Maun

The Batawana trace their story to Tawana, son of the Bakwena chief Mathiba, who broke away with his followers around 1790 and settled at the Kgwebe Hills in Ngamiland. After the Makololo pushed them out around 1825, a group led by Mogalakwe settled near Lake Ngami and prospered as cattle owners. The lake drew outsiders too: David Livingstone reached it in 1849. Batawana hawkers who traded in European goods were known as Dimausu, and women wore a distinctive headwrap called the tukwi.

Before Maun, the Batawana capital stood at Toteng and then at Tsau. Both places suffered from tsetse fly, which carries sleeping sickness, while the banks of the Thamalakane River lay outside the fly's range and had reliable fresh water. In 1915, under Kgosi Mathiba I, the capital moved to what had been a small Yei village. The town's name comes from the Seyei word maung, meaning the place of river reeds. Ngamiland has long been shared by Batawana, Bayei, Basarwa, Baherero and Bambukushu peoples.

For decades Maun was a hard-living cattle town. A building put up in 1939 later became the base of Safari South, one of the first safari companies in the Delta, and since 1995 it has housed the Nhabe Museum. In 1963, during the rule of Elizabeth Pulane Moremi, who was worried about the toll hunting was taking on wildlife, the Batawana created Moremi Game Reserve, named after Chief Moremi III. Once the tar road from Nata was finished in the early 1990s, tourism took off and Maun became Botswana's safari capital.

Maun has grown fast, from 43,776 people in 2001 to 60,263 in 2011 and 85,350 in the 2022 census, making it one of the largest villages in Botswana. Its airport is the main entry point for the Okavango Delta and Moremi, busiest in the June to August peak, when light aircraft carry guests out to remote camps. Livestock and street vendors still share the roads with banks and shopping centres. In 2016 the town marked its centenary with celebrations attended by Batawana regent Kgosi Kealetile Moremi.