Tswana | Culture & Traditions | Britannica (original) (raw)

(plural), formerly spelled:

Bechuana

Tswana, westerly division of the Sotho, a Bantu-speaking people of South Africa and Botswana. The Tswana comprise several groupings, the most important of which, numerically speaking, are the Hurutshe, Kgatla, Kwena, Rolong, Tlhaping, and Tlokwa. They numbered about four million at the turn of the 21st century.

Historically, the Tswana have lived in a grassland environment, practicing animal husbandry and subsistence agriculture based on corn (maize) and sorghum. There has long been a seasonal and periodic migration of men who work in the mining and industrial centres of South Africa, although the migration has greatly declined since the 1990s.

Tswana material culture reflects the widespread intrusion of European goods and standards. Traditional housing forms range from the traditional circular single-roomed dwelling with conical thatched roof to multiroomed rectangular houses with roofs of corrugated iron. Transport varies from ox-drawn sledges to motor vehicles. European dress prevails.

Traditionally, every Tswana is affiliated to a patrilineal descent group, each group associated with a distinctive symbol that serves as a polite mode of address and sometimes as a surname. In self-administering political units, especially those in Botswana, the basic social unit is the ward, a readily identifiable self-contained social and administrative entity comprising a number of lineally related families together with their dependents and servants. Its leader is usually the head of the senior family. Although identification with a particular ward is strong, age groups (age sets, or regiments) have existed that cut across ward loyalties.

Ethnic group membership includes alien elements, and Tswana members are often in a minority, so that a Tswana group accordingly lacks cultural and even linguistic uniformity. The chief rules with the assistance of advisers and officials, but at the same time all matters of public policy usually require the approval of a general council open to all adult male members.

In 1977 the apartheid South African government created an “independent” Bantu homeland for the Tswana, called Bophuthatswana, but it was never recognized by the international community and was abolished with the fall of the official apartheid policy in 1994.

This article was most recently revised and updated by Amy McKenna.