Ghanzi
Ghanzi is a cattle town on the northern rim of the Kalahari in western Botswana, calling itself the Capital of the Kalahari and functioning as the crossroads of the Trans-Kalahari Highway between Namibia, Maun and Gaborone. Its farms supply around three quarters of the beef Botswana exports. It is also the centre of Naro San culture, with the village of D’Kar nearby holding one of the most established San-led arts and community organisations in Africa.
Where Ghanzi Is and Why It Exists
Ghanzi sits in western Botswana on the northern edge of the Kalahari, administrative centre of a district covering nearly 118,000 square kilometres and bordering Namibia.
The town exists because of water. This area offered the only accessible underground water in the central Kalahari, which is what drew settlement to an otherwise unpromising stretch of sandveld.
The San and Bakgalagadi were the original inhabitants. The first European arrival was the trader Hendrik van Zyl, who established a hunting and trading business here in the eighteen seventies, and Boer Dorsland Trekkers set up the first permanent cattle station in the eighteen nineties, with land grants following at the end of that decade.
English-speaking ranchers and traders followed in the early twentieth century, and their descendants still farm here.
Population figures around 12,000 to 13,000 are commonly cited for the town itself.
Ghanzi is where the Kalahari’s oldest culture and its most modern industry sit side by side. Naro San communities and Afrikaner cattle ranches occupy the same district, and both are entirely part of the place.
The Cattle Country
Beef is what built Ghanzi and it remains what the district runs on.
The freehold farms around the town contribute a substantial share of Botswana’s beef industry. Ghanzi farmers supply around 75 percent of the beef the Botswana Meat Commission exports, primarily to the United Kingdom and the European Union, and beef is the country’s third largest industry.
Farm numbers have grown from a few dozen in the mid twentieth century to well over two hundred, and the district holds a meaningful percentage of the national herd.
Ghanzi is also the starting point of one of the longest active cattle treks left in the world, running roughly 800 kilometres southeast across the Kalahari to the slaughterhouses at Lobatse. Cattle are moved on horseback or by truck.
The annual Ghanzi agricultural show is the town’s biggest event, with livestock judging, rodeo and the surrounding social activity that a farming district generates.
For a visitor, the farmers’ and butchers’ market area in the morning gives an unvarnished view of the economy that defines this part of Botswana.
D’Kar and San Culture
This is the reason most travellers with an interest beyond cattle stop at Ghanzi.
D’Kar is a small village roughly 35 to 40 kilometres from Ghanzi, home to extended family groups of Naro San people. It was originally a church farm and later became a village after being handed to the Naro.
The Kuru Family of Organisations is based here, a group of San-led bodies that have spent decades building community-owned models for cultural preservation, education and tourism, with decision-making and revenue held in San hands rather than by outside operators.
The Kuru Art Project is the best known. San artists produce contemporary work sold through a cooperative gallery in the village, and it is one of the finest places in southern Africa to buy San art directly from the people making it.
D’Kar hosts an annual Kuru dance and music festival, usually in August, bringing San groups together from across the Kalahari.
Sesarwa is the most commonly spoken language in the Ghanzi District, ahead of Shekgalagadi, Setswana and Herero.
Dqãe Qare and Community Tourism
The most substantial community-run tourism operation in the area deserves separate treatment.
Dqãe Qare Game Reserve is a farm of around 7,500 hectares just outside Ghanzi, owned and run by the San community of D’Kar through their trust.
It is described as one of the most genuinely community-controlled cultural tourism experiences in Botswana. Visitors join guided bush walks led by D’Kar residents, with traditional fire-making and jewellery demonstrations and dance performances, and the proceeds support the community directly.
That model matters because San cultural tourism elsewhere in southern Africa has a poor record of leaving money with the people whose culture is being shown.
Other cultural village operations around Ghanzi offer bush walks and demonstrations too, with varying degrees of community ownership. Asking directly who owns an operation and where the money goes is a reasonable question here.
Wildlife on the reserves and game farms around Ghanzi includes the usual Kalahari species, and some ranchers have converted land to game.
The cattle side. Freehold farms supplying most of Botswana’s beef exports, the annual agricultural show, the Saturday market, and the long cattle trek southeast toward Lobatse.
The San side. D’Kar village with the Kuru Art Project and cooperative gallery, the August dance and music festival, and Dqãe Qare Game Reserve run by the D’Kar community.
The crossroads. The Trans-Kalahari Highway fork between Namibia, Maun and Gaborone, making Ghanzi the natural overnight stop on any of those routes.
Ghanzi as a Crossroads
The town’s revival came from a road, and its position is now its main practical value to travellers.
