Pula Meaning: Why Rain Is Botswana's Currency and Motto

The pula meaning is simple and profound at once: in Setswana, the main language of Botswana, pula means rain. Because rain is so precious in a largely dry, Kalahari country, the word also carries the sense of a blessing, good fortune and life itself. That is why "Pula!" is called out at the end of speeches and celebrations, why it is the national motto on Botswana's coat of arms, and why the national currency, introduced in 1976, is called the pula.

The smaller unit of the currency is the thebe, which means shield: one hundred thebe make a pula. So every banknote and coin in Botswana carries a small lesson in what the country values: rain to bring life, and a shield to protect it.

Pula meaning in everyday life

Listen at a public gathering in Botswana and you may hear a speaker finish with "Pula!", with the crowd answering in the same word. It works rather like "hear, hear" or a toast, but with deeper roots: to wish someone pula is to wish them abundance. People may say it of a good harvest, a successful event or the first heavy storm after a long dry spell.

Rain also appears in the national colours. The light blue of Botswana's flag represents water, and in particular rain, with the black and white band through its centre often explained as a symbol of harmony between people. Few countries put weather at the heart of their national symbols. In Botswana it would be odd not to.

Why rain matters so much in Botswana

The Kalahari sandveld covers most of the country. Rainfall is low across much of Botswana and highly unreliable, falling mainly in the hot summer months, often in short, violent storms, and failing altogether in drought years. There are almost no permanent rivers in the south and centre; the great waters of the Okavango and Chobe lie in the far north.

For most of history, the rhythm of life followed the rains. Families moved between the village, the fields (masimo) and the cattle post (moraka), and the start of ploughing traditionally waited on the rains and, in many communities, on the word of the kgosi. Cattle have long been the main store of wealth, and cattle need grass and water. A failed rainy season was not an inconvenience; it could mean hunger and the loss of herds.

Rain in Setswana belief: Modimo, badimo and rain-making

In Setswana belief, Modimo is the supreme being, distant and powerful, while badimo are the ancestors, who remain part of the community and can be approached to intercede. Rain was understood not simply as weather but as a sign of right relations between the living, the ancestors and Modimo. Drought could be read as a sign that something in those relations had gone wrong.

Making rain was therefore a public and political matter. In many Tswana communities the kgosi was held responsible for the rain, working with specialist rain-doctors who performed rituals and prepared medicines, sometimes at particular places in the landscape. When Christian missionaries arrived in the nineteenth century, rain became a point of argument. David Livingstone, who lived among the Bakwena of Kgosi Sechele I, recorded a long debate with a rain-doctor, and Sechele's own decision to abandon rain-making rites caused tension with his people when the rains failed. The episode shows how deeply rain was bound up with authority, belief and community welfare.

Many people in Botswana today are Christian, and many also hold ancestral beliefs, or move between them in ways that do not feel contradictory. Prayers for rain are still offered in churches and at public occasions, and rain-related traditions survive in different forms in different communities.

Matsieng and the footprints of creation

One of the most important sacred places associated with Tswana origins is Matsieng, a national monument where engravings of footprints, human and animal, are found on rock around a waterhole. In one widely told tradition, Matsieng, a first ancestor, emerged from the water followed by the animals, leaving their tracks behind. Archaeologists study the engravings as ancient rock art; for many people they are also a living place of ancestral presence. Those meanings can sit side by side, and visitors should go with a knowledgeable local guide and treat the site as sacred rather than as a curiosity.

Water scarcity today: boreholes, pipelines and drought

Modern Botswana has transformed access to water, but it has not escaped the arithmetic of a dry land. From the middle of the twentieth century, drilled boreholes opened up large areas of the Kalahari to cattle by tapping groundwater, changing grazing patterns and, some argue, concentrating land and wealth in fewer hands. Today a long pipeline, the North-South Carrier, moves water from dams in the east of the country to the capital, Gaborone, and its surroundings.

Even so, droughts bite hard. During the severe drought of the mid-2010s, Gaborone Dam fell to a few percent of its capacity and water rationing became part of daily life. Climate scientists expect southern Africa's rainfall to become more variable, which makes the old word feel newly urgent. When people say "Pula!", they are still naming the thing everything else depends on.

Why this matters on foot

For a walker, the pula meaning is not abstract. The planned route crosses Botswana from the South African border through Gaborone and north along the eastern corridor, and on foot every litre of water must be planned: where it comes from, how much to carry and what happens if a source fails. The expedition's Botswana chapter begins with the question of what changes when water is both a daily necessity and a national symbol.

Community water, borehole maintenance and drought resilience are among the themes the expedition hopes to learn about, and Botswana is one of the places where the kindness ledger may record a contribution chosen with local people rather than for them. Read about the ancient lake and inland delta in our guide to the Makgadikgadi Pans, or about the gathering where rain was once a chief's responsibility in what is a kgotla. Then sponsor the walk, which sets out from Cape Agulhas in December 2026.

Frequently asked questions

What does pula mean in Setswana?

Pula means rain. By extension it also means blessing or good fortune, and it is used as a cheer, a greeting and Botswana's national motto.

Why is Botswana's currency called the pula?

Because rain is the most precious resource in a dry country. The pula was introduced in 1976, replacing the South African rand, and is divided into 100 thebe.

What does thebe mean?

Thebe means shield in Setswana. It is the name of the smaller unit of Botswana's currency.

Why do people shout "Pula!" at the end of a speech?

It is a way of wishing everyone blessing and abundance, rather like a toast. The audience often answers with the same word.