Africa Notes: Botswana: Diamonds, Drought, Development, and Democracy - September 1985

September 11, 1985

When Bechuanaland became the independent Republic of Botswana on September 30, 1966, it was generally regarded as one of Africa's more unlikely pacesetters… Two decades later, Botswana is cited as a model challenging a number of stereotypes about economic and institutional decline in post-independence Africa. It has experienced extraordinary-and reasonably balanced economic growth. Despite four years of devastating drought, it has managed to avert famine. It obtains foreign aid from a wide diversity of sources. Its multiparty electoral system of government is one of the few in Africa that have endured. While it continues to have crucial economic links with neighboring South Africa, it dependence from the regional superpower, and has resisted signing an Nkomati-type treaty with Pretoria.