Botswana’s Muslims: An Evaluation of a Dynamic Religious Community

Abstract

The essay offers a contemporary profile of Botswana’s Muslim community. It basically tells the contemporary tale of how Botswana’s Muslims emerged and developed with the focus on the present-day period. In order to do so, it narrates, albeit briefly, a few historical developments that provide a context within which the Muslims’ contemporary profile emerged, and that links their past with the present. The essay sets itself the task of dealing with a number of issues. It first undertakes a literature review, and then it provides some basic background data about Botswana in order to insert the Muslims’ presence. These issues open the way for a discussion regarding the Muslims’ socio-religious and other related developments; and this is traced from before 1966 when Botswana gained its independence until the end of 2016 that celebrates the country’s 50 years of existence as an African nation-state. In the last part, the essay describes the Muslims’ position since independence by selecting and piecing together significant developments, and it briefly analyses their current condition that offers insights into their contemporary profile.