Botswana coat of arms, surrounded by the country name and the word IPELEGENG, date below.

Ipelegeng means to be self-sufficient or independent.

The coat of arms of Botswana was adopted on January 25, 1966. The shape of the centre shield is that of traditional shields found in East Africa. On the top portion of the shield are three cogwheels that represent industry.

The three waves symbolize water, and reminds the viewer of the motto of the nation: pula, which means simply "rain", but also good luck, and is the name of the nation's currency. This motto also highlights the importance of water to Botswana. The motto is found at the bottom of the coat of arms on a blue ribbon.

At the bottom of the shield is the head of a bull, which symbolises the importance of cattle herding in Botswana. On the right there is an ear of sorghum, an important crop in the nation. On the left there is a tusk of ivory, symbolic of the former ivory trade in Botswana. There is also view that ivory tusk represents wild life preservation. Botswana has one of the highest elephant populations in Africa.

Red-billed hornbill left, denomination at top.

The red-billed hornbills are a group of hornbills found in savanna and woodland of sub-Saharan Africa. They are now usually split into five species, the northern red-billed hornbill (T. erythrorhynchus), western red-billed hornbill (T. kempi), Tanzanian red-billed hornbill (T. ruahae), southern red-billed hornbill (T. rufirostris) and Damara red-billed hornbill, present in Botswana, (T. damarensis), but some authorities considered them all to be subspecies of a single species.