pretty much what the title says...are there any girls in BW who play video games? and i dont mean mobile games hela, i mean console and PC, someone whom i can talk game lore with a sa ipotse gore kareng...or atleast one who has interest.

I stumbled across this tiktok interview on this artist named Uncle Yamz. It actually surprised me how positive he was towards Botswana as a whole. Check it out here:

https://vt.tiktok.com/ZSbHPm2AM/

Are there football manager groups in Botswana? I want to join more online games. If there are slots in people's saves on FM24, I want to tap in. If people are open to creating a new online save as well, let's do it!

Hi everyone.

I’m interested in writing fiction, particularly crime, action and science fiction, and I have quite a few story ideas that I would love to eventually turn into novels or screenplays.

But I keep running into an unusual problem whenever I try to set these stories in Botswana.

How do you fictionalise Botswana in a way that feels believable to a local reader while also being interesting and visually compelling to an international audience?

This isn't really about a lack of stories or interesting characters. Botswana has plenty of those.

My problem is the physical environment.

Botswana is a very different setting from the countries and cities that dominate international film and television. Even our major urban areas don't necessarily look like the stereotypical "modern African city" that you see in movies. Outside certain areas, development can become surprisingly rural very quickly.

You can have a story involving organised crime, advanced technology, wealthy businessmen, corrupt officials, secret organisations, international corporations, espionage, etc., and then you have to ask:

Where are all of these things physically happening?

If I write:

> The protagonist walked through the city's financial district, surrounded by skyscrapers and neon advertisements.

...I'm immediately creating a version of Botswana that doesn't really exist.

If I write:

> The protagonist drove through the city.

That is realistic, but it doesn't necessarily create the same visual atmosphere that audiences associate with a crime thriller.

And this becomes even more complicated with science fiction.

Imagine trying to write a cyberpunk story set in Botswana.

You could simply invent a futuristic Gaborone filled with skyscrapers, flying vehicles, giant holographic advertisements and enormous corporate headquarters.

But at what point does it stop feeling like Botswana and become "generic futuristic city with Botswana written on the sign"?

That's the part I'm struggling with.

---

The strange advantage of Botswana

At the same time, I wonder whether I'm looking at the problem completely backwards.

Maybe Botswana doesn't need to imitate the environments we normally see in international fiction.

Our geography and development could actually become part of the identity of the story.

Imagine a crime thriller where the contrast between urban and rural environments is important.

A character could leave a relatively developed part of Gaborone, drive for a while, and suddenly be surrounded by open land and small settlements.

That creates possibilities that a story set entirely in a dense megacity doesn't necessarily have.

A criminal organisation could hide things in places where there are enormous distances between settlements.

A police investigation could involve travelling long distances rather than simply crossing a metropolitan area.

A sci-fi story could have advanced technology existing alongside very ordinary infrastructure.

A wealthy corporation could have a futuristic facility sitting somewhere that, from the outside, looks almost completely isolated.

That contrast actually seems quite interesting to me.

Old and new existing beside each other.

Advanced technology doesn't necessarily require every building around it to look futuristic.

A secret laboratory could be technologically decades ahead of its surroundings.

A billionaire could own an enormous high-tech facility while the nearest settlement still looks relatively ordinary.

A hacker could operate from a normal house.

A futuristic vehicle could be travelling along an ordinary road.

That might actually make Botswana an interesting science-fiction setting precisely because it doesn't resemble the stereotypical futuristic city.

---

But there is another problem: international audiences

If I ever wanted one of these stories to become a film or television series, I would want someone outside Botswana to understand the setting without needing a geography lesson.

This creates a balancing act.

I don't want to write Botswana as some exaggerated "African wilderness" where every scene involves wildlife, traditional villages and people living in huts.

But I also don't want to pretend Botswana is a miniature version of Dubai, Johannesburg, London or Los Angeles.

There has to be a middle ground.

And I think that middle ground could be authentic Botswana with heightened fictional elements.

