History of Botswana

The Batswana, a term also used to denote all citizens of Botswana, refers to the country's major ethnic group (called the Tswana in Southern Africa). Prior to European contact, the Batswana lived as herders and farmers under tribal rule.

Pre-colonial history

Early history

The first hominins to appear in present-day Botswana are estimated to have arrived over 186,000 years ago, when Acheulean tools were used by early hominins in the region. Study of southern Africa in the Stone Age has been limited. The earliest modern humans to inhabit the area were the San people.

Agriculture and ceramics were first introduced to the region approximately 2,300 years ago, and domestication of animals first took place approximately 2,000–2,200 years ago. Among the earliest crops were pearl millet, finger millet, sorghum, Bambara groundnuts, cowpeas, and cucurbits. The earliest livestock included sheep, goats, and cattle, all of which were introduced to the region during this period. These practices were brought by peoples from East Africa migrating to the region. Their descendants, intermarrying with the San people, became the Khoe people.

The Kgalagadi people were the first of the Bantu peoples to settle in present-day Botswana, arriving c. 200 CE. The first Tswana people (singular Motswana, plural Batswana) are estimated to have arrived c. 400 CE. These Bantu peoples brought iron and copper tools to the region and settled along permanent waterways. Over time, the Tswana people organised themselves into separate tribes, called a morafe (plural merafe), each led by a chief called a kgosi (plural dikgosi). Cattle became a central part of society in the region, and ownership of cattle denoted one's status. The early history of the Tswana people remains largely unknown because little archaeological evidence has been left.

The Taukome people arrived in present-day Botswana by the 7th century, and their possession of glass beads indicates early connection to Indian Ocean trade. Access to the Indian Ocean trade expanded in the region during the 10th century. The Toutswe people became the predominant group in present-day Botswana during the 11th and 12th centuries as they became wealthier through ownership of cattle. Specularite mining became widespread during this period.

Neighbouring present-day Botswana during the 11th and 12th centuries were the people of Leopard's Kopje, who formed the Kingdom of Mapungubwe and projected influence throughout the region. Their influence declined by the 13th century, and they were replaced as the regional power by Great Zimbabwe as the gold trade became a driving factor in the region's economy. After the fall of Great Zimbabwe in the 15th century, several other states developed. The Kingdom of Butua, formed by the Kalanga peoples, was established on the present-day Botswana–Zimbabwe border.

Large migrations of Kalanga and Sotho–Tswana peoples into present-day Botswana occurred during the 15th and 16th centuries. The Tswana people had a presence throughout present-day Botswana by 1600. Different Tswana tribes were able to separate and form independently from one another as the region's primary asset, cattle, is easily transported. The first Tswana state was formed by the Ngwaketse people in the mid-18th century. Subsequent states were formed by the Kwena people, the Ngwato people, and the Tawana people over the following decades.

19th century

The Difaqane, a period of conflict, migration, and displacement in southern Africa, took place during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This caused the Tswana tribes to more thoroughly spread and establish a stronger presence throughout the territory of present-Day Botswana. They settled primarily in the hardveld that makes up the eastern region of present-day Botswana. The Kwena and Ngwaketse peoples migrated from Transvaal to the sandveld.

Europeans missionaries first arrived in present-day Botswana in 1816 through the London Missionary Society. This and other missionary groups worked to convert the dikgosi to Christianity and to build missionary schools. British traders arrived in the 1830s and engaged in transactions with the dikgosi. Kgosi Sechele I of the Kwena people took advantage of the new trading routes, securing control of British trade for his tribe.

The merafe reestablished their nation states in the 1840s as each established several towns and villages of varying sizes. Governance was based around the kgotla, a deliberative forum in which the kgosi or a regional leader heard the concerns of all male citizens before making decisions. The first Kgatla people to settle in present-day Botswana, the Mmanaana people, migrated from South Africa in the early 19th century before settling in Moshupa and Thamaga.

The 19th century Tswana people used several economic ideas that were rare in southern Africa, including credit, service contracts, and the mafisa system of the rich loaning cattle to the poor in exchange for labour. They also had a conception of private property by the mid-19th century, and both married men and married women were entitled to land rights. The men typically herded cattle while the women grew crops. Sorghum was the region's most commonly grown crop in the 19th century. Land was widely available, but droughts meant that farming was inconsistent.

Sechele I requested a British protectorate in 1853 to end regional conflicts, but he was denied. By the 1860s, migration out of the region increased as Batswana men travelled to work in South African mines. The discovery of the Tati Goldfields triggered the first European gold rush of Southern Africa in 1868. By the late 1870s, kgosi Khama III of the Ngwato people seized control of British trade from the Kwena people.

