During the 1970s, the violence in neighbouring states spilled over into Botswana, making
untenable its previous policy of having no army. This article examines the experiences of
women in the north-east border regions who suffered violence from South African and
Rhodesian soldiers crossing illegally and yet routinely into Botswana. As these incidents
show, rape as a weapon of war has a long history in the region, although world attention is
more recent. I suggest that a key underlying factor in the cross-border violence was the
difficult and incomplete transition from permeable boundaries within a wider colonial space
to hard international borders between fully independent and hostile states. As a result, the
role of Botswana in the liberation struggle of southern Africa served as the main reason for
the regular violations of its sovereignty during that period. The lives of ordinary people
straddled the border, and so did the violence of armies, making it crucial to consider the
reactions of the people of Botswana to cross-border warfare. I will also use comparisons with
other notable contemporary incidents of cross-border violence and cross-border ambiguity,
including one incident that took place, paradoxically, in the middle of the country, involving
travel on the Rhodesian-owned railway.

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