University of Botswana History Department

Some pictures

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This section is new and the pictures included here are only a provisional sample. But we hope that they may be of interest.

Contents

The new Library
UB cloisters
The main Mall
The African Mall
Kgale Hill
Sua Pan, full of water
Approaching Shoshong
Sunset over the Gaborone Dam

Click here for the LONG DESCRIPTIONS of these images.

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The new Library

In the background, the new addition to the Library under construction. The existing part of the Library, a three-storey yellow building, is obscured by the green tree. In the foreground, the Old Library Building, the single-storey structure which served as library when UB first began as a part of the federal University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland. The Old Library now contains offices, the Archaeology Lab, and the Periodicals Library.

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UB cloisters

A fairly typical view of the older parts of UB - single-storey buildings linked by shaded paths.

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The Main Mall

The main shopping mall in the centre of Gaborone. This was one of the more successful features of the original city design. This picture was taken on a holiday and is thus uncharacteristically empty.

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The African mall

The African Mall is an another shopping centre in the original 1960s part of the city. A more modest place than the main mall but a centre of many practical necessities: resataurants and fast food shops, electronics shops, fresh produce, etc.

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Kgale Hill

A Gaborone landmark, located where the main road from the south enters the city.

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Sua Pan

Normally the Makgadikgadi Pans are dry. But in wet years, like this one, water enters them. This picture of Sua Pan, taken around the end of June 2000, shows the Pan transformed into a huge lake stretching to the horizon. Pelicans and other waterbirds have arrived.

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Approaching Shoshong

Approaching the hills of Shoshong. Shoshong, in the Central District, was once the capital of the BaNgwato under King Sekgoma I in the mid 19th century. Shoshong was a defensible position, which was a prime consideration in Sekgoma's time as he faced a series of threats. It was here that David Livingstone visited Sekgoma, and here that the power struggle between the traditionalist King and his Christian son Khama (later Khama III/the Great) was played out. Khama later moved the capital to Phalatswe and then Serowe, the present seat of the BaNgwato. (See The Abandonment of Phalatswe, 1901-1916 by Prof. Neil Parsons.

This is perhaps a typical view of road travel in Botswana - good roads, huge spaces of bush and flat or rolling country, with sudden hills.

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Sunset over the Gaborone Dam

The Gaborone Dam, the water source for Gaborone, is in a sense the foundation of Gaborone itself. In a dry region water is of crucial importance, and the fact that a large dam could be successfully created here was a necessary precondition for the growth of the city. The dam has a yacht club, and also the splendidly named Kalahari Fishing Club. Fishers can be seen by the Old Lobatse Road, where it passes the dam, selling fresh fish to passers-by.