The Three Dikgosi Monument draws more than 6,000 visitors a month in Gaborone, yet its story starts with three rulers trying to keep a company from swallowing their territory.
The bronze figures honour Khama III of Bangwato, Sebele I of Bakwena, and Bathoen I of Bangwaketse. In 1895, they travelled to Britain to resist incorporation into the British South Africa Company. That single trip still shapes how Botswana presents sovereignty, diplomacy, and leadership in the middle of its capital.
But the monument’s story isn’t clean or simple. It took more than a decade to move from proposal to unveiling, and its contract reportedly rose from P7 million to P12 million despite local artist bids. In my honest opinion, that tension is exactly why the site rewards more than a quick photo. Look closely, and Gaborone’s CBD starts to feel less like a backdrop and more like an argument in bronze.
Who the three chiefs were
The three men cast together in bronze once made a political gamble that could have changed Botswana’s borders before Botswana existed.
Khama III, Bathoen I, and Sebele I were not selected for the sculpture because they were distant royal names. They were working dikgosi with real authority among the Bangwato, Bangwaketse, and Bakwena communities. DailyNews reported in 2022 that the monument depicts these three chiefs and commemorates their journey to Britain to resist incorporation into the British South Africa Company.
That trip in 1895 sits at the centre of their shared story. They travelled over the future of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, not as tourists or ceremonial envoys, but as leaders trying to shape political terms from a position that was far from equal.
That matters. They were dealing with empire, chartered-company ambition, and local survival all at once.
The tension is easy to miss. Botswana remembers them as national heroes, but their power came first from local authority. They spoke from specific communities before they became part of a national story. In my view, that distinction is the whole point.
Putting the chiefs into one bronze group makes a clear claim about leadership. The sculpture presents them as political figures who acted, negotiated, and pushed back. It does not reduce them to ancestors frozen in ceremony.
That is why the grouping carries weight. Three separate chiefly histories become one public statement about agency before independence. The monument asks you to see the dikgosi not as decoration, but as men who understood that the future could be argued over before it was lost.
Why the monument stands in Gaborone’s CBD
At -24.6442761, 25.9085744, national memory sits inside Gaborone’s Central Business District rather than behind museum doors. That precise CBD position, recorded by the Contested Histories Initiative in 2024, gives the site a different force from a sculpture placed on the edge of town. The city folds it into ordinary movement.
The Three Dikgosi Monument was officially unveiled in 2005 by then-president Festus Gontebanye Mogae, according to the same case study. Its purpose was public and political from the start. It was built to honor Botswana, not simply decorate a plaza with bronze figures.
CBD monuments can feel formal and distant. But here, the location makes the story unavoidable… you pass national history on the way to work. In my honest opinion, that’s sharper than hiding it in a park.
The final site also came after friction, not instant consensus. Planning had stretched across more than a decade.
A proposed Main Mall location was rejected in 2001. By choosing the new CBD, planners tied the monument to the country’s administrative and commercial present, not only its past.
There was another uncomfortable layer. The contract with Mansudae Overseas Projects reportedly rose from an initial P7 million to P12 million, despite bids from local artists.
That cost matters because public monuments don’t just tell history. They also reveal who gets hired to shape it.
That is why the placement carries more weight than the plaque. A roadside statue asks drivers to glance and move on.
This one stands where people work, meet, protest, take visitors, and cross the city. The national story keeps entering the day whether anyone planned a history lesson or not.
What the sculpture shows up close
At 5.4 metres high, the three bronze figures make you look up before you start reading the site. They aren’t busts, plaques, or distant symbols. They are complete standing figures, grouped close enough to feel like a shared front rather than three separate memorial pieces, according to the Contested Histories Initiative’s 2024 case study.
The formal clothing does a lot of the work. Long coats, upright bodies, and controlled gestures give the chiefs public weight.
Their dress doesn’t make them look casual or private. It places them in the language of negotiation, rank, and public duty.
