Because of this link between the place and its appeal, a close observer can’t help but discern a capital that is obviously teeming with the personal stories of those drawn to it. These would be the stories of their success or failure or the in-between of striving that are typically overlooked or that won’t all be recorded in the pages of any newspaper or book or any digital record of life as it is lived there.
Yet, to me, Gaborone, which for some decades was my home for higher education and professional reasons, is strangely not Botswana-enough and too much Botswana. In fact, in a country that appears to be attached to the transformative power of urban life, for better or worse, to me, Gaborone presents a counterfactual. I see it as being too diverse, less sociable, and too striving to be an example of a typical Botswana place where commonality is assumed, the myth of other-regarding-ness is still strong, and the pace of life is steady. Simultaneously, I reckon that, like other urbanizing centers elsewhere, Gaborone is a place where ambition, the culture of money-fixation, and relevance are internalized at the highest levels. But, as Botswana approaches its Diamond Jubilee on September 30, 2026, and notwithstanding anything else, can we start now to envision Gaborone as the country’s capital that is bold, imaginative, and provocative?
