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The Tswana
South African Culture
The Tswana are part of the Sotho, with three broad divisions — Basotho - Southern Sotho, Pedi - Northern Sotho, and Tswana - Western Sotho.
The Tswana historically lived on the Highveld, with the Basotho. From the mid 1800s, many Sotho chiefdoms in the western Highveld began to regard themselves as part of a larger Tswana group in the colonial Bechuanaland - now Botswana.
This accounts for variations in dialect, social structure and culture among the many Tswana groups that persist today.
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Traditionally a man's first wife was selected for him; if he could afford more than one wife, he chose others himself....
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Tswana settlements are quite unusual in Southern Africa for their large but compact size, a result, at least in part, of their arid environm...
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A Tswana woman is a perpetual minor who is subject to the authority of male guardians (her father, brother or maternal uncle until marriage;...
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According to oral tradition, they were among the Bantu-speakers who came from the vicinity of the East African Great Lakes (Victoria and Tan...
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The Tswana in South Africa previously fell under the Bophuthatswana Bantustan's homeland administration....
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