To say that it was destiny that set Botswana apart to be the shining star for Africa on the world's political and economic stages would be a gross understatement.

Rather, it was hard work, great military and economic savvy, and the patient character inherent in its people that steered this once poor, dusty and mostly barren land into Africa's glittering success. But while we celebrate the coming of age of Botswana, little, and in some cases infrequent, attention is paid to the men who risked all, even to the point of death and humility, to secure a land for them and future generations to call home; except come Independence Day, of course!

This gives credence to the adage that there is little or no remembrance of men of old. Due to space restraint, this will not be the whole story, as numerable sons and daughters of this land contributed greatly towards its emergence as Botswana, but this is just part of the story to highlight a few Batswana who led from the frontlines in very dangerous and defining times.

Humiliated by their defeat at the hands of the British in the Cape, the Afrikaner Boers began their Great Trek towards the then Transvaal, and in the process overpowering the tribes, mostly Tswana-speaking tribes, they came upon. After a long and successful campaign, they came upon the indomitable, and last of the remaining great Tswana kings, Sechele of BaKwena. Declaring war on Sechele for his refusal to handover Mosielele, one of the defeated Tswana kings, the Boers, under Paul Kruger, the future Prime Minister of South Africa, were defeated by Sechele.

After being abandoned by his allies and left with only 35 men, Sechele won a decisive battle against the close to 500 man Boer detachment, pushing them beyond his border in Marico district. Many historians believe that this battle, called the Battle of Dimawe, or Botswana-Boer War of 1852-53, was the cornerstone of the modern day Republic of Botswana.

Aware of the resilient Batswana tribes beyond the lands of the Afrikaners in the Transvaal, and worried about the threat posed by the Boers, and the Germans to the South West (present day Namibia), the British, in a move to use Batswana as buffers between their main economic rivals, established the Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1885.

After the storm in this battle for economic sphere of influence subsided, the British, unable to administer the land, wanted to literally hand over Botswana to the ruthless mining magnate John Cecil Rhodes, the man whose name is synonymous with wholesale plunder and bigotry in the region. Aware of the news to incorporate their lands into Rhodes' British South African Company (BSAC), Sebele I son and successor of Sechele, Khama III of BaNgwato, who was installed under the approval of Sechele, and Bathoen I of BaNgwaketse, travelled to London where, after an unsuccessful attempt at convincing Queen Victoria, they toured the country raising public support for their cause.

Her hand forced by public opinion the Queen gave in to their demands and so put a halt to Botswana being annexed by Rhodes.

Another king, who single-handedly thwarted Rhodes' plans was BaTawana Kgosi Letsolathebe of Ngamiland, this after a long resistance that ended with the British Government stepping in to prevent Rhodes' overtures. Still unable to make a profitable venture out of Botswana, the British again tried in 1908 to hand over the territory to South Africa. The leaders of BaKwena, BaKgatla and BaNgwaketse stopped this second attempt.

Irritated by the proposal to see Botswana, together with Lesotho and Swaziland become part of South Africa, Sebele I, together with Khama III and Bathoen II protested such a move, to the point of hiring a lawyer to force Britain to uphold the 1885 and 1895 deals.

Their defiance resulted in Botswana being left out when the Union of South Africa was proclaimed in 1910. But after exemplifying themselves as fine military and political strategists at home and abroad, unbeknownst to the Dikgosi of old, their plea for support would entrench a dispensation that would see them at the bottom of a hierarchy that would eventually diminish their powers, one that is currently finding its parallel in present day Botswana politics.

At the bottom of a seven tiered hierarchy, Dikgosi became subjects in their own lands, ultimately accountable to parliament in London. The system of their fall from grace was never redressed, even in the nation state of Botswana.

From parallel to indirect rule, suspensions, exiles and banishments, to the formations of political parties that would usher in a new era of governance, the kings of old remain the undisputed foundation of present day Botswana, starting from the Great King Sechele, down to Kgosi Linchwe I who also defeated the Boers, right down to Sir Seretse Khama.

They showed exemplary leadership that put them right at the top of annals of Great Kings of Africa. Together, they were responsible for the formation of the nation state of Botswana, the sweet song that almost wasn't.