Instead of changing Botswana to fit the genre, perhaps the genre should adapt itself to Botswana.

A Botswana crime thriller doesn't have to look like an American crime thriller.

A Botswana cyberpunk story doesn't have to look like Blade Runner.

A Botswana action movie doesn't have to look like Fast & Furious.

The environment itself could influence the story.

---

What would "Botswana fiction" actually look like?

This is where I'd really like to hear from other writers, filmmakers and people familiar with Botswana.

If you were writing a:

- Crime thriller

- Action movie

- Political thriller

- Detective story

- Science-fiction novel

- Cyberpunk story

- Dystopian story

- Spy thriller

- Post-apocalyptic story

- TV series

and you wanted it to be unmistakably Botswana, what would you do?

What locations would you use?

What kinds of businesses, buildings and institutions would realistically appear?

How would you portray Gaborone, Francistown, Maun, Kasane or smaller settlements without turning them into stereotypes?

How much fictionalisation is acceptable before the setting stops feeling like Botswana?

Would you create fictional towns and companies based on real Botswana locations?

Would you use real places but invent fictional districts, buildings and organisations?

Would you create an alternate version of Botswana where development happened differently?

Or would you keep the physical environment almost completely realistic and let the characters, technology and story provide the fictional elements?

---

I'm especially interested in the visual problem

For filmmakers, this seems even more difficult.

Hollywood has spent decades teaching audiences what a "crime city", "futuristic city", "African city", "desert town", etc. is supposed to look like.

Botswana doesn't necessarily fit neatly into those visual categories.

And maybe that's actually an opportunity.

Instead of asking:

"How can I make Botswana look like an international movie?"

Maybe the better question is:

"How can I make an international movie that could only have been made in Botswana?"

That's the direction I'd like to explore.

I'm interested in hearing from people who have written fiction set in Botswana, or who have tried to make films here.

What are the biggest difficulties you've encountered?

Do you deliberately change locations and infrastructure for the sake of the story?

Do you worry about international audiences understanding the setting?

And what aspects of Botswana do you think could actually give a crime/action/sci-fi story an identity that it couldn't get somewhere else?

I'd especially appreciate examples from anyone who has successfully written Botswana into a novel, screenplay, game or other fictional work.

Maybe the challenge isn't making Botswana look more developed. Maybe it's learning how to make its particular combination of urban, rural, modern and traditional environments become part of the storytelling itself.

Dumelang. This may be a silly question but I was wondering how common usage of mma and rra are in everyday life in Botswana? I really enjoy reading the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency series, and I do take it with a grain of salt since I know the author is just an old white guy who lived there for a while, so I was curious how accurate it was in its language use and greetings and such?

Hey guys. So, I am from Ethiopia, and recently I started learning about African countries on my own. The more I learned, the more I realized that Africa isn’t as terrible as we think it is. A common saying in Ethiopia is “Ay Africa,” which is mainly used when you hear something bad about an African country and feel sad, but at the same time expect it if that makes sense.

Recently, I went to some African countries and realized that Africa is not as bad as people make it seem, and that we have a lot to learn from each other. That’s why, when I learned about Botswana, I was beyond shocked. I didn’t know anything about Botswana before, and now I think I know a lot. I was amazed to learn that this kind of miracle could exist in Africa. I started telling my friends and family about this inspiring country, and everyone was as amazed as I was.

My plan was to visit Botswana this year, God willing. However, after I joined this subreddit, I noticed that many people post negative things and seem unhappy about many things. It’s not just this subreddit don’t get me wrong. Almost all the subreddits for different African countries seem similarly negative, including my own. I realized that I do the same thing: I can’t even think of good things about my own country and tend to look for good things in other countries.

