Timeline Botswana
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History: http://www.africanet.com/countries/botswana.htm#HISTORY
Botswana is about the size of Texas. Gaborone is the
capital.
(WSJ, 8/29/02, p.A1)(Econ, 3/29/08, p.62)
1830
A French taxidermist stuffed an African Bushman from
Botswana and took the body to Europe for exhibition. In 2000 the body
was returned from a Spanish museum.
(WSJ, 10/5/00, p.A1)
1921 Jul 1, Seretse Khama, 1st
president of Botswana, was born.
(http://ubh.tripod.com/bw/skhama.htm)
1950 Laurence Marshall, a former
president of Raytheon, took his family to the bush land of the Kalahari
Desert in South Africa where they encountered the native Bushmen. The
area later became the border of Namibia and Botswana. In 2006 his
daughter Elizabeth Marshall Thomas authored ”The Old Way: A Story of
the First People.”
(SSFC, 11/5/06, p.M3)
1966 Sep 30, The Republic of
Botswana, a Texas sized country, declared its independence from Britain.
(SFC, 7/1/97, p.A9)(AP, 9/30/06)
1966-1980 Seretse Khama (1921-1980) served as the 1st
president of Botswana.
(http://ubh.tripod.com/bw/skhama.htm)
1980 Apr 1, The southern African
Development Coordination Conference was established by 9 countries with
the Lusaka declaration (Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe). On August 17, 1992, it was
transformed into the Southern African Development Community. By 2008 it
included 15 members.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_African_Development_Community)
1980 Jul 13, Seretse Khama, 1st
president of Botswana, died. He made Botswana an increasingly
democratic and prosperous country with a significant role in Southern
Africa.
(http://ubh.tripod.com/bw/skhama.htm)
1985 Botswana recorded its 1st
AIDS case.
(WSJ, 8/29/02, p.A4)
1986 May 19, South African
commandos struck alleged ANC "operational centers" in Zimbabwe,
Botswana, Zambia.
(www.iie.com/research/topics/sanctions/southafrica.cfm)
1997 Jun 19, In Zimbabwe delegates
to the UN Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
approved the applications by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to sell an
annual quota of their collective ivory stockpile, but only to Japan.
Trade in ivory was shut down in 1989 due to extensive poaching.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)
1997 Jun 19, In Zimbabwe delegates
to the UN Convention on Int’l. Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)
approved the applications by Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to sell an
annual quota of their collective 55 tons of ivory stockpile, but only
to Japan. Trade in ivory was shut down in 1989 due to extensive
poaching.
(SFC, 6/20/97, p.A20)(SFC, 4/18/00, p.A9)
1997 Nov 10, Pres. Sir Ketumile
Masire announced that he would retire Mar 31 after 18 years as leader.
He would be succeeded by Vice Pres. Festus Mogae.
(SFC,11/11/97, p.A14)
1997 The US Peace Corps left
Botswana after 30 years of aiding development. In 2002 the Peace Corps
returned to help with the AIDS program.
(WSJ, 8/29/02, p.A4)
1997-2006 Over 2,000 Bushmen and others moved out of
Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve and in return were given
livestock, a small plot of land and some money.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.47)
1998 Mar 29-1998 Mar 31, Pres.
Clinton visited Botswana and took 2 days off to explore the Chobe
National Park, home to 45,000 elephants and other species.
(SFC, 3/21/98, p.A13)(WSJ, 3/30/98, p.A1)
1998 Sep 21, In Lesotho opposition
protestors clashed with South African and Botswanan troops at the royal
palace. A faction of the Lesotho army rebelled 11 days ago and deposed
the new military leadership. They charged that the May elections swept
by the Lesotho Congress party were rigged.
(SFC, 9/22/98, p.A7)
1998 Oct 28, The life expectancy
was reported to have dropped from 61 in 1993 to 47 to the AIDS epidemic.
(SFC, 10/28/98, p.A12)
1998 In Botswana Festus Mogae came
to power in succession to Sir Ketumile Masire.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
1999 May 6, Bristol-Myers
announced a plan to spend $100 million over the next 5 years in 5
southern African nations, that included Botswana, to fund AIDS research
trials.
(WSJ, 5/6/99, p.A1)(WSJ, 7/7/00, p.A1)
1999 Oct 18, In Botswana election
results showed the ruling Botswana Democratic Party of Pres. Festus
Mogae won 30 of 40 seats in the National Assembly.
(SFC, 10/19/99, p.A13)
2000 Feb 26, Heavy rains continued
to ravage South Africa, Botswana, Mozambique and Zimbabwe. 33 people
were reported dead in the northern province of South Africa and 29 dead
in Zimbabwe.
(SFEC, 2/27/00, p.A22)
2001 Mar 7, Debswana, Botswana’s
diamond-mining giant, offered AIDS drug coverage for its 6,000 workers.
(WSJ, 3/8/00, p.A1)
2001 Jun 4, It was reported that
the AIDS HIV-infection rate was 38.5% of Botswana’s adult population.
