A/HRC/40/64/Add.2 and tourism industries. Botswana has experienced an average rise in gross domestic product of about 5 per cent per year in recent years, though much of that rise is linked to being the world’s largest producer of diamonds. It has a relatively high standard of living and is considered an upper-middle-income country, despite significant poverty levels in some regions, and has the highest human development index of continental sub-Saharan Africa. 6. One of Africa’s most politically stable countries, it is also the continent’s longest continuous multiparty democracy, with reported low levels of corruption and a relatively good human rights record. 7. Botswana has, however, been deeply scarred by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The country has the world’s third highest prevalence rate of HIV/AIDS, with an estimate from 2017 indicating that 22.8 per cent of the adult population was infected. IV. Ethnic, linguistic and religious minority communities 8. Although it is sometimes viewed, and even portrayed, as largely mono-ethnic – Botswana literally means “land of the Tswana”, referring to the country’s ethnic majority – the country is very diverse in ethnic and linguistic terms, though perhaps less so in relation to its religious make-up and in comparison with some of its neighbours. 9. In terms of religious diversity, according to the most recent population and housing census, held in 2011, 79 per cent of the population aged 12 and over are members of Christian groups, with most identifying as Anglicans, Methodists and members of the United Congregational Church of Southern Africa; 15 per cent claim no religion; 4 per cent belong to the Badimo traditional indigenous religious minority; and all other religious minorities comprise less than 1 per cent of the population. Approximately 11,000 persons are Muslims, according to the same census, and there are smaller Hindu, Baha’i, Buddhist, Sikh and Jewish minorities. 10. While this information provides some insights into the religious diversity of Botswana, precise disaggregated data on the country’s national and linguistic minorities is regrettably unavailable. In the 2011 census, questions on individual identity were largely omitted. Most of the information available on the country’s minority populations therefore consists of rough estimates drawn from a variety of studies, particularly in relation to ethnic or linguistic identification. 11. Ethnolinguistic communities can be divided into five broad groups: the Tswana, the Basarwa, the Bakgalagadi, the Wayeyi and the Hambukushu (A/HRC/15/37/Add.2, para. 6). Officially, 28 languages are acknowledged in Botswana. 1 The Tswana are comprised of eight subgroups or tribes – the Bakgatla, the Bakwena, the Balete, the Bangwaketse, the Bangwato, the Barolong, the Batawana and the Batlokwa – which use mutually intelligible language varieties collectively known as Setswana. Together they are considered to constitute a demographic majority, though this is sometimes contested. 2 Some stress the perceived unreliability of the disaggregated data in the 2011 population census, which asked respondents to indicate the language spoken by all family members at home rather than the mother tongue of individuals to determine ethnicity and for language identification. The figures in that census indicated that, with regard to languages spoken at home, 77.3 per cent of the population spoke Setswana, 7.4 per cent used Kalanga, 3.4 per cent Kgalagadi, 2 per cent Shona, 1.7 per cent Tshwa, 1.6 per cent Mbukushu and 1 per cent Ndebele. 12. The political dominance of the Tswana, reflected in the name of the country, dates at least to the colonial period, when British authorities negotiated primarily with the dominant Tswana groups. The preferential treatment of Tswana interests over those of other ethnic groups continues to permeate many of the State’s institutions and symbols and its social 1 2 4 Botswana, Statistics Botswana, Population and Housing Census 2011: Analytical Report (Gaborone, 2014), p. 266. Lydia Nyati-Ramahobo, “Minority tribes in Botswana: the politics of recognition” (Minority Rights Group International, December 2008). Available from www.refworld.org/docid/496dc0c82.html.