• The No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency is the first major film or television production to be shot on location in Botswana?
• Debswana, a joint venture between De Beers and the government of Botswana, is the largest producer of diamonds by value in the world?
• voter turnout for the 2001 judicial reform referendum in Botswana was just 4.9%?

Facts on topics related to Botswana

Namibia

• Namibian Deputy Defence Minister Victor Simunja received military training in both the United States and Soviet Union?
• Namibian politician Jesaya Nyamu, who was expelled from SWAPO for writing a private note on how to undermine President Sam Nujoma, formed the Rally for Democracy and Progress in 2007?
• Norwegian historian Tore Linné Eriksen has published several books about Namibia, including one on what was described as the first genocide in the twentieth century?
• Erkki Nghimtina, Minister of Mines and Energy of Namibia, was only reprimanded for firing a gun shot near a relative after the teenager joined the opposition Rally for Democracy and Progress?
• Heroes' Day in Namibia, recognized by the United Nations as Namibia Day, commemorates the fighters killed during the Namibian War of Independence annually on 26 August?
• Hulda Shipanga, the first black Namibian nurse promoted to the rank of matron, attended to the wounded at the Old Location Uprising in 1959 when white doctors refused to treat them?
• Louis Pienaar was the last Administrator-General of South West Africa before Namibian independence was declared in 1990?
• Mandume Ya Ndemufayo was the last king of the Kwanyama people of Angola and Namibia?
• during the Herero and Nama uprising of 1904/05, the settlement of Seeis in central Namibia was the location of two clashes between imperial Germany and the Herero?
• local legend suggests that Ai-Ais Hot Springs in southern Namibia were discovered in 1850 by a nomadic Nama shepherd rounding up stray sheep?

Malawi

• Reverend John Chilembwe is celebrated as the first Malawian nationalist, and was a martyr for his cause?
  
• a swimmer escaped a crocodile attack in Nkhata Bay, Malawi (pictured) by biting the crocodile on the nose?
• areas around Mangochi (Lake Malawi pictured), Malawi, have recently been terrorised by elephants?
• female White-starred Robins (pictured) in Malawi migrate away from their breeding grounds while the males remain in their territories?
• on July 11, 2008, the Kayelekera mine in Karonga, Malawi celebrated 1.5 million hours of accident-free uranium mining?
• pop singer Madonna (pictured) adopted a 13-month-old boy from Mchinji, Malawi in October 2006, causing international controversy?
• the "Livingstone Tree" in Nkhotakota, Malawi, was never visited by David Livingstone (statue pictured), though when he travelled there he famously stopped under another tree?
• the missionary and explorer David Livingstone named Cape Maclear, Malawi (pictured) after his friend, astronomer Thomas Maclear?
• the residents of Kasungu, Malawi, live in houses made from handmade bricks and straw roofing?

Kenya

• Kenyan long distance runner Eliud Kiptanui went on to win the Prague Marathon after the Eyjafjallajökull eruption prevented him from traveling to the Vienna Marathon three weeks earlier?
• Kenyan lawyer Gitobu Imanyara was reported to have died after he was rumored to have been slapped by Kenyan first lady Lucy Kibaki?
• Kenyan public health advocate Miriam Were and British biomedical researcher Brian Greenwood are the inaugural laureates of the Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize?
• Texas Tech track and field runner Sally Kipyego is the first Kenyan woman to win an NCAA cross country individual championship?
• Giraffe Manor, in Nairobi, Kenya, as well as being host to a group of endangered Rothschild giraffe (pictured), was also home to a warthog named in honour of Walter Cronkite?
• Migingo, an island about half the size of a soccer field, is the subject of territorial dispute and a diplomatic conflict between Uganda and Kenya?
• Sir Rowland Whitehead, 5th Baronet was a Briton born in Kenya, a banker engaged with charities, a hyperpolyglot who wrote about cybernetics, and a church warden who skydived?
• Zeituni Onyango is the half-aunt of President-elect Barack Obama and a political asylum claimant from Kenya whose case was disclosed in the final days of the 2008 U.S. presidential election?
• Colura zoophaga, a species of liverwort native to Kenya, traps ciliates in microscopic structures formed by fusion of the leaf edges, but scientists do not know whether it is a carnivorous plant?
• T. rex survives underground in Kenya?

Nigeria

• Chinua Achebe's novel A Man of the People described a coup d'état so similar to the real circumstances of Johnson Aguiyi-Ironsi's rise to power in Nigeria that Achebe was suspected of knowing about the coup in advance?
• coal mining in Nigeria, for which the Nigerian Coal Corporation had a monopoly until 1999, peaked in the 1950s, then suffered from the use of oil and the Nigerian Civil War afterwards?
• emigration of physicians and nurses poses a major problem for Nigeria's health care system, as there were 21,000 Nigerian doctors practising in the U.S. alone?
• India established its diplomatic representation in Nigeria in 1958, two years before Nigeria's independence from British rule?
• LA's St. Cecilia Church, built in 1927, adapted to its multiethnic community by installing shrines to a beatified Nigerian priest, a Oaxacan Virgin, and a Guatemalan "Black Christ"?
• Nigeria's Bakolori irrigation project, one of the world's most expensive irrigation schemes, adversely affected downstream farming in the floodplains?
• Nigeria, which contains what was once the Kingdom of Benin, has repeatedly called for the U.K.'s return of the Benin Bronzes, in a situation similar to Greece's petition for the return of the Elgin Marbles?
• Nigerian businessman Alhassan Dantata was the wealthiest person in West Africa at the time of his death in 1955?
• rioting in 2001 involving Christians and Muslims in Jos, Nigeria, caused over 1,000 deaths along with many buildings, cars, and people being burned?
• Chika Chukwumerije had financial backing unavailable to most Nigerian athletes because of his father Uche Chukwumerije?

