Established in 1982, the University of Botswana (UB) library acquired various collections of missionaries, travelers, explorers, anthropologists, and colonial commissioners in its “Botswana Collection” section. One of these, the Heinz Collection, serves as the case study for this article and is evidence of the range of collections acquired from the library’s founding until 2010, when it ceased to be the sole national university in the country. The Heinz Collection documents the San/Bushmen/Basarwa’s (indigenous community in Botswana) way of life as documented by a former European civil servant. In researching the collection, the authors shed light on the collection’s significance and the cultural heritage of the indigenous San/Bushmen communities that Dr. Heinz lived among and documented during his lifetime. The collection illustrates the impact of social, economic, cultural, governance environments on a community’s way of life and, consequently, its cultural heritage.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.