Botswana at 60 challenges the story of postcolonial African failure

This week, Botswana is marking 60 years of independence from Britain with Diamond Jubilee celebrations across the country. The anniversary underscores the scale of the country’s transformation. In 1966, the former Bechuanaland Protectorate was among the world’s poorest countries, with barely 12 kilometres of paved road, just 22 university graduates and about 100 secondary-school graduates.Six decades later, Botswana is an upper-middle-income country with one of postcolonial Africa’s most striking development records. Between 1965 and 1980, Botswana’s economy grew by an average of 13.9 percent a year. By 2025, gross domestic product (GDP) per capita had reached about $7,800, higher than South Africa’s roughly $6,600, a striking reversal given South Africa’s position as one of the continent’s largest and most diversified economies. But the significance of Botswana’s growth lies not only in its scale, but in what the country did with it.In 1994, it became the first country ever to graduate from the United Nations’ least-developed country category. The World Bank now classifies Botswana as an upper-middle-income economy, and the change is visible across the country. By 2024, its road n...