The given name Seretse is the same as the first president of independent Botswana, Seretse Khama. I’m no expert on the history there, but I really liked the sound of the name “Seretse.” Motswaledi is borrowed from Gomolemo Motswaledi, another politician who founded the Botswana Movement for Democracy in 2010. Wikipedia is obviously a questionable source of information but apparently Mr. Motswaledi was also a music composer, which seemed appropriate for my OC

His general look (read: the cowboy hat) was inspired by the impossibly cool heavy metal subculture of Botswana, but I want to be clear that Botswana the character is neither exclusively into metal music nor is a particularly cool person lol. He in fact loves all music genres with a passion to rival Austria’s and mostly likes the goth cowboy look to feel badass.

Unlike Austria, he’s not really a natural talent when it comes to music and doesn’t have much of a head for composition, but he loves it enough to have become really good at several instruments. He’s got a good sense of rhythm so he’s pretty good at drums, and he also plays the segaba, which is a string instrument native to Botswana that I have no idea how to accurately describe the sound of so go look it up if you’re curious.

In theory, this man really likes rain. He likes seeing things grow. He likes it when the weather cooperates with his farmers since Botswana is prone to drought. He likes how cool thunderstorms look.

In practice, he really, really does not like rain. He behaves like a cat if he gets wet and is a huge fussy baby about it.

India is one of his closest pals outside of Africa; IRL, these countrys established relations early on after gaining independence from England, and though I did say Botswana is not meant to be particularly cool, these two definitely could bond over the knowledge that at least they’re way cooler than England lmao. They also have a mutual pal in South Africa, who I should probably draw them with some time, there’s lots of great South Africa designs

Russia is another country that was early to establish relations with Botswana, but on a character level, they haven’t known each other long enough for Botswana to have all the baggage of so much history as is the case with Russia’s neighbours. Without that old fear, Botswana is free to find Russia’s personality an endearing sort of odd instead of finding him a bit creepy. This also means Russia feels comfortable teasing him without as much risk of stumbling into genuinely hurtful territory, hence the above image of Botswana being a baby about the cold.