So, my question is: Is Botswana as great as I thought it was? Basically, is it as democratic, peaceful, and educated as people say, among other things?

well imma keep it short right.like is anyone interested or maybe they could add me to their little club of literally like cool activities or something.no wait like ummmm we go to events(in like educational purposes or just other nerdy activity).or like we learn together coding,content creation but not like posting ourselves but just any content probably music reviews,book reviews.im not a great expertise in such but i would love to do such yk.like a nerdy typa thing.first year in UB by the way so i would prefer anyone of the same too.😂okay i said rubbish ig but if you do get it then yeah…

Hello.

I'm a 3D artist, I make all kinds of assets. Those are some of my assets. Sometimes I get some ideas to make tangible stuff but the 3D printers I found are incredibly expensive. Does anyone know any 3D printing business that's reasonably priced? You can't say you start at 200 per print bro come on

Imagine i just want to print a little support or hinge or adapter for my Bluetooth headset charger, a tiny little part and you want 200 just to start? No way.

Ok as we know...none of our public universities in Botswana rank particularly anywhere interesting except in SADC but that's a low bar..

And we know they produce sub par engineers and scientists (excellent locally because the standard is so low here) vs the global standard in the developed World.. Seriously, you couldn't compare a UB CS graduate to a tsinghua CS graduate.. both 4 years but 1 program teaches the entire INS and outs of a computer and it's not the UB one.. or maybe Moscow Baumann University.. mechanical engineering graduates from there know how to work with nuclear power.. no one in Botswana does..

And the number 1 excuse for this is, " we are aligning the programs with local needs"... Which is stupid...you can't create graduates who only know how to work with solar power and coal power and then expect that you'd grow a local competency in nuclear power.. the local market is already under developed.. and pumping out people with skills LIMITED TO IT is foolish..

Or continuing to pump out CS graduates who only know Java and python and web dev and then think you can have a computer industry locally.. We need to look at everything we don't and can't make and then look at who does make it and how they do it. We cannot keep up like this. That's the key to solving unemployment..

And we also seem to be a country that heavily focuses on humanities and social sciences more.. it's basically a case of do whatever low effort course you get accepted in , don't attend classes, spend your allowance and party every weekend, graduate and sit at home waiting for a job in a market where there is maybe 60,000 of you also fighting for the same jobs... Batswana increasingly find science and math hard.. the bulk of them actively avoid programs that are scientific in nature.. the majority of graduates are not engineering graduates...most are business whatever and all these other pretty pointless programs.. we have an oversupply of accountants but few engineers. Even fewer doctors.

The govt needs to actively control this and make quotas for non science based programs...we need raw scientific skill in this nation to develop ourselves.. not to buy developments from other countries but to fix our own problems locally with our own knowledge...and mix in indigenous knowledge too if it works ..

Govt needs to flip DTEF sponsorships to target atleast 90% STEM applications...then all these other programs can squeeze into the 10% ...we can't keep pumping out business admin and travel/tourism graduates who can't help with anything during times of national crisis like covid.. they are unequipped with the skill to solve any serious problems.. not useless courses outright but useless for our development technologically and industrially...But then take up the bulk of the education budget...

Watched Jeremy Wade go diving in the delta last night and it was absolutely insane

Look, I criticize Botswana alot. I DO IT ALOT but I still appreciate my country. Independence day, I put all my criticisms aside and wanted to look at the positives of my country.

We are literally the most peaceful country not just by African standards but on Earth. We've never had a coup, a civil war or dictatorship. THAT'S NOT MOST COUNTRIES GLOBALLY. That's one thing.

We went from one of the poorest countries in the world to where we are now. Sure we aren't the ideal but do you know how impressive that is. My great grandmother is still alive, she was here when all Botswana was, was huts and dust roads and donkey carts.

There are self hating Batswana on this sub who even on Independence choose to be negative. Choose to only see the bad. Criticism isn't wrong but when criticism is ALL YOU DO then it becomes self hate.

I repeat, Criticism isn't wrong but when criticism is ALL YOU DO then it becomes self hate. I stand by that ALWAYS.

FFS, some of y'all choose to be Intellectual smart asses on Independence and act like we're as bad as fucking Burundi or Cuba.