Bechuanaland Protectorate

Formation of the protectorate

The United Kingdom declared its jurisdiction over the territory of present-day Botswana, naming it the Bechuanaland Protectorate. It did so in apprehension of the expansion of German colonies after the creation of German East Africa. The dikgosi likewise accepted colonial rule to avoid the alternative of settler colonialism. Shortly after the creation of the protectorate, the Kgafela people settled in Mochudi in 1887. This Kgatla group quickly became influential in the region and its name became synonymous with Kgatla.

Eight merafe were recognised by the British upon the creation of the protectorate. The largest four were given tribal reserves: the Kwena, the Ngwaketse, the Ngwato, and the Tawana. Three smaller ones were also recognised: the Kgatla] the Tlokwa, and the Malete. An eighth, the Tshidi, were also recognized and given a reserve crossing the border between the protectorate and South Africa. While members of non-Tswana minorities were allowed to participate in Tswana society and governance, they were given no tribal reserves of their own. The protectorate initially extended to the Ngwato, but it was extended to reach the Chobe River in 1890.

The protectorate's capital was the South African city of Vryburg, meaning that the colonial rulers did not reside in the protectorate and had little direct involvement in its affairs. The British government believed the Bechuanaland Protectorate to be only a temporary entity and expected that it would soon be absorbed by a British colony. In the meantime, it believed that a self-sufficient protectorate would cost less to maintain. The dikgosi benefited from these affairs and were able to empower and enrich themselves; they retained broad autonomy, but colonial backing meant that they no longer needed the consent of the merafe to maintain rule.

Early years of the protectorate

In the years after the protectorate was created, the United Kingdom entered talks with Cecil Rhodes to absorb it into the British South Africa Company. In response, three of the most influential dikgosi—Khama III of the Ngwato, Sebele I of the Kwena, and Bathoen I of the Ngwaketse—made a diplomatic trip to the United Kingdom in 1895 and convinced the government not to complete the deal. This set a precedent of dikgosi interacting with the British as a unified group and enshrined these three figures as early figures in Botswana's history as an independent nation. Also in 1895, the capital was moved from Vryburg to another South African city, Mafeking.

When the United Kingdom raised the Pioneer Column to go to war with the Ndebele people, Khama III of the Ngwato assisted by sending soldiers. The Kgatla tribe was later part of the Boer War, fighting alongside the British Army.

The early colonial economy of the Bechuanaland Protectorate remained much the same as the pre-colonial economy. The United Kingdom primarily used the protectorate as a supply of labour, offering high wages to Batswana who migrated south to work in mines. Taxes were also imposed, beginning with a hut tax in 1899, which was then replaced by a poll tax in 1909. Colonial taxes in the Bechuanaland Protectorate were higher than those in neighboring colonies. These factors caused mass exodus to the south, and the dikgosi allowed more generous power sharing with citizens to incentivise them to stay. By 1910, all merafe had adopted Christianity. Bechuanaland sent several hundred soldiers to assist the British Army during World War I.

Sebele II became kgosi of the Kwena in 1918, succeeding his father, Sechele II. Sechele II had conflicted with the dominant London Missionary Society, permitting an Anglican presence and reinstating many traditional practices such as polygyny, rainmaking, and bogwera. Sebele II continued his father's challenge to the London Missionary Society, to the grievance of the British government. Among the Ngwato people, Sekgoma II was the kgosi for three years until his death in 1926. His son, Seretse Khama, was still an infant, so Tshekedi Khama became regent.

Development and increased British influence

In the 1920s, kgosi Isang Pilane of the Kgatla people oversaw the Bechuanaland Protectorate's first major water development scheme, having sixteen boreholes drilled, seven of which became successful water supplies. These became more common over the following decades as the British government took interest in expanding the protectorate's economy. By the 1930s, Isang Pilane and the Native Advisory Council privatised the boreholes, as they were not maintained under collective ownership. A severe drought occurred in the early 1930s, killing over 60% of the protectorate's cattle.

The British government took a more active role in the protectorate's governance beginning in 1930. That year, it began providing direct funding to the protectorate. Charles Rey was appointed Resident Commissioner of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and he was responsible for reorganizing the economy around cattle exports. An initiative to reform the protectorate toward mining and commercial agricultural development was attempted but saw push back from the dikgosi.