Placement matters just as much as scale. The three figures stand together, not scattered around the site. That arrangement turns the sculpture into a visual argument for unity.
But it doesn’t erase difference. Each figure still keeps his own body, stance, and presence.
That’s where the monument becomes more interesting than a simple heroic pose. The sculpture looks formal, but it’s not frozen in silence. The grouped stance suggests agreement even though each chief represented a distinct tribe. In my humble opinion, that tension gives the monument its pull.
Around the statues, six pillars widen the story beyond the three bodies. One theme begins with Botshabelo/Refuge in the 1820s-1830s. Another reaches the 1950s-1960s, tying the figures to a longer national timeline without making the central group compete for attention.
Up close, the bronze surface also changes the mood. It catches light sharply in the open air, then darkens in folds and recesses. That contrast suits the subject. The figures feel official, even severe.
The material gives them texture and age. You don’t just see authority. You see it cast, weathered, and made permanent.
Why it still matters to visitors today
A site that can take five minutes to photograph still draws the kind of visitor numbers most Gaborone attractions would envy. According to BOPA in 2022, it received more than 6,000 tourists per month and had the highest monthly visitor numbers in the city.
That’s not just sightseeing traffic. It’s proof that public memory works best when people can reach it without ceremony.
Visitors use the monument in a simple way first. They stop, take photos, read what they can, and place themselves beside one of the city’s best-known civic landmarks. It gives central Gaborone a clear public marker, not just another official address.
The deeper pull sits behind the photo. The chiefs’ stand against outside commercial control didn’t create independence by itself.
It gave later generations a clean political lesson: the territory’s future had to be negotiated, not handed over. That makes the site a fast, physical introduction to Botswana’s path to statehood.
Public memory also changes when a place keeps being used. On 26 June 2025, the Department of Information Services reported an interfaith prayer session there with representatives from Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and traditional African spiritual practices.
A tourist stop became a civic meeting point. That shift matters.
The contrast is exactly why the monument works. You can pass through in minutes. The story behind it is bigger than its footprint. In my view, it’s a quick stop that carries real weight.
What the statues ask of you now
Go when the plaza is doing ordinary city work, not just when tour buses arrive. A DailyNews report from 26 June 2025 described an interfaith prayer session there with representatives from four traditions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and traditional African spiritual practices.
That matters. The Three Dikgosi Monument isn’t frozen in royal bronze. It has become a place where modern Botswana tests public memory, shared space, and national belonging in real time.
In my humble opinion, the best way to read it is to stand there longer than your camera needs. Walk the pillars. Notice who else has gathered.
A statue can tell you what a nation chose to remember. A public square tells you what people still need from that memory.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Who are the three chiefs at the monument in Gaborone?
A: They are Khama III, Sebele I, and Bathoen I. Each one was a dikgosi, or tribal chief, and each helped shape Botswana’s path to independence. That’s why the monument carries more weight than a simple public sculpture.
Q: Where is the Three Dikgosi Monument located?
A: It stands in the Central Business District of Gaborone, Botswana. That placement matters, because it puts the monument right in the country’s political and civic center. You don’t have to go far to see how seriously it’s treated.
Q: Why is the Three Dikgosi Monument important?
A: It honors three leaders who pushed Botswana toward independence. The statue is a national symbol, but it’s also a reminder that independence came through leadership, pressure, and negotiation. In my view, that mix of tribute and political meaning is what gives it real force.
Q: What is the Three Dikgosi Monument made of?
A: It’s a bronze sculpture. Bronze gives it a permanent, formal feel, which fits the subject well… but it also makes the monument feel deliberate rather than decorative. That’s a smart choice for a site meant to carry national memory.
Q: Can tourists visit the Three Dikgosi Monument?
A: Yes, visitors can see it in central Gaborone. It’s one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks, so it’s easy to pair with other stops nearby. If you’re short on time, this is one site that still tells a clear story fast.