Behold The Spectacular Three Dikgosi Monument

Behold the spectacular Three Dikgosi Monument. Arguably one of Botswana’s most iconic symbol of a moment in time that would change history, the Three Dikgosi Monument is also a fine piece of work worth visiting.

The Three Dikgosi Monument is a bronze sculpture comprising of 3 statues that depict three dikgosi; Khama III of the Bangwato, Sebele I of the Bakwena, and Bathoen I of the Bangwaketse. Pre covid-19, events were held at the monument such as the 2008 Miss Independence Botswana. A study conducted between January and August 2007 shows that the monument is the most visited tourist destination in Gaborone. The monument features 5.4-metre (18 ft) tall bronze statues of three dikgosi, or chiefs, who played important roles in Botswana’s independence: Khama III, Sebele I, and Bathoen I.

Background History

The three chiefs traveled to Great Britain in 1895 to ask Joseph Chamberlain, Secretary of State for the Colonies, and Queen Victoria to separate the Bechuanaland Protectorate from Cecil Rhodes’s British South Africa Company and Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe). Permission was granted, and meant that the Batswana remained under direct British rule until independence in the 1960s. Six plinths at the feet of the statues give descriptions of the three chiefs. The monument was inaugurated on 29 September 2005 by Festus Mogae, the former president of Botswana at the time; it received 800 visitors a day when it first opened.