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The Tswana (Tswana: Batswana, singular Motswana) are a Bantu speaking Southern African people. The Tswana language belongs to the Bantu group of the Niger–Congo languages. Ethnic Tswana make up about 80% of the population of Botswana.
In the nineteenth century, a common spelling and pronunciation of Batswana was Bechuana. Europeans therefore referred to the area inhabited by the Tswana as Bechuanaland. In the Tswana language, however, Botswana is the name for the country of the Tswana.
The modern republic of Botswana (formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland) is named for the Tswana people. The country's eight major tribes speak Tswana. All have a traditional Paramount Chief, styled Kgosikgolo, who is entitled to a seat in the Ntlo ya Dikgosi (an advisory body to the country's Parliament). The Tswana dynasties are all related.
The three main branches of the Tswana tribe formed during the 14th century. Three brothers, Kwena, Ngwaketse and Ngwato, broke away from their father, Chief Molope, to establish their own tribes in Molepolole, Kanye and Serowe, probably in response to drought and expanding populations in search of pasture and arable land.[3]
The principal Tswana tribes are the:
The largest number of ethnic Tswana people actually live in South Africa. They are one of the larger black minorities, and the Tswana language is one of eleven official languages in South Africa. Until 1994, South African Tswana people were notionally citizens of Bophuthatswana, one of the few bantustans (similar to American Indian reservations) as planned by the Apartheid regime, 1948–1994.
The Chiefs of the following Tswana polities are all styled Kgosi (less lofty then Kgosikgolo):
Tswana is also the name of some breeds of animal originating in Botswana.
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