While Molepolole holds the crown for being the largest village in Botswana, Kanye has that distinction for being the country’s longest continuously occupied tribal capital.

Home to Bangwaketse and serving as the Administrative Capital of the Southern District, Kanye, which has a population of just under 50,000, traces its origins to the late 18^th century, when Kgosi Makaba II settled his people on this hilly fortress in the vicinity of the Ngotwane River.

After a period of strife and nomadic resilience during which the Bangwaketse occupied less permanent capitals, such as their early base at Losabanyana in the Transvaal during the 17th century, where they developed their pastoralist economy. By the early 18th century, they established Seoke in southern Botswana, a temporary stronghold before their clashes Bakwena forced their move to what would become known as Kanye.

These earlier settlements were shaped by the need to evade enemies and secure resources, but Kanye’s establishment around 1790 marked a shift to a more enduring capital. Under Makaba II’s leadership, Kanye became the Bangwaketse’s political and cultural core. Makaba’s diplomatic acumen, engaging with neighbouring chiefs and early traders, elevated Kanye’s regional significance by the early 19th century.

But all this didn’t come easily. Bangwaketse were once part of the great Bakwena lineage, descendants of Malope, whose children went on to form several major Tswana tribes. One of them, Ngwaketse, broke away to form his own group – and with that act, the Bangwaketse story began. For generations they wandered across the southern parts of what is now Botswana, settling near Molepolole, then near Lobatse, and several places in between (including present-day Kgatleng District). Every time they built, they also had to be ready to move, driven by droughts, raids, or rival tribes.

Around 1790, after a bitter defeat by the Bakwena, Makaba led his people to a rugged hill surrounded by valleys and streams. He looked at those rocks and ridges and saw not wilderness, but opportunity. There, he said, they would build their capital. He named it Kanye: a place to settle.

Although some sources differ, the general consensus is that the name Kanye derives from the Setswana term go kanya, which means “to rest” or “to be at peace.” It is a fitting name for a people who, after centuries of movement and conflict, finally found a place where they could exhale. Some say the word captures more than just rest – it speaks of arrival, of finding what you were searching for all along.

The settlement was established around the less creatively named Ntsweng Hill hilltop. Well, Ntsweng literally means “at/on the hill”. This hilltopwas defensible, high enough to spot approaching enemies, and blessed with fertile ground for cattle and crops. Makaba fortified it with stone walls, some of which still cling to the hill’s face today, weathered but unbroken.

But history has a way of testing even the strongest leaders. In 1824, Makaba II was killed fighting the Bakololo, and his people scattered. For years, Kanye was a quiet ghost of its former self; until 1852, when two Bangwaketse factions reunited under Senthufe and Segotshane. Together, they returned to Kanye and rebuilt. By the time young Gaseitsiwe took leadership, the village had become a lively trade hub where ivory, animal skins, and ostrich feathers changed hands.

Then, in 1895, Kanye stepped onto the world stage. Bathoen I, grandson of Gaseitsiwe, joined Sebele I of the Bakwena and Khama III of the Bangwato on a historic journey to London to plead with Queen Victoria to protect their lands from Cecil Rhodes’s British South Africa Company. The three dikgosi succeeded and their bold stand preserved what would become Botswana. It was one of the proudest chapters in Bangwaketse history.

I like mentioning here that there were actually FOUR dikgosi who journeyed to London – the fourth being Prince Besele of Barolong, who went on the stead of his aging father, Kgosi Montshiwa to plead a similar, but unrelated case for the protection of Barolong territories. His mission was, however, unsuccessful, as the British Crown had already taken the decision to incorporate British Bechuanaland into South Africa’s Cape Colony.

And the story doesn’t end there. Decades later, Kanye would give the nation one of its most respected leaders, Sir Ketumile Quett Masire, who was born here in 1925, and would become Botswana’s second president. Prior to Sir Ketumile’s ascendance to the presidency, in fact, Kanye was a major political battlefield, as two of the most influential men in Botswana at the time (Vice President, Ketumile Masire, and Bangwaketse Paramount Chief, Bathoen II) were at the helm of the two main political parties, ruling Botswana Democratic Party and opposition Botswana National Front. The third and fourth Parliaments of Botswana had the former as Leader of the House (and later President) and the latter as Leader of the Opposition.

Kanye is also the home village of Botswana’s sprinting sensation, Letsile Tebogo, the current Olympic Gold Medalist in the men’s 200m and member of the only African to ever win the 4x400m relay Gold at the World Championships.

Mpule Kwelagobe, Miss Universe, 1999, also hails from this scenic urban village.