Eight Small Southern African Towns from Keetmanshoop to Big Bend, West to East

Keetmanshoop is the administrative capital of the Karas Region in southern Namibia. It began in 1866 when the first Rhenish missionary arrived to work with the Nama people, and it is named for the German industrialist Johann Keetman, who funded the mission. Karakul sheep farming drives the economy in a hot desert with about 159 millimetres of rain a year.

Karasburg lies about 862 kilometres north of Cape Town and is the only town in Namibia south of Keetmanshoop. Sheep farming is its main industry, and it is an important truck stop for vehicles crossing from the South African border. Its railway station was once the busiest in southern Namibia, and summer temperatures run well over 40 degrees Celsius.

Mahalapye sits on the main road between Gaborone and Francistown in Botswana's Central District, and it lies on the Tropic of Capricorn. The town is on the edge of the Kalahari desert, and its local waterways are dry except in the rainy season. It works as a transit hub with a bus station, a railway station, hotels and a market area.

Palapye lies roughly midway between Francistown and Gaborone. It was first settled by the Bamangwato people under Chief Khama III, and the name was originally spelled Phalatswe, meaning the place for impalas. The Morupule Colliery here supplies the Morupule power station, Botswana's principal domestic source of electricity, and the Botswana International University of Science and Technology opened in 2012.

Mafeteng is the capital of Mafeteng District in Lesotho, about 76 kilometres south of Maseru. Its name recalls an early visitor nicknamed Lefeta, meaning traveller or passer-by. The town saw notable fighting in the Gun War of 1880 to 1881, and it is home to the Diphiring Mill, a roller mill established in 1912 by William S. Scott that still processes grain for local communities.

Mohale's Hoek is the capital of its district in southern Lesotho. San people lived here first, then the Baphuthi from around 1795, before Mohale, a brother of King Moshoeshoe, was sent to administer the region in the 1830s. The original settlement was destroyed in the Seqiti War of 1867 and again in the Gun War of 1880, and it was rebuilt at its present site.

Teyateyaneng is a town in the Berea district of Lesotho, about 40 kilometres northeast of Maseru on a plateau at 1,693 metres. The chief Gabasheane Masupha founded it in 1886 as the capital of Berea. It is known as the country's athletic, art and entertainment capital, with carpet weaving and tapestry factories, and the Lioli Football Club has been based there since 1934.

Big Bend lies in the Lubombo district of eastern Eswatini on the Great Usutu River, known locally as the Lusutfu. Its economy rests mainly on agriculture, built around sugar plantations. The hot semi-arid climate produced a high of 44.3 degrees Celsius in November 2020, and the town has recorded the lowest temperature ever measured in Eswatini, minus 6.7 degrees Celsius.