Location
One of Africa’s most politically and economically stable countries, Botswana is home to 1.5 million people and 226,900 square miles of vast savannas, the Kalahari Desert, and world famous wildlife parks. Botswana’s citizens, most of whom live in the major cities, towns, and villages along the eastern border, enjoy standards of education and economic well-being rivaled on the continent only by neighboring South Africa.
Host Institution
The program is affiliated with the University of Botswana, a comprehensive institution of higher learning with an undergraduate enrollment of 10,000, located in the capital city of Gaborone.
The Core Course
Botswanan Studies
As the headquarters for the Southern African Development Community (SADC), Botswana offers you a singular opportunity to study cultural, historical, social, and environmental issues that shape and connect national and regional development. The core course combines a series of lectures given by university faculty and specialists from governmental and non-governmental organizations, readings, and extensive reflective writing of the Fieldbook with the more experiential program components of family stays, fieldwork, and study trips to provide a high degree of cultural immersion and cross-cultural learning.
Intensive Setswana Language
Setswana, the national language of Botswana along with English, is widely spoken in everyday interactions. You will study Setswana intensively in a course that emphasizes proficiency in speaking and listening. The combination of active classroom learning and daily interactions with your host family and the people in the village allows you to build a level of Setswana that will open doors to communities and relationships throughout your stay in Botswana.
Directed Independent Study Project
You will explore in-depth an aspect of Botswana through a directed independent study. Projects are guided by local scholars, specialists, and program staff and may take the form of a research tutorial, independent study or apprenticeship in the arts or an internship with a placement in a school, a non-governmental agency or a private sector company. A significant analytical component in the form of a written report provides the documentation of learning. The program strongly recommends you select a project that involves field research, oral interviews, ethnography, and other techniques that facilitate cultural immersion over those involving library research. Topic selection may be
limited due to available resources and local conditions.
Study Trips
To deepen your understanding of topics covered in the core course, you will travel to various locations in Botswana. Destinations may change from semester to semester, but past excursions have included:
Chobe National Park
This diverse and popular park takes in a range of habitats from the lush, elephant-rich Chobe River and surrounding savannas to the Mopane Forest of Ngwezumba.
Victoria Falls, Zambia
The Zambezi River is nearly a mile wide when it drops more than 100 yards down a sheer chasm, sending a cloud of mist a mile high.
Okavango Delta
As the world’s largest inland delta, the Okavango covers 5,700 square miles and is home to myriad species of birds and wildlife. This remote nature sanctuary provides a dramatic aquatic area in the heart of the Kalahari Desert and borders the spectacular Makgadikgadi salt pans to the south.
Local Trips
Visits in and around Gaborone have included the National Botanical Garden and History Centre, Gabane and Thamanga Pottery, Oodi Weavers, and the Livingstone Memorial Monument.
Family Stays
The heart of the Pitzer in Botswana program is the opportunity to live with three different host families representing various parts of the country and key socioeconomic groups. The chance to become a part of each of these families and develop a personal relationship with individual family members is a distinct privilege and provides one of the most meaningful dimensions of the program.
Rural Family
The rural family stay is organized in a village outside of Gaborone. Homes are usually small and without electricity or indoor plumbing. There is little chance of privacy.
Small-Town
The small-town family stay is arranged in communities along the eastern border of the country, where most Botswanans live. These towns have only recently been designated as such because of growing populations and expansion of buildings and infrastructure. Families here primarily represent the working class. Homes are small and lack privacy.
City Home
The city family stay takes place in Gaborone during the last two to three months of the program. Here you are able to take part in urban lifestyles that, while “urbanized,” are finally intelligible only when their Botswanan context is considered. |
