HISTORY OF LAND IN BW
Before BW became a Protectorate in 1885, we just had settlements based on territories of tribes. As we know, that was the when tribes constantly fought against each other for land and cattle.

In 1885 when we became a Protectorate and a railway line erected in 1895, the Dikgosi gave the colonialists land around Lobatse, Gaborone, Tuli, Tati. With their experience with land, these were made freehold land and were given title deeds.

This is why even today, most of this land (freehold) is owned by white people. We never had bloodshed in BW, we allocated white folk land in exchange for their protection and the development of the railway line. I forgot to mention Ghanzi as one of the areas above.

The colonial administration then asked the Dikgosi of the principal tribes to identify their tribal territories. They did, and this was called tribal land which was 48% of the country then. The Dikgosi had autonomous rule over this land until the land act in 1968.

After the Dikgosi had identified their territories, the remaining land within the protectorate which had not been claimed (excluding freehold) was declared State land, 47%. Freehold land occupied by white settlers was at 6%.

Since independence however, significant amounts of state land have been converted into tribal land to relieve congestion in tribal areas. It has been reduced to 23%. 80% of our population lives on tribal land which was under the Dikgosi until 1968.

Batswana were allocated residential, masimo and moraka. Residential is ko gae where we live, masimo was for arable farming and moraka was pastures for grazing livestock with the latter being the furthest from the residential.

1968 the tribal land act was passed and in 1970, twelve main landboards were formed. The powers vested in Dikgosi was handed to landboards. These, together with sub landboards, allocated residential, arable, grazing and water, industrial and commercial land uses.

Because of the rivers and urban developments, 80% of our population lives in the eastern part of BW. Since 1970, land was not allocated based on tribe and origin of the applicant. This put strain on major towns and cities in the east.

My uninformed guess is that landboards will be allocating the last of the existing land over the next decade. Then they will become bodies where transfers are made, land disputes are heard, collection of rentals etc.

So when we apply for land in Gaborone, re itaya letlapa ka le lengwe. There simply is no land to allocate anymore. The waiting list goes back decades, simply because it is becoming expensive for the State to continue buying land (masimo) to expand residential.

The Baby Boomer generation had access to most of the land in the urban areas. These are folks born in 1944-64. During the diamond boom when cities were developing, these guys had the biggest opportunity.

Generation X, 1965-1979 had some opportunities too. They finished school at a time when employment was almost a given and found some new developments and cheap land.

Millennials, rona, 1980-1994 have had to buy or inherit land/property. Few of us got allocations within 100km from the city. Things will be worse for Generation Z 1995-2012. Generation alpha 2013-25 yone ke sa bue.

This narrative of Batswana ga ba fiwe lefatshe is skewed. The demand far exceeds the supply. In 1924, our population was less than 200k. A century later, that number has multiplied more than ten fold. Where are we going to get extra land to allocate?

White settlers never stole our land as indicated above. We gave it to them, or at least our forefathers did. For example, the land from Game City to Mokolodi was owned by a white settler who was given the land when the railway line was constructed in 1895.

From Gaborone Dam to GTC and Segoditshane river by Tsolamosese all the way engulfing Kgale Hill and Mokolodi nature reserve and all the way to the dam. In the 1920s or 30s the dude divided the land into 3 paddocks and sold it.

First paddock was bought by the Roman Catholic Church up to St Joe Primary, the middle section was bought by the Gamalete Trust up to Mokolodi entrance and the last part (Mokolodi) by the Kirby family so I hear from bagolo.