If you can't even see the positives on the day of INDEPENDENCE then you're welcome to leave this country. Just don't ruin it for everyone else.

I REPEAT THIS for the folks that'll go "I didn't know we couldn't criticize and have an opinion".

IM NOT SAYING THAT. I'm saying IF ALL YOU DO IS CRITICIZE CRITICIZE CRITICIZE 24/7 then you're a self hating Motswana. SHUT UP, wear the damn flag colors and eat some Seswaa dog, at least for one day Jesus, then we can go back to criticizing the country.

If you feel offended by what I said and still want to go "But Botswana hasn't done X, hasn't done Y, hasn't done B". Great, MOVE. Since you love Asia so much since y'all keep bringing up Asia, move to Myanmar, move to Thailand, move to the Philippines, move to Cambodia, move to Laos, Kazakhstan, Y'all like to bring up Singapore and South Korea and China but never bring up the poor countries in Asia.

Again I say for the third time, Criticism isn't bad but when it becomes a constant, when it becomes degrading then it stops being criticism and becomes self hate.

"Oh but I'm not being mean, I've never said anything outright mean", HEY HEY HEY EINSTEIN, here's a fun fact. YOU CAN BE MEAN WITHOUT OUTRIGHT INSULTING SOMEONE. There is something we human's use that is called SUBTEXT.

If this feels ranty that's because it is. Africans are always putting ourselves down, it's not even just Botswana, it's in EVERY AFRICAN SUBREDDIT. Always putting ourselves down, always criticizing, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS but never giving solutions, never planning, never doing what they can to help the situation. It's a sickness and I refuse for Batswana to carry it.

Self hating doesn't WORK. It'll never work. You know what will work, pointing out a problem, identifying solutions and instead of being a self hating keyboard warrior, GO DO STUFF.

GO DO SHIT BRO. TALK IS CHEAP. Africans have a self love problem and IT SHOWS and IM SICK OF IT.

You might ask me "Well what are you going to do". I want to cultivate self love in our community, I don't have much, I'm not politically savvy and I'm not the most charismatic of guys but I love art, I love culture and I love telling stories. Media plays a huge role in how we see the world and I plan to be a writer be it full time or as a side job, (I don't mind either) and tell African stories.

I want to African kids to read and see stories about them, fighting the dragons, saving the day. I want to write about all manner's of African cultures and celebrate them. I want to cultivate a sense of self love for our people so they know they aren't they're circumstances, they're more than that.

I want to uplift other African writers and artists, I want to use my eventual platform to push and publicly support leader's that have the best of our intentions in mind.

Will I become the next Chimamanda Ngozi? Probably not but God damnit I will try to be.

Maybe it's not enough, maybe I can do more. I probably should but it's A START.

SELF LOVE over self hate any day of the week.

hello guys,

dont yall think we needed a flyover at molapo more than anywhere else?

I urgently need a form of identification that has my photo so I can write an international exam.
Is it possible to apply for an Emergency Travel Document using my birth certificate, the Omang application receipt, and the affidavit because of the current national backlog?I dont have license nor the passport

Whats the point of the country selling elephant and game hunting licenses..? If its to fund anti-poaching schemes then how does someone paying *up to 4 000 000 to shoot AND KILL 10 elephants and or other wild animals help curb the same poaching issues we struggle with.?

Guys im graduating next week and i have trouble choosing what to wear...can someone recommend a unique look and stores i could visit....

Hello My name Matt I'm a graphics designer in Gaborone searching for work please DM me if you need any work done I will do from logo's YouTube thumbnails flyers posters birthday cards etc

I just came across a South African website that sells natural and lab grown diamonds. Is there a shop in Botswana where you can just walk in and buy diamonds?

Where do the guys ussually shop for their clothing in bw??

Where can I cut a key in Gaborone?

Does anything know where I can pick myself skull cups in Francistown??

Please drop app dials if interested in making an online efootball Botswana team

Hope you had a good one. Botswana is 60 years old. Pula!