NATIONAL MUSEUM

Located a few dozen metres from the Central Mall, this museum has two parts: a large room at the entrance, called the Octagon, and a succession of rather dark rooms occupying a wing of the building. The Octagon houses a series of collections of clay pots, traditional Botswana wire toys, masks from all over Africa, paintings and sculptures, as well as paintings by British painters of the 19th and 20th centuries. The other rooms are mainly devoted to the history of the country, as well as the flora and fauna and the peoples of the Kalahari and Okavango. The exhibition shows the influence of the environment on the lifestyles of the different ethnic groups and provides information on the major tribal migration movements, traditional crafts and local customs. Naturalized animals are presented in a reconstitution of their natural environment, with some explanations of the particularities of the species, habitat, food, etc. The exhibition is very well arranged and this heterogeneous museum is worth a walk for an hour or two. Located in the same complex of buildings as the museum, an art gallery offers temporary exhibitions of paintings by local, South African or European artists, sculptures, tapestries, photographs and crafts from Botswana and more generally from Africa. A superb exhibition of traditional baskets is held every year in winter (usually in July).