Caught Smack in the Middle

How a small southern African country applies its survival skills

In the strife afflicting southern Africa, the little republic is something of an oddity. It is a place where a benign and popular government reigns over a modest society that is notably free of corruption, has never fought a war with its neighbors, never held a political prisoner, and does not bother to arm its police. Its currency is stable and its economy remarkably robust. It has a multiparty parliamentary system and is preparing to hold its fourth general election since it attained independence from Britain in 1966. The country is Botswana, and its state of health is all the more remarkable for the fact that it is encircled by the major states of conflict in the region: Rhodesia, South Africa, Namibia (South West Africa), Angola and Zambia.

What is Botswana's secret? "We allow free entry to politics from the East, aid from the West, and food from the South," says a white senior civil servant. By this he means that Botswana has diplomatic relations with China and the Soviet Union, accepts financial assistance from the U.S. and Western Europe, and still has close trade connections with South Africa. Botswana does not maintain diplomatic ties with either Salisbury or Pretoria, but its territory is traversed by a Rhodesian-owned railway, and its economy, which revolves around diamond, copper and zinc mining and cattle ranching, is completely dominated by South Africa.

Botswana also remains an active member of the "frontline" African states that have been pressing for a black nationalist government in Rhodesia, and it allows the presence of several Rhodesian refugee camps on its territory. But it has refused to permit guerrilla movements to establish military bases there, lest this provoke Rhodesian government attack, and it does the best it can to send intruding guerrillas back across the Zambian and Rhodesian borders.

The attempts at neutrality have worked reasonably well, but at quite a price. The growing warfare has caused Botswana to create its own 2,000-man defense force; the $25 million start-up cost is a heavy burden for a nation whose total population is a mere 780,000. Last year, in the most serious incident to date, a band of Rhodesian government commandos opened fire on a Botswana army convoy and killed 15 recruits; they were the first Botswanan soldiers ever to die in an African war. The incident set off a wave of anger throughout the country. Last month the Rhodesians carried out a commando raid 45 miles inside Botswana's territory, destroying a guerrilla office.

As if the Rhodesian attacks were not bad enough, Botswana is also vulnerable to raids by South African security forces against any South African guerrillas who might be passing through Botswanan territory. Summing up this welter of problems, a ranking Botswanan official told TIME Johannesburg Bureau Chief William McWhirter: "Our future depends on whether sanity prevails in the region. If it doesn't, we may soon be in a position where all the parties say, 'He who is not with us is against us.' "

The man who is leading Botswana through this diplomatic minefield is Sir Seretse Khama, 57, the country's first and only President and the grandson of Khama the Great, one of the tribal chieftains who sought neutrality under Queen Victoria's protection a century ago. Sir Seretse suffers from diabetes and a weak heart, but these ailments have not prevented him from giving Botswana steady leadership. Says a friend: "Khama has been weak from the day he was born, but he always seems strong when we need him."

Despite the tension on its borders, Botswana has remained markedly free of both tribal and racial strife. Khama, who was once banned from his homeland after his marriage in 1948 to a white Englishwoman, Ruth Williams, a former London secretary, has had much to do with maintaining this harmonious atmosphere.

In his government there are refreshingly few bodyguards and black Mercedes limousines; most of the Cabinet ministers drive pickup trucks, since they tend to be farmers. Under Khama's leadership, the country's economic planning is so rigidly controlled that no expenditures for approved projects are permitted until the funds have been raised. Thanks to this careful management, and greatly aided by the country's mining industry, Botswana's economy is roaring along with a growth rate of 25% a year, one of the highest in the world. Per capita income has risen from $180 in 1972 to $480 last year, and the country's foreign exchange reserves have doubled to $150 million in the past two years.

Botswana has never tried to conceal its heavy dependence on its trade links with Pretoria. "There is still only one way in and one way out," says a member of the government. And South Africa never lets Botswana forget this basic fact. Indeed, this is one reason Khama's government is so deeply committed to the cause of peace in the region. Once the fighting stops in Rhodesia, Botswana can begin to build new trade routes to Zambia, Namibia and even the new Zimbabwe-Rhodesia, thereby reducing its dependence on South Africa for access to the world.

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