A/HRC/15/37/Add.2 The Special Rapporteur is grateful to the Government for its detailed responses, which have been taken into account in the preparation of this final version of the report. II. Background and context A. The indigenous and tribal peoples of Botswana 6. Numerous ethnically distinct groups that are indigenous to the African continent live in Botswana, speaking approximately 28 different languages or dialects. They fall primarily into five linguistic-tribal groups: the Tswana, the Basarwa, the Bakgalagadi, the Wayeyi and the Hambukushu. The Tswana, comprised of eight subgroups, are politically and numerically dominant throughout Botswana. Tswana-speaking groups began to migrate into the area no later than A.D. 1200. During the past few centuries, the presence of Tswana groups increased, and over time the Tswana established effective control over the territory, in some cases displacing other groups, primarily Basarwa, from their land. During colonization, the British colonial powers negotiated primarily with the dominant Tswana tribes. The legacy of this prioritization of Tswana interests and culture over non-dominant tribes in Botswana persists in the social and political dynamics of present-day Botswana. 7. Botswana is considered by historians and anthropologists to have been first inhabited by the ancestors of the hunter-gatherer Basarwa, or San, people. This historical presence is particularly evident in the Tsodilo Hills region of northern Botswana, where archaeological findings include stone tools and rock art paintings dating back thousands of years. The Basarwa population is now about 50,000–60,000, and encompasses a number of subgroups, including Ju/’hoansi, Bugakhwe, //Anikhwe, Tsexakhwe, !Xoo, Naro, G/wi, G//ana, Kua, Tshwa, Deti, ‡Khomani, ‡Hoa, =Kao//’aesi, Shua, Danisi and /Xaisa. Basarwa communities reside in seven districts: the Southern, Kweneng, Kgatleng, Ghanzi, Kgalagadi, Central, and North West districts. Traditionally, the Basarwa were a seminomadic people who practised a hunter-gatherer and agro-pastoralist lifestyle, moving within designated areas based on the seasons and availability of resources, such as water, game and edible plants. 8. Other non-dominant tribes in Botswana include the Bakgalagadi people, comprised of several subgroups including the Bangologa and Bakgwathen, who number approximately 272,000. Traditionally, the Bakgalagadi were agro-pastoralists who occasionally moved depending on the water supply. Still other groups include the Kalanga, who live in the Central and North East districts; the Wayeyi, numbering approximately 60,000 and living primarily in the North West District; and the Hambukushu, who number around 49,000, and live, among other areas, near the Tsodilo Hills in the North West District. Much smaller tribal groups within Botswana include the Nama, a Khoesan-speaking people, numbering approximately 1,500 and the Balala, numbering approximately 2,200. B. The legal and policy framework 9. Botswana gained its independence from the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland in 1966. Alongside the formal institutions of governance that succeeded the colonial regime, tribal structures of authority and customary law have remained part of the country’s legal and political framework. Historically and in many ways still, however, the legal and political accommodation to tribal interests has privileged the dominant Tswana tribes. 10. The Constitution of Botswana provides for a House of Chiefs, a body that advises the National Assembly and executive authorities on issues related to Botswana’s tribes. GE.10-13968 5