Tutume is a large

Bakalanga The Kalanga or BaKalanga are a southern Bantu ethnic group mainly inhabiting Matebeleland in Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, and parts of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. The BaKalanga of Botswana are the second largest ethnic group in th ...

village located in the Tutume District of

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

, about 50 km from the

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

border gate at Maitengwe. The nearest city is

Francistown Francistown is the second-largest city in Botswana, with a population of about 103,417 inhabitants and 147,122 inhabitants in its agglomeration at the 2022 census. It is located in eastern Botswana, about north-northeast from the capital, Gabo ...

, about 100 km away. The village is a district headquarters and has a population of 23,000. It is made up of wards: Sitabule (Madikwe), Tjilagwani (Selolwane), Thini, and Madandume (Magapatona). In each ward, there is a headman and his advisers in the

kgotla A ''kgotla'' (English pronunciation or ) is a public meeting, community council, or traditional law court of a Botswana village and in rural Lesotho and South Africa. It is usually headed by the village chief or headman, and community decision ...

. The main kgotla is located in Madikwe ward near Tutume Central Primary School. The village was named after the river Tutume; in Kalanga they will say "gwizi go Tutuma", meaning that the river was overflowing. There are seven primary schools; Magapatona, Timbi, Thini, Selolwane, Maphorisa and Tutume Central; two junior secondary schools: Denjebuya and Pandagala; and one senior secondary school: Tutume McConnell Community College. Tutume village is the administration centre for all the villages and settlements in the District area. The village has a police station, a primary hospital, a District hospital, immigration department, a District Council, Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board, Water Utilities Corporation, Botswana Power Corporation, civil registration department, rural administration centre (local council), post office four supermarkets, and bed and breakfast service areas. The village acts as an umbrella for different

BaKalanga The Kalanga or BaKalanga are a southern Bantu ethnic group mainly inhabiting Matebeleland in Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, and parts of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. The BaKalanga of Botswana are the second largest ethnic group in th ...

clans who all belong to the Wumbe tribe. Before Tutume was developed, people lived at their lands and cattle posts for the fertile virgin-land. People prided themselves in the art of ploughing and animal rearing. The people of the area also pride themselves in their history and their culture and language as is seen daily by how they live, their culture as well as the names they have and continue to give their children up to this day which are all in their Kalanga tongue.

Notable people

* Kemmy Pilato (born 1989), Botswana footballer

References

Populated places in Botswana {{Botswana-geo-stub