Rwanda

• charitable initiatives championed by current First Spouses of the United States have included blankets for the homeless and development assistance in Rwanda?
• the author of the "'Gersony Report", the controversial conclusion by UN contractors that the new government in post-genocide Rwanda had carried out systematic killings of civilians, was instructed never to discuss his findings?
• Rwandan President Juvénal Habyarimana, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi were assassinated by two surface-to-air missiles?
• Rwandan film-maker Eric Kabera was inspired to start a career in film after losing 32 family members in the Rwandan Genocide?
• Anne Aghion won an Emmy Award in 2005 for her documentary film In Rwanda We Say…The Family That Does Not Speak Dies, which examined the situation in post-genocide Rwanda?
• Froduald Karamira, sentenced to death for his role in the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, was one of the last individuals executed before capital punishment was abolished in the country?
• Gustav Adolf von Götzen, a German explorer and Governor of German East Africa, was the first European to set foot in Rwanda?
• Jean Kambanda, prime minister of Rwanda during the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, is the first and only head of government to plead guilty to genocide?
• Jeannette Kagame, the current First Lady of Rwanda, works to help victims of the Rwandan Genocide and HIV/AIDS?
• Maraba Coffee, the first Rwandan coffee to gain Fairtrade status, is used to make the only coffee beer sold in the British Isles?

Sierra Leone

• Edward Nicolls proposed that oak trees be grown in Sierra Leone for the Royal Navy?
• Ishmael Beah, a former child soldier from Sierra Leone, was rescued by UNICEF and has written about his ordeal and rehabilitation in his new book, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier?
• Atunda Ayenda is the first radio soap opera ever aired in Sierra Leone?
• Nigerian John Ezzidio, who was freed from a slave ship and landed in Freetown, Sierra Leone in 1827, became the city's mayor eighteen years later, in 1845?
• Sir Charles MacCarthy, the British colonial governor of Sierra Leone and the Gold Coast, was killed by the Ashanti and his head kept as a trophy?
• despite healthcare in Sierra Leone decreasing child mortality from 302 deaths per 1000 live births in 1990 to 282 in 2005 Sierra Leone still has the highest level of child mortality in the world?
• in 1994, Horace Dove-Edwin became the first medalist in athletics for Sierra Leone, but lost it due to a positive doping test?
• the 1967 general election in Sierra Leone saw the first defeat of a ruling party in an election held under universal suffrage in sub-Saharan Africa?

Ghana

• "Tuesday's Child", an episode of the BBC medical drama Holby City, was filmed entirely on location in Ghana?
• Albert Adu Boahen, an academic at the University of Ghana, challenged former head of state of Ghana Jerry Rawlings in the presidential election of 1992?
• Bono Manso, the capital of Bono state, was an ancient Akan trading town in present-day Ghana, which was frequented by caravans from Djenné as part of the Trans-Saharan trade?
• Emmanuel Kwasi Kotoka came to power in Ghana through a military coup d'état in 1966, only to be deposed and killed in a further coup fourteen months later?
• Kwame "The Snow Leopard" Nkrumah-Acheampong is the first Ghanaian to qualify for the Winter Olympics?
• Osu Castle (pictured) is the seat of government in Ghana?
• Robert Kotei, then Ghana's high jump record holder, once successfully foiled a military coup against the NRC government, only to be executed years later after a successful coup against his own SMC government?
• Salaga in northern Ghana was once one of the biggest slave markets in West Africa?
  
• Tamale, Ghana obtains its electricity from Akosombo Dam in the central Ghana?
  
• akuaba are dolls, traditionally carried on the backs of Ghanian women who want to conceive?

Lesotho

• Lesotho is the only country in the world that lies entirely over 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) above mean sea level?
• famo is a type of music from Lesotho, named after the action of female dancers exposing their naked rear?
• Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, was founded in 1869 as a police camp?
• Thaba Bosigo, a Basotho stronghold in Lesotho, was the only fortress to remain impregnable during the Free State–Basotho Wars?
• having moved to South Africa to start his missionary work at age 22, Joseph Gérard died at age 83 in Lesotho without ever returning to his home country of France?

Mauritius

• Commodore Josias Rowley's campaign to capture the Indian Ocean islands of Reunion and Mauritius in 1810 was the source material for the exploits of Jack Aubrey in Patrick O'Brian's novel The Mauritius Command?
• Diogo Fernandes Pereira discovered the Mascarenes archipelago (Réunion, Mauritius, and Rodrigues) in 1507?
• Jacques-Désiré Laval (pictured), a Spiritan missionary to Mauritius, was the first person beatified by Pope John Paul II?
• after accusing Mauritian judges of involvement in slavery, Sir John Jeremie was honoured in 1836 by the Anti-Slavery Society?
• the early career of Mauritian-Norwegian footballer Caleb Francis was halted due to racist abuse?
• there have been six Indian Ocean Island Games, the latest being held on the isle of Mauritius in 2003?