Botswana is a landlocked country located in Southern Africa. It is bordered by Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

Nearly 70% of its land is the Kgalagadi desert, but besides desert and the Okavango Delta, there are grasslands and savannas. The Okavango Delta is one of the major semi-forested wetlands in Botswana and one of the largest inland deltas in the world. It is a crucial ecosystem to the survival of many wild animals.

Drought and desertification are the major environmental problems. Because of drought, three-quarters of the country’s humans and animals depend on groundwater extracted from deep boreholes.

Because of the dry conditions, rainfed agriculture is not sustainable, so raising livestock is the primary source of rural income. Approximately 71% of the country’s land is used for communal grazing, which has been a major cause of the desertification and accelerating soil erosion. Environmentalists report that the Okavango Delta is drying up due to increased livestock grazing.

Botswana cuisine

In Botswana, as in Namibia and Zimbabwe, many dishes resemble those popular in South Africa, like pap, boerewors, vetkoek and samp, but it also has a unique Botswanan flair. As a former British Protectorate until 1966, the cuisine has also been influenced by British tastes.

Produce of the land

The country’s cuisine is influenced by the produce of the land, including meat, grains and vegetables grown in home gardens and on small plots, and includes grains, beans, meat, vegetables and fruit. Raising livestock is the country’s main agricultural activity, so meat, particularly beef, is part of the menu. Goat is equally popular. Mutton, chicken and river fish are also abundant.

The main crops are grains, including millet and sorghum, which together with imported maize meal, are staple foods. Maize is grown in backyard gardens or on small plots along with beans and other legumes, pumpkins, squash and sweet potatoes, and fruit such as melon. Most of the fruit and vegetables are seasonal and must be preserved for later consumption.

Grains

Although not a native crop, wheat flour has been imported into the country for many years. As a result, various types of bread have become a part of the national food. Dishes include phalethse or bogobe, also called pap, made with ground maize, sorghum or millet. Phaletshe is coarse and mouldable so that it can be eaten with the hands.

A variation of pap is a dish called ting, that is made when the sorghum or maize is fermented, and milk and sugar added. Without the milk and sugar, ting is also eaten with meat or vegetables as lunch or dinner. Tophi is another version that is made with sour milk and cooking melon or lerotse. Pap is also eaten with madila, a fermented milk product similar to yogurt or sour cream. Motogo is also known as slap pap, or thin porridge, that is usually eaten at breakfast with milk, peanut butter or jam.

Stampa, from the Afrikaans name stampmielies, are dried maize kernels that are broken or chrushed, but not ground. When beans are added, the dish is called dikgobe. Both versions are eaten with beef or chicken stew. Diphaphatha are stove-top muffins, similar to English muffins, but are baked in cast-iron pans over an open flame. Mapakiwa take its inspiration from British scones and are prepared in the same way as diphaphatha. Matemekwane are dumplings seasoned with herbs and spices, often served with dips and soups, or filled with meat and or vegetables, folded, and fried until golden. Magwenya, or vetkoek, are deep-fried dough that is eaten with sweet or savoury accompaniments.

Meat

The Batswana, as the people of Botswana is called, love their meat and no part goes to waste. The national dish is seswaa, that is slow-cooked beef. The most common cuts are the shoulder, rib, rump, and neck. It is traditionally cooked for several hours with water and salt in a three-legged cast iron pot over a fire.

Segwapa (or biltong), refers to dried, cured meat ranging from beef to game meats. It is prepared by using either fillets of meat cut into strips following the grain of the muscle, or flat pieces sliced across the grain. This popular snack is shared with South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. It is as popular as boerewors, directly translated meaning farmer sausage, that is made with a mixture of meats and spices.

Mogatla is a stew made with oxtail that is cooked with tomatoes and onions for a few hours. Leleme la Kgomo is cow’s tongue that is also slow-cooked to perfection. Dibete refers to either beef or chicken livers, that are enjoyed with pap. Ditlhako is the hooves of cattle that is slow-cooked to release gelatine, which has added health benefits such as strengthening the joints and aiding skin elasticity.

Goat stew is also a popular dish that is made with onions, garlic, tomato, sweet bell peppers and spices and cooked for quite a while, since goat meat is less tender than mutton. Free range chickens run around in backyards, and as the meat is quite tough, they need to be boiled in water for a long time to make them tender. Koko ya Setswana is seasoned, slow-cooked chicken. Menoto refers to chicken feet that are usually seasoned and roasted over an open fire.

Chicken-in-a-hole is a unique dish since it is cooked in a hole in the ground and covered with coals to cook to perfection. Before cooking the chicken is stuffed with onion and garlic, rubbed in chilli and combined with cabbage, herbs, curry powder, vinegar, garlic and salt.

Vegetables

Vegetables add nutrients to dishes. Morogo is made with leafy greens, that are not only spinach or the leaves of other vegetables, but also the leaves of a wild plant called amaranth that is elsewhere regarded as nuisance weed. It is cooked with onions and tomatoes and eaten with pap.

Maphutsi means squashes, butternuts and pumpkins, that are grown in backyards, are cut into chunks and steamed, then lightly seasoned and served along with a carb and meat. In urbanised parts of the country, Maphutsi is eaten mashed, steamed, or roasted, and flavoured with cinnamon, sugar, and butter.

Snacks

Madila is fermented milk and yogurt and is made by letting it mature until the whey is extracted, leaving the
curds behind. Kabu refers to roasted maize kernels that are lightly salted. Manoko refers to peanuts that are boiled, sometimes with their shells on, and eaten once cooled. These dishes are popular street foods available from vendors and spaza shops, or little shops attached to houses.

Source references

Botswana (2024) Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Botswana

Botswana (2024) Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/place/Botswana/

Botswanan Food: 9 Must-Try Traditional Dishes of Botswana (2023) Travel Food Atlas. https://travelfoodatlas.com/
botswana-food

Nicola (2024) Botswana Cuisine: 10 Traditional Foods to Try Polkadot Passport
https://polkadotpassport.com/botswana-food/

Thebe, L. (2023) Top 20 Most Popular Foods in Botswana. https://www.chefspencil.com/top-20-most-popular-foods-inbotswana/

Motlhoka, T. (2023) Man’s best friend helps save livestock in rural Botswana. Sunday Standard https://www.sundaystandard.info/local-ngo-reviving-oldherding-method-to-mitigatehuman-wildlife-conflict/