Ghanzi lost prominence after independence as the cattle industry declined, and by the late twentieth century it had become something of a backwater.
The completion of the Trans-Kalahari Highway and a tar link to Maun changed that. The town sits close to the fork where routes divide toward Gaborone, Maun and Namibia, which makes it a convenient stopover for almost any overland itinerary through western Botswana.
That has earned it the label Gateway to the Kalahari, and tourism has grown alongside the game industry.
For travellers crossing between Namibia and the Okavango, Ghanzi is the obvious night. For anyone heading into the Central Kalahari Game Reserve, it is a staging point, with the reserve’s western Xade Gate accessible off the Ghanzi to Kang road.
Fuel, supplies and accommodation are all available, and this is the last substantial town before some very empty country.
Practicalities in Ghanzi
The town is small and functional, and it covers what a traveller needs.
Accommodation runs from the long-established hotel in town, which also offers camping and self-catering, to game farms and lodges just outside, and basic hostel and campsite options at D’Kar.
Some lodges offer conventional rooms or chalets, while others let visitors stay in grass huts in a version of the traditional Kalahari way of life, with amenities added.
The Saturday market on the main street is the town’s busiest weekly event, selling fresh produce, charcoal, meat, everyday goods and handcrafts.
An oddity worth knowing about is the Ghanzi Gat, a water-filled hole around 40 metres deep created accidentally when workers blasting rock for the tar road opened a water vein.
Cooler months from May to September are far more comfortable for anything outdoors, and the desert here gets seriously hot in summer.
One historical footnote attaches to Hendrik van Zyl, the trader who first settled here. He is also the figure in the local legend attached to the Gcwihaba Caves far to the north, where he is said to have hidden part of a fortune that has never been found. Whether any of that is true is another matter, though it says something about how thin European presence was in this country in the nineteenth century that one trader turns up in the founding stories of two places several hundred kilometres apart.
Buy San art at the cooperative in D’Kar rather than from roadside resellers. The gallery is run by the artists’ own organisation, the work is authenticated, and the money reaches the people who made it, which is not reliably true of craft bought elsewhere.
Frequently Asked Questions About Ghanzi
Where is Ghanzi and why is it called the Capital of the Kalahari?
In western Botswana on the northern rim of the Kalahari, close to the Namibian border, as administrative centre of a district covering nearly 118,000 square kilometres. The nickname reflects both its position in the middle of the desert and its role as the main settlement and service centre for an enormous, very thinly populated area. It sits at the fork of the Trans-Kalahari Highway between Namibia, Maun and Gaborone.
What does the name Ghanzi mean?
It is believed to derive from a Naro word, given variously as Gaentsii or similar, and translated as swollen behind or swollen buttocks, referring to the good condition of the antelope and later the cattle of the region. Spellings vary, with Gantsi and Ghantsi both appearing. The town’s original inhabitants were the San, principally the Naro, alongside the Bakgalagadi.
What is there to do in Ghanzi?
The main draw is San culture at D’Kar village roughly 35 to 40 kilometres away, where the Kuru Art Project runs a cooperative gallery selling contemporary San art and an annual dance and music festival takes place in August. Dqãe Qare Game Reserve, around 7,500 hectares owned by the D’Kar San community, offers guided bush walks and cultural demonstrations. In town, the Saturday market and the annual agricultural show are the events worth timing for.
Is Ghanzi a good place to experience San culture?
It is among the best in Botswana, provided you choose carefully. The Kuru Family of Organisations at D’Kar is San-led and has spent decades building community-owned models where decision-making and revenue stay in San hands. Dqãe Qare Game Reserve is owned by the D’Kar community through their trust. Other operations around Ghanzi vary in ownership, so asking directly who runs a cultural village and where the money goes is worthwhile.
Why is Ghanzi important to Botswana’s economy?
Cattle. The freehold farms around the town supply around 75 percent of the beef that the Botswana Meat Commission exports, principally to the United Kingdom and the European Union, and beef is Botswana’s third largest industry. Ghanzi is also the starting point of a cattle trek of roughly 800 kilometres southeast across the Kalahari to the slaughterhouses at Lobatse, one of the longest such routes still active anywhere.
Is Ghanzi worth stopping at?
Yes if you are crossing western Botswana, since it is the obvious overnight between Namibia and Maun or Gaborone and the last substantial town before some very empty country. Fuel, supplies and accommodation are all available. Whether it earns a dedicated visit depends on your interest in San culture and in the cattle economy, both of which are genuinely well represented here and nowhere else in the country.
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