The Kalahari Desert covers most of Botswana, about 84 per cent of the country. The desert has made citizens to value rain. To them, rain is a blessing or fortune, and it is part of their everyday conversations. Their currency is called pula, a word that means ‘rain’ in Setswana, the country’s national language.
The 2025 World Athletics Championships, on September 13-21 in Tokyo, Japan, yielded a special moment that deepened Botswana’s appreciation for rain. On the final day of the 20th edition of the games, Botswana’s 4x400 metres relay team became the first African country to win a gold medal in the event. This was despite the heavy rain that pounded Tokyo that day.
Their quartet of Lee Eppie, 200 metres Olympic champion Letsile Tebogo, Bayapo Ndori, and the new 400 metres world champion Busang Collen Kebinatshipi, won the race in 2 minutes 57.76 seconds, relegating Olympic champions USA to second place in 2:57.83. South Africa clocked 2:57.83 for bronze.
Botswana sprinters (from left) Lee Bhekempilo Eppie, Bayapo Ndori, Letsile Tebogo and Busang Collen Kebinatshipi celebrate after winning gold in men's 4 x 400m relay at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 21, 2025
Photo credit: Reuters
Following the victory, Botswana’s President Duma Boko declared Monday, September 29, a public holiday to honour the team’s success. The celebration will take place a day before Botswana’s marks 59 years of independence. Botswana also won gold (Kebinatshipi) and bronze (Ndori) in the men’s 400 metres race.
In a Facebook post, President Boko said he declared the holiday after consulting the team on the most appropriate date to honour them.
“This gesture not only celebrates Botswana’s sporting triumph on the world stage but also symbolises unity, national pride, and the power of sport to inspire a nation,” Boko said.
It is not the first time Botswana is declaring a holiday to honour its sportspeople. On August 8, 2024, following Letsile Tebogo’s victory in the 200 metres at the Paris Olympic Games – Botswana’s first ever Olympic gold medal – then President Mokgweetsi Masisi declared the following day’s afternoon a public holiday to celebrate the achievement which also counted as Africa’s first gold medal in the 200 metres.
Masisi further declared the afternoon of August 13, 2024, a public holiday to celebrate Tebogo’s return to the country, from Paris, in an event at a packed Botswana National Stadium in Gaborone.
Earlier this month, ahead of the Tokyo championships, the Bank of Botswana released a limited edition 50 pula note to celebrate the institution’s jubilee and the country’s success at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, where in addition to Tebogo’s gold medal, Botswana won silver in the men’s 4x400 metres relay. President Boko described the note as “a historic surprise”.
The new banknote features the Bank of Botswana on its obverse, drenched in brown hue together with the country’s national symbols. But it is the dominant features on the reverse that qualify President Boko’s description of the note as a “historic surprise”. It features an ornamental gilded design, the flag of Botswana, the Okavango Delta, the number 50 embossed in gold, and images of Tebogo and members of Botswana’s silver medallists in the 4x400 relay – Tebogo, Anthony Pesela, Kebinatshipi, and Ndori – displaying their medals.
Cars and monthly cash payments
“The commemorative note not only celebrates the central bank’s 50 years of service but also honours a national icon whose achievement has brought pride and inspiration to the nation,” Boko said.
The honour Botswana accorded Tebogo and his teammates is a manifestation of a concept known as banal nationalism, a term derived from the eponymous 1995 book by the British academic and sociologist, Michael Billig. The term is used to refer to everyday representations of a nation, which build a sense of shared national identity.
Examples of banal nationalism include: nicknames given to currency notes and the symbols on them, popular expressions, naming of roads and places, use of national anthems and flags and national songs. Sports also feature in expression of banal nationalism and Botswana is not alone in exhibiting that.
When the Fiji Rugby Sevens team took the title at the 2016 Olympic Games to win the Pacific Ocean islanders’ first Olympic gold medal, Fiji released the world’s first seven-dollar banknote to commemorate the victory.
Fiji players pray after winning the men’s rugby sevens gold medal match against Britain during the 2016 Olympic Games at Deodoro Stadium in Rio de Janeiro on August 11, 2016.
Photo credit: File | AFP
The note’s obverse features are images of the team’s captain Osea Kolinisau in full flight and their British coach, Benjamin Ryan. The reverse has images of the whole team and the technical bench. Fiji also unveiled a 50-cent coin featuring Ryan with his name and title on it.
With 67 gold medals, 58 silver medals, and 48 bronze medals, Kenya is the second most successful nation at the World Athletics Championships, after the US. Kenya is also Africa’s most successful nation at the Olympic Games, with 124 medals, of which 117 have come from athletics – 38 gold, 43 silver, and 36 bronze.
Kenya celebrated these achievements by naming roads and stadiums after some of its most famous athletes. Nyayo National Stadium is bordered on one side by Douglas Wakiihuri Road, named after the winner of Kenya’s first gold in the marathon at the World Athletics Championships.
Kenya's marathon legend Douglas Wakiihiri poses next to the signage of a road in Nairobi named after him. The road was formerly known as Aerodrome Road.
Photo credit: PHOTO|SILA KIPLAGAT
Another road in Nairobi’s Imara Daima estate is named after Tegla Lorupe, the first African woman to hold a marathon record.
Two stadiums, in Eldoret and in Kapsabet, bear the name of the legendary Kipchoge Keino. Kericho Green Stadium was renamed Wilson Kiprugut Chumo Stadium in 2023 to remind Kenyans of the first medallist in the Olympic Games.
Also, the reverse of the Sh200 note has four athletes holding the national flag.
Recently, Madagascar, after finishing second at the 2024 African Nations Championships, celebrated their national football team by awarding them national honours and decorations. Players were also given houses and cash. Those serving in the military were promoted.
Madagascar players arrive at Ivato International Airport in Antananarivo, Madagascar, on August 31, 2025. The team finished second in 2024 African Nations Championship.
Photo credit: Pool
In 2024 and 2021 respectively, India and the Philippines honoured their Olympic medallists from Paris 2024 and Tokyo 2020 by releasing new postage stamps.
In 2021, Uganda rewarded its four medallists – Joshua Cheptegei (gold in the men’s 5 000 and silver 10 000 metres), Peruth Chemutai (gold in the women’s 3 000 metres steeplechase), and Jacob Kiplimo (bronze in the men’s 10 000 metres) – at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics with cars and monthly cash payments.
Uganda's Tokyo Olympics 5,000 metres gold medallist Joshua Cheptegei stands next to his brand new Mitsubishi Pajero handed over to him by President Yoweri Museveni on August 11, 2021 at Kololo Independence Grounds, Kampala.
Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group
The monthly cash payments were set at Ush5 million (Sh184 000) for gold medallists, Ush3 million (Sh110 000) for silver medallists, and Ush1 million (Sh36, 000) for bronze medallists.
But when it comes to rewarding its athletes with cash, no country rivals Singapore. Singapore, under their Multi-million Dollar Award Programme (MAP), rewards its Olympic gold medallists with 1 million Singaporean dollars (Sh100 million). Silver medallists get half of that amount while bronze medallists get Sh25 million.
Since the start of the programme, only one athlete – 2016 Rio Olympic Games 100 metres butterfly gold medallist Joseph Schooling – has received the record prize money.
