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The Tswana, or Batswana, make up about 85% of Botswana’s population and speak Setswana, a language closely related to Sesotho. Their ancestors migrated south between the 14th and 16th centuries and organized themselves into chiefdoms (merafe) ruled by chiefs called dikgosi, a structure that endured through the British Bechuanaland Protectorate until Botswana’s independence.