Resident Commissioner Rey came into conflict with kgosi Sebele II, having him exiled in in 1931. Sebele II was replaced by his younger brother, Kgari. Further initiatives were attempted by the British government in 1934 to constrain the unchecked power of the dikgosi following the overthrow of Sebele II. These initiatives established a venue for citizens to express grievances with the kgosi directly to the British government and mandated advisory councils that dikgosi had to consult. Kgosi Bathoen II of Ngwaketse and regent Tshekedi Khama of Ngwato issued a legal challenge to these initiatives. Although the British court ruled against the challenge, the new policies were never fully implemented.

World War II and post-war years

Maintaining the Bechuanaland Protectorate was a low priority for the United Kingdom during the Great Depression and World War II, and the protectorate received no funding from the United Kingdom during the war. Fears of German attack in Bechuanaland grew in the lead up to World War II due to its strategic position between Britain's central and southern colonies in Africa. 11 days before war was declared, the British government warned the protectorate to be on standby, and military forces were organised. Four days after Britain declared war on Germany, Resident Commissioner Charles Arden-Clarke held a meeting with the dikgosi where they pledged full support for the war effort. The next day, the high commission issued a proclamation of emergency powers that gave it total control over public activity in the protectorate, but the dikgosi were informed that they would be responsible for most enforcement and peacekeeping.

The early years of World War II had almost no effect on the people of Bechuanaland, and many only had a vague idea that the war existed. The colonial administration shrank as large numbers of white residents enlisted in the British Army. Those who remained were focused on security planning in case southern Africa became another front in the war. Against the wishes of the dikgosi, the colonial administration encouraged Batswana who wished to serve with the British Army to enlist with the South African Native Military Corps. About 700 Batswana men enlisted with the group.

Military recruitment began in Bechuanaland in 1941. About 5,500 men were trained and sent to war within the first six months. Another 5,000 Batswana men joined the war in 1942. In total, approximately 11,000 soldiers from Bechuanaland fought alongside the British Army during the war. Over 10,000 of these served in the British Army's African Auxiliary Pioneer Corps. The dikgosi traditionally had the right to conscript soldiers, and they ignored the colonial government's wishes that military service should be entirely voluntary. Regent Tshekedi Khama of Ngwato made himself unpopular by using military conscription as a tool for control, weaponizing it to silence critics and political opponents. Men who wished to avoid conscription sometimes fled to South Africa or to remote areas like the Okavango Delta swamps and the Kgalagadi bush. Others used more immediate precautions, such as digging holes when recruiters visisted.

The dikgosi wished to leverage their participation in the war for additional rights within the British Empire, and they feared that British defeat would make them subjects of Germany or South Africa, a fate they wished to avoid. The war effort was also an opportunity to reclaim Tswana men who had migrated to South Africa for mining jobs; the dikgosi wished to end this practice and felt they could do so by offering military jobs.

Relative to other nations in the British Empire, the people of Beschuanaland approved of the war. Many Batswana held a sense of loyalty to the empire or felt that their interests were aligned. Some dikgosi, such as Kgari Sechele of the Kwena and Molefi Pilane of the Kgatla, personally enlisted. They served as regimental sergeant majors, the highest rank available to Batswana.

The High Commissions Territories Corps was stationed in the Middle East from 1946 to 1949. By 1946, only 2% of the population had employment outside of agriculture and services.

Independence movement

When Seretse Khama came of age, regent Tshekedi Khama attempted to hold on to power. Seretse had married a white woman, Ruth Williams, while studying in the United Kingdom, causing scandal among the Ngwato royal family. Though the public initially opposed the marriage, Tshekedi's unpopularity shifted the issue in Seretse's favour. The issue was raised in the kgotla in 1949, and Tshekedi's rule was overwhelmingly rejected by thousands in attendance. Tshekedi and his supporters fled to the Kwena in exile.

The British government was less tolerant of Seretse's marriage to a white woman. In an attempt to appease the Apartheid government of South Africa, it banished the couple from the protectorate in 1950. This provoked a burgeoning nationalist movement among Seretse's supporters in the protectorate, which fully emerged in 1952. During Seretse's absence, the United Kingdom placed the district commissioner in charge for four years before appointing Rasebolai Kgamane, a supporter of Tshekedi, as regent. Seretse's supporters petitioned for his return, and riots broke out when they were denied. Seretse was eventually allowed to return in 1956. Throughout this ordeal, power shifted away from the chiefdomship and toward electoral bodies. Tshekedi and Seretse made peace upon Seretse's return, and Seretse became the de facto leader of the Ngwato, though the United Kingdom forbade him from being the official kgosi. Some animosity remained between the two men: Tshekedi wished to retain the tribal government and the power of the dikgosi, while Seretse envisioned a representative democracy and a weaker dikgosi. The amount of power invested in the dikgosi became the most contentious issue in the burgeoning independence movement, especially among the Ngwato people and the Khama family.

