CE or so. All these various peoples were connected to trade routes that ran via the Limpopo River to the Indian Ocean, and trade goods from Asia, such as beads, made their way to Botswana. Most likely in exchange for ivory, gold, and rhinoceros horn. Members of the Bakwena, a chieftaincy under a legendary leader named Kgabo II, made their way into the southern Kalahari by CE 1500, at the latest, and his people drove the Bakgalagadi inhabitants west into the desert. Over the years, several offshoots of the Bakwena moved into adjoining territories. The Bangwaketse occupied areas to the west, while the Bangwato moved northeast into formerly Bakalanga areas. Not long afterward, a Bangwato offshoot known as the Batawana migrated into the Okavango Delta, probably in the 1790s. The first written records relating to modern-day Botswana appeared in 1824. What these records show is that the Bangwaketse had become the predominant power in the region.