Easter in Botswana

Easter seems to be a big holiday in Botswana. The government, the University, many businesses and shops are closed on Friday and Monday or, in the case of the latter, at least have limited hours. It is not clear to me how pervasive organized religion is in the country. There are certainly several large churches and many smaller ones in town, as well as a large mosque just across the traffic circle from UB. I am told that in Botswana people have succesfully blended imported religions with indigenous practices. Interestingly, in Botswana the chiefs were among the earliest and most successful converts to Christianity.

Over the Easter holiday, many Batswana go to 'the village' to see their families. Thursday the streets and town were very busy as people were preparing to leave. On Friday things were much more quiet. We did our grocery shopping in the morning before the shops closed since we were going to be away all of Saturday. As usual we went first to Pick n Pay for the majority of our groceries and then to Woolworths for our Trader-Joes-in-Botswana shopping experience. For weeks we had seen lots of Easter candy - aimed at the expatriates - but by the time we got there on Friday it was all gone! So no jelly beans and chocolate Easter bunnies for us this year.