The Bechuanaland Protectorate Federal Party was the first political party formed in the protectorate when it was created by the Ngwato union leader Leetile Disang Raditladi in 1959. Comprised primarily of elites and intellectuals, it advocated a unification of the Tswana tribes. The party failed to gain support and was short-lived. The following year, the Bechuanaland People's Party (BPP, now the Botswana People's Party) was created as a more radical party, objecting to traditional tribal government and gaining appeal among migrant workers. It was created as a Motswana counterpart to a South African party, the African National Congress. Fearing that the BPP would undermine the chiefdomship and that it would ignite tensions with the Apartheid government of South Africa, the dikgosi and the British government restricted its ability to meet.

The protectorate's tribes collectively formed a legislative council in 1961. Kgosi Khari of the Kwena died in 1962 and was succeeded by a regent, Neale. The regency meant that the Kwena people had little political influence as the independence movement developed.

As the population was politically inactive overall, the United Kingdom came to be one of the leading forces toward independence. Worrying that the BPP was too radical, the United Kingdom encouraged its preferred leader, Seretse Khama, to form a political party. Though he agreed with the BPP's antiracist and republican values, he opposed its dogmatic approach to politics and its acceptance of socialism. Khama agreed to give up his claim over the Ngwato people to serve as a politician, forming the Bechuanaland Democratic Party (BDP, now the Botswana Democratic Party) in 1962. The BDP established itself as the "party of chiefs", and it adopted ideas associated with pre-colonial tribal rule. The United Kingdom supported the BDP, understanding that it would maintain the colonial era livestock trade. By 1963, the Kgatla kgosi Linchwe was the only kgosi who opposed the BDP and had political influence, but the Kgatla people were in favor of the BDP, so he remained apolitical.

A conference was held in 1963 to oversee the creation of a new constitution. Internal strife within the BPP meant that the BDP had the most influence over the process. Tshekedi Khama had died by this time, so Bathoen II became the leader of the pro-federalization faction, believing it would keep power in the hands of the dikgosi. The United Kingdom and the Batswana politicians endorsed a unitary national government because Botswana was too poor to divide its resources and because a lack of centralization would make it vulnerable to attacks from other nations. Federalization proved politically unviable, so a compromise was made that the dikgosi would form the Ntlo ya Dikgosi, an advisory body within the Parliament of Botswana.

Gaborone was built in 1965 and declared the new capital. Its location was chosen as a neutral setting between the major merafe. The constitution was implemented the same year. With this in effect, the United Kingdom granted the protectorate self-governance. The BDP ran an extensive campaign during the first general election. Led by Seretse Khama and Quett Masire, the party campaigned in almost every village in the protectorate. Unlike other political figures in Bechuanaland, Seretse Khama had appeal across the different tribes. The BDP was subsequently elected to lead the first government. After its formation, the Ntlo ya Dikgosi delivered a vote of no confidence in the constitution in 1966, leading to a national campaign in support of the constitution that garnered enough support for the dikgosi to end their efforts to challenge it. The protectorate was granted independence as the Republic of Botswana in 1966.

Independent Botswana

In June 1966, Britain accepted proposals for democratic self-government in Botswana. The seat of government was moved from Mafeking, South Africa, to newly established Gaborone in 1965. The 1965 constitution led to the first general elections and to independence on 30 September 1966. Seretse Khama, a leader in the independence movement and the legitimate claimant to the Ngwato chiefship, was elected as the first president, re-elected twice, and died in office in 1980. The presidency passed to the sitting vice president, Ketumile Masire, who was elected in his own right in 1984 and re-elected in 1989 and 1994. Masire retired from office in 1998. The presidency passed to the sitting vice president, Festus Mogae, who was elected in his own right in 1999 and re-elected in 2004. In April 2008, Excellency the former President Lieutenant General Dr Seretse Khama Ian Khama (Ian Khama), son of Seretse Khama the first president, succeeded to the presidency when Festus Mogae retired. On 1 April 2018 Mokgweetsi Eric Keabetswe Masisi was sworn in as the 5th President of Botswana succeeding Ian Khama. He represents the Botswana Democratic Party, which has also won a majority in every parliamentary election since independence. All the previous presidents have also represented the same party.

