Tutume

Tutume is a large Bakalanga village located in the Central 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 sub district headquarters and has a population of 13,000.It is made up of wards: Madikwe, Selolwane, Thini and Magapatona. In each ward there is a 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 river "TUTUME", in Kalanga they will say "gwizi go Tutuma", meaning that the river was overflowing.

There are seven primary schools: Mpiti, Mpani, Timbi, Thini, Selolwane, Maphorisa and Tutume Central, two junior secondary schools: Denjebuya and Pandagala, and one senior secondary school: Tutume McConnell Community College. It is about 60 km from Domboshaba.

The village has a police station, immigration department, Botswana Agricultural Marketing Board, Water Utilities Corporation, Botswana Power Corporation, civil registration department, rural administration centre (local council), post office etc. and two supermarkets (Choppies and Spar), Pep, Cash Bazaar, metro cash Barclays Bank and carry wholesaler, a petrol service station, lodge (shumba lodge).

The village acts as an umbrella as it consists of different tribes under one roof. Before Tutume being developed people lived at their lands and cattleposts for the fertile virgin-land. People prided themselves in the art of ploughing and animal rearing, despite baboons ransacking the fields and kidnapping lambs in the night.

Coordinates: 20°30′36″S 27°03′00″E / 20.51000°S 27.05000°E