University of Botswana History Department

Sir Seretse Khama, 1921 - 1980, first President of the Republic of Botswana. (See brief biography)

Thabo Mbeki, former President of the Republic of South Africa, first inaugural speech, 16 June 1999. (The Star, Johannesburg, 17 June 1999 p. 4.)

The Department of History was one of the first university departments to begin teaching in Gaborone in 1971. It is the second largest department, in staff and student numbers, in the Faculty of Humanities. The Archaeology Unit within the Department of History conducts one of the few teaching and research programmes in Archaeology and Museum Studies in Africa.

The first Head of Department was Prof. Thomas Tlou, author of A History of Botswana (Macmillan, 1984) and Seretse Khama, 1921-1980 (Macmillan, 1995), who went on to become Vice-Chancellor of the University of Botswana. The second Head was Prof. Michael Crowder, an eminent historian of Africa and of West Africa in particular, and former editor of the magazine History Today. The third Head was the late Prof. Leonard Ngcongco, former director of the National Institute for Research and contributor to the UNESCO History of Africa project. He retired at the end of 1997 and was succeeded by Dr. P. T. Mgadla, Prof. G. Sekgoma, Prof. P. T. Mgadla, and Prof. A. Kanduza, Dr B.S. Bennett, Prof. M.M.M. Bolaane, and Dr B. Manatsha. (Some other staff members have served as Acting Head for prolonged periods, notably Prof. Neil Parsons and Prof. Morongwa Mosothwane.)

Previous members of the department include the late David Kiyaga-Mulindwa, now President of the Pan-African Association for Prehistory and Related Studies; Fred Morton, editor of The Birth of Botswana (Longman, 1987); Kevin Shillington, author of History of Africa (Macmillan, 1989) and biographer of Museveni of Uganda; Paul Lane, now Director of the British Institute for Prehistory and Archaeology at Nairobi, and Chipasha Luchembe, later attached to the University of California at Los Angeles, who established Latin American History in our curriculum.

The Department is noted for its student research essays in History and Archaeology, of which about two hundred have been written since 1976, and some of which have been published. The Archaeology Unit has ongoing Stone Age, Iron Age, and historic research projects in Kweneng, Central District, and Ngamiland.

The Department provides a course for the Diploma in Archives and Record Management, in the Department of Library and Information Studies. The Archaeology Unit also works closely with, and services courses in, the Department of Environmental Science.

The Department is one of the five largest History departments south of the Zambezi-the others being at the Universities of Cape Town, Natal, Pretoria, South Africa (Unisa), and Zimbabwe. But among them we have the longest record of Africanized curriculum and staffing. We are therefore uniquely situated for cooperation with universities in neighbouring Commonwealth countries.

Such cooperation has begun with the University of North West at Mafikeng. We have also been involved in the development of new secondary school curricula and text materials-in the past in Botswana, Lesotho, and Swaziland, and today in other countries too.

Career Prospects

(A newer, more formal statement connecting employment prospects to the nature of our courses appears below. The following is an older more general statement.)

Most students who take History at university degree level do not become professional historians. Jobs as lecturers, researchers, and as archivists, are hard to come by. Most students of History from the University of Botswana in the past have become teachers of history in schools, and the Department is committed to the provision of high quality content studies for teaching careers.

The skills of research, analysis, writing and information management practised by historians are useful training for jobs of all kinds. History graduates make good general administrators, diplomats and business people, journalists and publishers. Careers as diverse as tourism, television, and criminal investigation are open to people with historical skills.

Archaeological skills are becoming increasingly useful in teaching the new environmental and social studies in schools, as well as in other careers open to historians. There also opportunities for the employment of archaeologists in environmental impact assessment, in institutions such as museums, and in businesses such as tourism and the art and antique trades.

Students should bear in mind that career prospects will be region-wide when the Southern African Development Community grows into a common market.

Our aims & objectives

The department's mission is:

To promote awareness of the past, to show the relevance of the past to the present, and thereby to open minds to the possibilities of the future.
To advance knowledge, research and preservation of inherited culture, and to communicate our findings as widely as possible.
And, to defend the place in academic scholarship of Historical Studies including Archaeology and Museum Studies, and of the Arts and Humanities in general.

The objectives of UB History and UB Archaeology programmes are:

To equip students to explain, elucidate and teach the history and/ or archaeology of Botswana, Africa and the World, and the historical aspects of social, developmental and cultural subjects, and to prepare students for both further education and lifelong independent study.
To put a premium on reading and research and making sense of diverse information, on cultural sensitivity, on critical interpretation and judgement of sources, on narrative explanation and situational analysis, on the production of interesting and usable knowledge, and on the writing of lucid and accessible reports.
For students to appreciate and enjoy their studies sufficiently to contribute valid historical and cultural insights into discussions of public affairs, and to be able to conduct independent research and reporting.
To promote awareness of the past, to show the relevance of the past to the present, and thereby to open minds to the possibilities of the future

Employment prospects

Historians and archaeologists by training may seek careers in any field that puts a premium on:

research and making sense of diverse information
critical interpretation and judgment of sources
narrative explanation and situational or policy analysis
the production of interesting and usable knowledge
the writing of lucid and accessible reports for publication

Our undergraduate programmes in History and Archaeology therefore stress:

Knowledge and understanding of Botswana and Southern Africa in core courses, and other areas of Africa among optional courses;
Knowledge and understanding of the multi-cultural underpinnings of an increasingly globalized world culture;
Practical skills in the collection and analysis of primary data including documents and artefacts, in the reading of extensive secondary sources, and in the writing of reports and essays.

The History Department web-site was launched in May 1999. A complete list of pages can be found in the Site Index. Comments, suggestions and other input will be gratefully received.

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