See also

• List of commissioners of Bechuanaland
• Heads of government of Botswana
• History of Africa
• History of Southern Africa
• History of Gaborone
• Timeline of Gaborone
• List of presidents of Botswana
• Politics of Botswana
• Postage stamps and postal history of Bechuanaland Protectorate

References

• Beaulier, Scott A.; Subrick, J. Robert (2006). "The Political Foundations of Development: The Case of Botswana". Constitutional Political Economy. 17 (2): 103–115. doi:10.1007/s10602-006-0002-x. ISSN 1043-4062.
• Gulbrandsen, Ørnulf (2012). The State and the Social: State Formation in Botswana and its Precolonial and Colonial Genealogies. Berghahn Books. ISBN 978-0-85745-298-6.
• Hillbom, Ellen; Bolt, Jutta (2018). Botswana – A Modern Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-73144-5. ISBN 978-3-319-73144-5.
• Hjort, Jonas (2009). "Pre-Colonial Culture, Post-Colonial Economic Success? The Tswana and the African Economic Miracle". The Economic History Review. 63 (3): 688–709. doi:10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00495.x. PMID 20617585.
• Holm, John D.; Molutsi, Patrick P. (1992). "State-Society Relations in Botswana: Beginning Liberalization". In Hydén, Göran; Bratton, Michael (eds.). Governance and Politics in Africa. Lynne Rienner Publishers. pp. 75–95. doi:10.1515/9781685853297. ISBN 978-1-55587-285-4.
• Jackson, Ashley (1999). Botswana, 1939-1945: An African Country at War. Clarendon Press. ISBN 978-0-19-820764-1.
• Klehm, Carla (28 June 2021). "Archaeology of Botswana". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.013.792. ISBN 978-0-19-027773-4.
• Matemba, Yonah Hisbon (1 January 2003). "The pre-colonial political history of BaKgatla ba ga Mmanaana of Botswana, c.l600-1881 Yonah". Botswana Notes and Records. 35 (1): 53–67. doi:10.10520/AJA052550590_131 (inactive 2024-03-19).{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: DOI inactive as of March 2024 (link)
• Robinson, James A.; Parsons, Q. Neil (2006). "State Formation and Governance in Botswana". Journal of African Economies. 15 (Supplement 1): 100–140. doi:10.1093/jae/ejk007. ISSN 0963-8024.
• van Waarden, Catrien (24 February 2022). "The Early Iron Age of Botswana". Oxford Research Encyclopedia of African History. doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780190854584.013.255. ISBN 978-0-19-085458-4.

Further reading

• Acemoglu, Daron, Simon Johnson, and James A. Robinson. "An African success story: Botswana." (2002). online
• Clothier, Norman (1991). "The Erinpura: Basotho Tragedy". South African Military History Society Journal. 8 (5). ISSN 0026-4016. Archived from the original on April 5, 2023. Retrieved 5 January 2020.
• Cohen, Dennis L. "The Botswana Political Elite: Evidence from the 1974 General Election," Journal of Southern African Affairs, (1979) 4, 347–370.
• Colclough, Christopher and Stephen McCarthy. The Political Economy of Botswana: A Study of Growth and Income Distribution (Oxford University Press, 1980)
• Denbow, James & Thebe, Phenyo C. (2006). Culture and Customs of Botswana. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press. ISBN 0-313-33178-2.
• Edge, Wayne A. and Mogopodi H. Lekorwe eds. Botswana: Politics and Society (Pretoria: J.L. van Schaik, 1998)
• Fawcus, Peter and Alan Tilbury. Botswana: The Road to Independence (Pula Press, 2000)
• Good, Kenneth. "Interpreting the Exceptionality of Botswana," Journal of Modern African Studies (1992) 30, 69–95.
• Good, Kenneth. "Corruption and Mismanagement in Botswana: A Best-Case Example?" Journal of Modern African Studies, (1994) 32, 499–521.
• Parsons, Neil. King Khama, Emperor Joe and the Great White Queen (University of Chicago Press, 1998)
• Parsons, Neil, Thomas Tlou and Willie Henderson. Seretse Khama, 1921-1980 (Bloemfontein: Macmillan, 1995)
• Samatar, Abdi Ismail. An African miracle: State and class leadership and colonial legacy in Botswana development (Heinemann Educational Books, 1999)
• Thomas Tlou & Alec Campbell, History of Botswana (Gaborone: Macmillan, 2nd edn. 1997) ISBN 0-333-36531-3
• Chirenje, J. Mutero, Church, State, and Education in Bechuanaland in the Nineteenth Century, International Journal of African Historical Studies, (1976)
• Chirenje, J. Mutero, Chief Kgama and His Times, 1835-1923

External links

• Brief History of Botswana
• Bibliography of Botswana History
• University of Botswana History Department - various resources