The Tswana

The Tswana, or West Sotho, people make up about 8% of the Sotho-speaking population of South Africa. Their main industry is cattle farming and they live mainly in the Northern Cape Province, North West Province, central and western Free State and in neighbouring Botswana.

As the Tswana lived in inhospitable country inhabited by many wild animals, they sought the security of close settlement around the central authority of their chief. These towns, surrounded by satellite villages or wards are sometimes several kilometres across and may house up to 20 000 people. The cattle kraal is central to most Tswana villages and is the focus of life.

For many decades the Tswana tribes migrated to new lands, setting up chiefdoms at will until the governments of White settlers made boundaries, obliging them to settle permanently in certain areas. In 1971 defined borders were given to the fragmented territories of the Tswana. This homeland ultimately became the national state of Bophuthatswana, which means literally `the tying together of the Tswana'. This state was not recognised by the international world and ended with the fall from power of President Mangope in 1994, and the re-incorporation of Bophuthatswana into the Republic of South Africa.

Setswana is spoken across South Africa and is one of the country’s 11 official languages. It was the first written Sotho language, with Sotho being a sub-group of the Nguni, or Bantu, languages. About 3 301 774 people in South Africa use it as their home language.

Sources:

Howcroft
http://www.cyberserv.co.za/users/~jako/lang/tsw.htm
http://www.fact-index.com/t/ts/tswana_language.html
http://www.ethnologue.com/show_country.asp?name=South+Africa