Western dress has been general among people in Botswana, except at the poorest level, since the late 19th century. Common diet and cuisine consist of sorghum and corn porridge, beans and pulses and traditional spinach, supplemented by tomato, potato, onion, and cabbage usually purchased from stores. Meat consumption has become more common with the opening of small butcheries selling beef. Traditional foods include dried phane caterpillars from mopane woodland, eaten as relish or snacks, fruits such as the wild morulaplum, and beer made from sorghum or millet.

Families in rural villages live in traditional compounds, usually with two or three small houses of cylindrical clay walls and conical thatch roofs, set around an open fireplace and surrounded by low clay walls. Most recent houses are square with metal roofs, while many houses in the northwest are made of reed.