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BOTSWANA |
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Area |
581.730 Kmq |
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Capital
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Gaborone | ||
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Language
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Setswana | ||
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Currency
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Pula | ||
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Religion
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Traditional cults, Christian | ||
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Population
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1.576.470 | ||
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Population
annual growth
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0.7% | ||
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Urban
population
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63,2% | ||
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Life
expentancy at birth
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39 years | ||
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Mortalità infantile |
61 per 1.000 |
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Age
group enrolment %
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Primary 115%, Secondary 54%, Tertiary 4% | ||
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Dailies
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20 per 1.000 ab. | ||
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Radio
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125 per 1.000 ab. | ||
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Televisions
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20 per 1.000 ab. | ||
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GNP
per capita
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$ 3.070 | ||
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Exports
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$ 2,360 millions | ||
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Imports
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$ 2,350 millions | ||
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(Fonts - population,
annual growth, life expectancy, infant mortality, imports and exports:
The World Factbook 2000, www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook - GNP
per capita: UNDP, Human Development Report 2000, Oxford 2000 - other
infos: Instituto del Tercer Mundo, Guya del mondo 1999/2000, Montevideo
1999)
www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook
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HISTORY Botswana had always been a crossroads of colonial strategic interests of the whole southern African region and at the end of the 19th century it became a British protectorate, immediately playing the role of the political antagonist of South Africa. This did not allow it escaping from the economic dominion of the Afrikaner, who made the rich resources of Botswana, initially limited to livestock raising, their private area of influence. Even after independence, obtained in 1966, the policy of the country aimed at progressively distancing itself from its neighbour (for example regarding apartheid) but its economy has remained dependent on it to a great extent. With the discovery in 1967 of diamond mines, Botswana has grown at dizzying rates, alternating however with sudden collapses and has become one of the richest African states, also thanks to the consolidation of the tourist industry (the third resource of the country). Moreover, this has not solved the structural problems of unemployment, social inequality and the difficult relations with South Africa, to which the catastrophe of AIDS has progressively been added. The most dominant ethnic group by far in Botswana is the Tswana group, a stock of Bantu culture, strongly present in South Africa and divided only by the borders marked on paper. The San, known to the West as the Bushmen, are now spread in small groups in the Kalahari Desert and were the very first inhabitants of the region. The famous rock paintings and oral tradition that are found in their characteristic language with clicking sounds are the forms of expression peculiar to this group of a nomadic culture and without writing. |
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BIBLIOGRAPHY SWANEY, Botswana, Torino: EDT, 1995 |
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ITALIAN NGO IN BOTSWANA
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