(SFC, 6/4/01, p.A10)
2002 Aug, The US Peace Corps
returned to Botswana to help with the AIDS crises. One-third of the
working population was infected.
(WSJ, 8/29/02, p.A4)
2002 Some of the former dwellers
of Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve (CKGR) took the government
to court, arguing that their relocation was illegal.
(Econ, 2/18/06, p.47)
2003 Jul 10, Pres. Bush met with
Pres. Festus Mogae in Botswana. Bush said that AIDS is "the deadliest
enemy Africa has ever faced" and pledged to the nation with the world's
highest AIDS infection rate that it would have a strong partner in his
administration in fighting the disease.
(SFC, 7/10/03, p.A8)(AP, 7/10/08)
2003 Aug 30, In Botswana a former
bank manager, draped in a ceremonial leopard skin, was installed as the
first female paramount chief. Mosadi Seboko took over as the
highest-ranking chief of the Balete people.
(AP, 8/30/03)
2003 Nov 8, The AIDS infection
rate in Botswana was reported to be 22% and that few people were taking
advantage of treatment programs.
(SFC, 11/8/03, p.A14)
2004 Nov 1, Botswana voters gave
the ruling Botswana Democratic Party 44 of parliament’s 57 seats. Pres.
Festus Mogae promised to fight poverty and AIDS.
(Econ, 11/6/04, p.50)
2004 Eurostar, an Indian-owned
diamond cutting and trading company headquartered in Belgium, set up
diamond polishing and cutting operations in Botswana.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.74)
2005 Jun 28, Swedish truck and bus
maker Volvo AB said it will close an assembly plant in Botswana and
open a new factory in Durban, South Africa.
(AP, 6/28/05)
2006 Dec 13, Botswana's High Court
ruled that the country's Bushmen were entitled to live and hunt on
their ancestral lands in the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, in judgment
hailed as victory for the hunters.
(AP, 12/13/06)
2006 Dec 14, Botswana's government
accepted a court order to allow the Bushmen, the nation's last
hunter-gatherers, to live on their ancestral lands. But at the same
time, officials imposed tough conditions likely to prevent most or all
from returning.
(AP, 12/14/06)
2006 Botswana’s population
numbered about 1.6 million.
(Econ, 7/28/07, p.47)
2007 Jun 2, The UN Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) decided to permit a
one-off sale of 60 tons of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South
Africa to Japan, saying it would monitor closely the impact on poaching
and population levels.
(Reuters, 6/3/07)
2007 Jun 14, In the Netherlands
four African states (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe),
after an 18-year ban, were allowed to put their ivory stocks on the
market in a one-time sale as part of a hard-fought compromise reached
with other Africans who tried to block the sale. The 171-member
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES,
approved the deal by consensus.
(AP, 6/14/07)
2007 Jul 15, Botswana's President
Festus Mogae (67) announced that he is to stand down next year after a
decade at the helm of the diamond-rich southern African nation.
(AFP, 7/15/07)
2007 Jul, Filming started on the
first international movie ever to be shot in Botswana, “The No. 1
Ladies' Detective Agency,” a movie based on Alexander McCall Smith's
hit book series of the same name.
(CSM, 8/1/07)(Econ, 7/28/07, p.47)
2008 Mar 18, In Botswana De Beers
and the government set up a Diamond Trading Company (DTC) as a joint
venture.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.74)
2008 Mar 22, The population of
Botswana numbered about 1.8 million.
(Econ, 3/22/08, p.74)
2008 Apr 1, In Botswana Seretse
Ian Khama (b.1953), the half-white son of Botswana’s first
president, was sworn in as president. Festus Mogae retired after
10 years in office.
(www.voanews.com/english/2008-04-01-voa55.cfm?rss=politics)
2008 Jul 16, The United States
signed a pair of agreements to boost trade and investment ties with
countries in southern and eastern Africa. These included the Trade,
Investment and Development Cooperation Agreement with the Southern
Africa Customs Union (SACU), which includes Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia,
South Africa and Swaziland; and the Trade Investment and Framework
Agreement (TIFA) with the East African Community, which includes
Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.
(Reuters, 7/17/08)
2008 Oct 20, Festus Gontebanye
Mogae, who led Botswana from 1998 to 2008, was chosen as the winner of
the 2008 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.
(AP, 10/20/08)
2008 Nov 26, South Africa's health
minister said Zimbabwe faced a humanitarian crisis after a major
outbreak of cholera, vowing not to turn away anyone who crosses the
border for treatment. Botswana's foreign minister said Zimbabwe's
neighbors should close their borders in an attempt to bring down Pres.
Robert Mugabe, in the strongest call yet for action from Africa.
(AFP, 11/26/08)
2009 Mar 21, In Botswana Japanese
Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone opened a development conference and
warned that the global economic crisis would affect Africa for at least
two years.
(AP, 3/21/09)
2009 Mar 27, Southern African
countries (Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, Zambia) have been hit
by the worst floods in years, killing more than 100 people and
displacing thousands, as a tropical storm threatened to bring more pain.
(AFP, 3/28/09)
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