White people in Botswana are Botswanan people whose ancestry lies within the continent of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, most notably the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and ...

and the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. Currently, White Africans are a minority ethnic group in Botswana, accounting for around 3% of the country's population. The White population usually speak

Afrikaans Afrikaans (, ) is a West Germanic language that evolved in the Dutch Cape Colony from the Dutch vernacular of Holland proper (i.e., the Hollandic dialect) used by Dutch, French, and German settlers and their enslaved people. Afrikaans gr ...

, with a small

Serbian Serbian may refer to: * someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe * someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people * Serbian language * Serbian names See also * * * Old Serbian (disambiguation ...

community in the country’s capital. The Afrikaner population is centred around farming communities in the Ghanzi Region (descendants of the Dorsland Trekkers). After the Zimbabwean Land Reforms, a small amount of Anglo-Zimbabwean Farmers moved to Botswana (as well as South Africa and Zambia) to start new lives.

History

European people began to immigrate into what is today the nation of Botswana in the 19th century, starting with the

Boer Boers ( ; af, Boere ()) are the descendants of the Dutch-speaking Free Burghers of the eastern Cape frontier in Southern Africa during the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. From 1652 to 1795, the Dutch East India Company controlled this are ...

people. The Dorsland Trek in the late 19th and early 20th centuries saw thousands of Boer families migrate from

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring coun ...

to present-day

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

by way of Botswana. Many families stayed, especially in Ghanzi, which is in the

Kalahari Desert The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa. It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coastal d ...

. White Botswana people are primarily of

Afrikaner Afrikaners () are a South African ethnic group descended from predominantly Dutch settlers first arriving at the Cape of Good Hope in the 17th and 18th centuries.Entry: Cape Colony. ''Encyclopædia Britannica Volume 4 Part 2: Brain to Cast ...

descent, but smaller numbers are also of British/Rhodesian ancestry as well. Additionally, there is a fairly significant

community in the country, mainly families of immigrants from

Yugoslavia Yugoslavia (; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", Jugoslavija, Југославија ; sl, Jugoslavija ; mk, Југославија ;; rup, Iugoslavia; hu, Jugoszlávia; rue, label= Pannonian Rusyn, Югославия, translit=Juhoslavij ...

who came beginning in the 1950s. There is a Serbian Society in Gaborone, which regularly hosts a variety of cultural events. In 2016 construction began on the first

Serbian Orthodox The Serbian Orthodox Church ( sr-Cyrl, Српска православна црква, Srpska pravoslavna crkva) is one of the autocephalous ( ecclesiastically independent) Eastern Orthodox Christian churches. The majority of the population ...

church in Botswana, the St. Nicholas Church. The St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church also operates in Gaborone.“History of Serbs in Botswana.” Saint Sava Botswana, Saint Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Gaborone, Botswana, www.saintsavabotswana.org/history-of-serbs-in-botswana.

Notable people

* Roy Blackbeard, MP, High Commissioner from Botswana to the

* Ross Branch, motorcycle racer * Christian de Graaff, MP, Minister of Agriculture *

James G. Haskins James George Haskins (born 1914, died 1990) was a politician and businessman from Botswana. Haskins was born in Bulawayo. His father was James Haskins from Bristol who run coffee business in Tati Concessions Land and later a trading store chain h ...

, MP,

Speaker of the National Assembly of Botswana The Speaker of the National Assembly is the presiding officer of the unicameral Parliament of Botswana. Since Botswana's independence from the United Kingdom in 1965, eight men and women have served as Speaker. The first, Alfred Merriweather, a ...

* Derek Jones, Mayor of

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaboron ...

* Ruth Williams Khama,

First Lady of Botswana The first lady of the Republic of Botswana is the wife of the president of Botswana. The current first lady is Neo Masisi, the wife of President Mokgweetsi Masisi. The role is largely ceremonial and has no salary. President Masisi has said that ...

* Alfred Merriweather, MP,

* Samantha Paxinos, Olympic swimmer for Botswana * James Freeman, Olympic swimmer for Botswana * Benjamin Steinberg, MP, first Treasurer of the Botswana Democratic Party * Hendrik van Zyl, famed trader and politician in Ghanzi

References and footnotes

Serbian Society of Botswana

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kal ...

Ethnic groups in Botswana White culture in Africa {{Africa-ethno-group-stub