Gaborone is one of Africa's youngest and calmest capitals: a city that in 1965 was nothing more than a small village and that, in barely three years, was built almost from scratch to become the capital of the new nation of Botswana, independent since 1966. Planned as a 'garden city', with wide avenues, parks and shopping centres, it reflects Botswana's own path: from one of the poorest countries in the world in 1966 to one of the most stable and prosperous democracies on the continent, thanks to diamonds and careful management.
It isn't a city of great monuments or a colonial old town —its history is too recent—, but it has its charm and several visits worth making: the imposing Three Dikgosi Monument, honouring the chiefs who saved the country from annexation; the National Museum; and, above all, the nature right on the city's doorstep, with the Gaborone Game Reserve and the Mokolodi Nature Reserve, where you can see zebras, rhinos and giraffes just minutes from the centre.
This practical guide presents Gaborone as what it is for most travellers: the gateway to the country and a comfortable, safe base to start or end the trip. It covers what to see in the city and its surroundings, how to get around, where to eat a good seswaa (the national dish) and how to make the most of a one- or two-day stop before heading off on the big safaris in the Delta, Chobe or the Kalahari.
Where Gaborone stands today there was, from 1880, a settlement of Chief Gaborone of the Batlokwa, beside the Notwane River. During the colonial era, the Bechuanaland Protectorate was, oddly, run from Mafeking in South Africa, outside the territory itself. As independence approached, the country needed a capital of its own: little Gaborone was chosen for its water, its location and its closeness to the railway, and between 1964 and 1966 an entire city was built from scratch. On 30 September 1966 Botswana became independent and Gaborone became its capital. That story —from Batlokwa village to the planned capital of a prosperous country— is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The political and human backbone of the country: the capital born with independence, the old gold town, the historic kingdom of the Bangwato and the rugged corner where three countries meet.
Read the history of The east and Gaborone →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The story of this place begins long before the capital existed. Around 1880, Chief Gaborone, leader of the Batlokwa (one of the Tswana peoples), settled with his people beside the Notwane River, in the south-east of present-day Botswana, and founded a settlement he called Moshaweng. The site had a permanent water supply and good land, and over time the area came to carry the chief's name: first Gaberones, and later Gaborone.
In 1885, the United Kingdom established the Bechuanaland Protectorate over this territory, largely to stop the Boers and the Germans from expanding in the region and to secure the 'road to the north' towards its colonies. Oddly enough, the protectorate's administration wasn't based inside the territory itself but in Mafeking (now Mahikeng), a town in South Africa, just south of the border. For decades, Bechuanaland was governed from outside its own borders, a highly unusual colonial arrangement.
In that context, little Gaberones was barely a dot on the map: a station on the railway linking South Africa with Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), with a fort, a jail and not much else. Nothing suggested that this modest settlement by the Notwane would become, in less than a century, the capital of a prosperous nation.
One of the most decisive episodes in Botswana's history took place in 1895, and today it is remembered by Gaborone's most iconic monument. That year, Cecil Rhodes's British South Africa Company — run by the powerful magnate who already controlled present-day Zimbabwe and Zambia — wanted the Bechuanaland Protectorate handed over to it, so it could run the territory as part of its commercial empire and lay its railway north through it.
The Tswana chiefs firmly opposed the plan. Three of them — Khama III of the Bangwato, Sebele I of the Bakwena and Bathoen I of the Bangwaketse — made the long journey to England to appeal directly to Queen Victoria and the British government. Backed by the missionary societies and by part of British public opinion, which distrusted Rhodes, the three kgosi got what they came for: the protectorate stayed under direct Crown administration and was not handed to Rhodes's company.
That effort, reinforced shortly afterwards by the failure of the Jameson Raid launched from company territory, proved providential. It preserved the territory's autonomy and spared Bechuanaland the fate of Rhodesia or, later on, absorption into South Africa. That is why the three chiefs are regarded as founding heroes, and the Three Dikgosi Monument, in the heart of Gaborone, honours them as the men who saved the future nation.
In the early 1960s, with African colonies moving towards independence, it became clear that Bechuanaland would need its own capital inside the territory: it made no sense for an independent country to keep being governed from Mafeking, in South Africa. After weighing several options, Gaborone was chosen, partly because it was close to a reliable water source (the Notwane River, where a dam would be built), partly for its location in the south-east near the railway and the border, and partly because the land was relatively neutral ground between the different Tswana peoples.
So, between 1964 and 1966, an entire capital was built practically out of nothing, in a record time of about three years. The city was planned along 'garden city' principles: wide avenues, green spaces, a civic centre with the government buildings, residential neighbourhoods and the Main Mall as the commercial heart. It was one of the few capitals in the world designed in full before the independence of the country it was meant to serve.
On 30 September 1966, Bechuanaland became independent from the United Kingdom and the Republic of Botswana was born, with Seretse Khama — grandson of kgosi Khama III — as its first president and Gaborone as its capital. The young city, with just a few thousand inhabitants, became the political centre of a nation that was then one of the poorest on the planet, with hardly any paved roads and no industry to speak of.
What came next is one of the great success stories of post-colonial Africa, often called the 'Botswana miracle'. Shortly after independence, huge diamond deposits were discovered in the country (Orapa, Jwaneng and others), and the young government managed that wealth with rare prudence: instead of squandering it or leaving it in foreign hands, it channelled it, through a partnership with De Beers, into infrastructure, education, health and development, while also keeping a stable multi-party democracy and low levels of corruption.
Within a few decades, Botswana went from being one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country, with one of the highest per capita incomes in Africa. Gaborone mirrored that rise: it grew at breakneck speed, from a few thousand inhabitants in 1966 to hundreds of thousands today. New neighbourhoods appeared, along with universities, a modern Central Business District with high-rises, shopping centres and the headquarters of SADC, the Southern African Development Community.
That rapid growth also brought the challenges every big city faces: sprawl on the outskirts, inequality, pressure on water in a semi-arid region and, as across the whole region, the heavy blow of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, which Botswana tackled with one of the most ambitious treatment programmes in Africa. Even so, Gaborone established itself as a functional, calm and relatively prosperous capital, a symbol of how far the country has come.
Today Gaborone is a modern, easy-going capital, very different from the chaotic megacities found elsewhere in Africa. With half a million people in its metropolitan area, it is home to the government, the embassies, the universities, the banks and the SADC headquarters, and it serves as the administrative and economic engine of a country that remains a model of democratic stability on the continent. The city has also earned a place in popular culture thanks to Alexander McCall Smith's hugely successful novel series 'The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency', set in Gaborone and adapted for television, which showed it to the world with real affection.
For travellers, Gaborone is above all the gateway to the country and a comfortable base: it can't compete with the Okavango Delta or Chobe for attractions, but it offers a safe and pleasant stop, with its Three Dikgosi Monument, its National Museum, the nearby nature of Mokolodi and the Gaborone Game Reserve, and the 'Sleeping Giant' of Kgale Hill. It is the urban, orderly face of a nation famous for its wildlife.
The story of Gaborone — from a Batlokwa village by the Notwane to the planned capital of a prosperous country — sums up in just a few decades Botswana's remarkable journey: from the threat of annexation by Rhodes in 1895 to becoming, thanks to diamonds and sensible management, one of Africa's most solid democracies. That is why passing through Gaborone is much more than a logistical stopover: it is a glimpse into the heart of that 'miracle'.
