Blessed Be This Noble Land—Answer

1. Bechuanaland
2. Rain

The title of this post Blessed Be This Noble Land is the national anthem of Botswana.

The motto Pula, which means rain and also blessing, is the name of Botswana’s currency.

On the 21 February 1966 the Earl of Longford, the British Colonial Secretary, announced that Bechuanaland, a British protectorate, would gain independence on 30th September 1966, subsequently being renamed Botswana.

This landlocked country in Southern Africa is bordered by Namibia (including the Caprivi Strip) to the west and north, Zambia and Zimbabwe to the northeast, and South Africa to the southeast and south. Botswana’s borders feature a minor section along the Zambezi River with Zambia, while its boundary along the Chobe River with Namibia was settled in a 1999 International Court of Justice ruling favoring Botswana. Despite remaining one of the least densely populated nations globally, with over 2.4 million people inhabiting an area similar in size to France, Botswana, named after its dominant Tswana ethnic group, has transitioned from being one of the world’s poorest and least-developed states to a peaceful and increasingly prosperous democratic state. Approximately 70 percent of its flat, topographically consistent territory forms part of the Kalahari Desert.