{{Short description|Village in Central District, Botswana}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{More citations needed|date=March 2026}} [[File:BW-Tutume.png|right|225px|Location of Tutume in Botswana]] '''Tutume''' is a large [[Bakalanga]] village<ref>{{cite web |last1=Chida |first1=Daniel |title=We are not Bangwato! » TheVoiceBW |url=https://thevoicebw.com/we-are-not-bangwato/ |website=TheVoiceBW |date=3 June 2025}}</ref> located in the [[Tutume District, Botswana|Tutume District]] of [[Botswana]], about 50 km from the [[Zimbabwe]] border gate at [[Maitengwe]]. The nearest city is [[Francistown]], about 100 km away. The village is a district headquarters and has a population of 23,000.
It is made up of wards: Sitabule (Madikwe), Tjilagwani (Selolwane), Thini, and Madandume (Magapatona). In each ward, there is a [[Village head|headman]] and his advisers in the [[kgotla]]. The main kgotla is located in Madikwe ward near Tutume Central Primary School.
The village was named after the [[Tutume River|river Tutume]]; in Kalanga they will say "gwizi go Tutuma", meaning that the river was overflowing.
There are seven primary schools; Magapatona, Timbi, Thini, Selolwane, Maphorisa and Tutume Central; two junior secondary schools: Denjebuya and Pandagala; and one senior secondary school: Tutume McConnell Community College.
Tutume village is the administration centre for all the villages and settlements in the District area. The village has a police station, a primary hospital, a District hospital, immigration department, a District Council, Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board, Water Utilities Corporation, Botswana Power Corporation, civil registration department, rural administration centre (local council), post office four supermarkets, and bed and breakfast service areas.
The village acts as an umbrella for different [[BaKalanga]] clans who all belong to the [[Wumbe]] tribe. Before Tutume was developed, people lived at their lands and cattle posts for the fertile virgin-land. People prided themselves in the art of ploughing and animal rearing. The people of the area also pride themselves in their history and their culture and language as is seen daily by how they live, their culture as well as the names they have and continue to give their children up to this day which are all in their [[Kalanga language|Kalanga]] tongue.
==Notable people== <!---♦♦♦ Only add a person to this list if they already have their own article on the English Wikipedia ♦♦♦---> <!---♦♦♦ Please keep the list in alphabetical order by LAST NAME ♦♦♦---> *[[Isaac Makwala]] (born 1985), Botswana sprinter *[[Kemmy Pilato]] (born 1989), Botswana footballer *[[Dabilo Moses]] (born 2000), Botswana beauty pageant titleholder
==References== {{Reflist}}
{{Botswana largest cities}}
{{Coord|20|30|36|S|27|03|00|E|display=title}} {{Authority control}}
[[Category:Populated places in Botswana]]
{{Botswana-geo-stub}}