KenyaTanzaniaUgandaBotswanaDjibouti
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Botswana Infomation & Facts

Location:  Botswana is in Southern Africa, north of South Africa

Climate:  The climate is semiarid; warm winters and hot summers

Population:  Estimate as of July 2007 is 1,815,508.

Life Expectancy:  50.58 years.

Language:  Setswana 78.2%, Kalanga 7.9%, Sekgalagadi 2.8%, English 2.1% (official), other 8.6%, unspecified 0.4%

Government type:  Parliamentary Republic

Capital:  Gaborone

Population Below Poverty Line:  30.3%

Agricultural Products:  livestock, sorghum, maize, millet, beans, sunflowers, groundnuts

Industries:  diamonds, copper, nickel, salt, soda ash, potash; livestock processing; textiles

Currency:  Pula (BWP)

Attractions & Features:  Tourism plays a large role in the Botswana economy.  A number of national parks and game reserves, with their abundant wildlife and wetlands, are a top draw for tourists.  The wildlife, including lions, brown hyenas, cheetas, leopards, wild dogs and antelope, were described in great detail in the best-selling book "Cry of the Kalahari" by Mark and Delia Owens.

The main safari destinations for tourism are Moremi Game Reserve in the Okavango Delta, and Chobe National Park.  Botswana is also participating in community based natural resource management projects by trying to involve villagers in tourism.  One example is the village of Khwai and its Khwai Development Trust.

Botswana was the location for the 1980 movie The Gods Must Be Crazy.

People of Note:

1. Bessie Head is a well-known Botswana writer. She fled the apartheid regime in South Africa to live in and write about Botswana.  She lived there from 1964 (when it was still the Bechuanaland Protectorate) until her death at the age of 49 in 1986.
2. Norman Rush, who served as a Peace Corps director in Botswana from 1978 to 1983, uses the country as the setting of all of his published books, which generally focus on the expatriate community.
3. Unity Dow (born 1959) is a judge, human rights activist, and writer from Botswana.  She came from a rural background that tended toward traditional values of the African kind.

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Djibouti Infomation & Facts

Location:  Djibouti is in Eastern Africa, bordering the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea, between Eritrea and Somalia.

Climate:  The climate is desert; torrid, dry

Population:  Estimate as of July 2007 is 496,374.

Life Expectancy:  43.25 years.

Language:  French (official), Arabic (official), Somali, Afar

Government type:  Republic

Capital:  Djibouti

Population Below Poverty Line:  50%

Agricultural Products:  fruits, vegetables; goats, sheep, camels, animal hides

Industries:  construction, agricultural processing

Currency:  Djiboutian franc (DJF)

Attractions & Features:  The country, the size of Massachusetts, is mainly a stony desert, with scattered plateaus and highlands.

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Ethiopia Infomation & Facts

Location:  Ethiopia is in Eastern Africa, west of Somalia

Climate:  The climate is tropical monsoon with wide topographic-induced variation

Population:  Estimate as of July 2007 is 76,511,887.

Life Expectancy:  49.23 years.

Language:  Amarigna 32.7%, Oromigna 31.6%, Tigrigna 6.1%, Somaligna 6%, Guaragigna 3.5%, Sidamigna 3.5%, Hadiyigna 1.7%, other 14.8%, English (major foreign language taught in schools)

Government type:  Federal Republic

Capital:  Addis Ababa

Population Below Poverty Line:  38.7%

Agricultural Products:  cereals, pulses, coffee, oilseed, cotton, sugarcane, potatoes, qat, cut flowers; hides, cattle, sheep, goats; fish

Industries:  food processing, beverages, textiles, leather, chemicals, metals processing, cement

Currency:  Tanzanian shilling

Attractions & Features:  Ethiopia is an ecologically diverse country.  Lake Tana in the north is the source of the Blue Nile.  It also has a large number of endemic species, notably the Gelada Baboon, the Walia Ibex and the Ethiopian wolf (or Simien fox).  The wide range of altitude has given the country a variety of ecologically distinct areas, this has helped to encourage the evolution of endemic species in ecological isolation.

KenyaTanzaniaUgandaBotswanaDjibouti
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Malawi Infomation & Facts

Location:  Malawi is in Southern Africa, east of Zambia

Climate:  The climate is sub-tropical; rainy season (November to May); dry season (May to November)

Population:  Estimate as of July 2007 is 13,603,181.

Life Expectancy:  42.98 years.

Language:  Chichewa 57.2% (official), Chinyanja 12.8%, Chiyao 10.1%, Chitumbuka 9.5%, Chisena 2.7%, Chilomwe 2.4%, Chitonga 1.7%, other 3.6%

Government type:  Multiparty Democracy

Capital:  Lilongwe

Population Below Poverty Line:  53%

Agricultural Products:  tobacco, sugarcane, cotton, tea, corn, potatoes, cassava (tapioca), sorghum, pulses, groundnuts, Macadamia nuts; cattle, goats

Industries:  tobacco, tea, sugar, sawmill products, cement, consumer goods

Currency:  Malawian kwacha (MWK)

Attractions & Features:  It has the Great Rift Valley running through the country from north to south.  In this deep trough lies Lake Malawi (also called Lake Nyasa), the third-largest lake in Africa, making about 20% of Malawi's area.  The Shire River flows from the south end of the lake and joins the Zambezi River farther south in Mozambique.  East and west of the Rift Valley are high plateaus.  The Nyika Uplands, Shire Highlands, Mts. Zomba and Mulanje, are more features of note.

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EthiopiaMalawiSouth AfricaSudanZambia

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