Building a Nation A History of Botswana 1800-1910 by Jeff Ramsay, Barry Morton, and Themba Mgadla (original) (raw)
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Africa, 2015
However, can we really take Kirikongo as an instance of the revolutionary triumph of egalitarianism in the savannah? A close look at the archaeological records published here shows clear evidence of deep changes at the level of a small rural community, something that is not unexpected over a period of 1,500 years. The nature of these changes suggests that communities explored, experimented with, and made choices between different models of governance, belief systems and subsistence over time. However, the revolutionary nature of such a change, although a valuable and thought-provoking working hypothesis, can hardly be demonstrated solely on the basis of the Kirikongo evidence. Too many parts are missing from the picturefor instance, evidence on the webs of alliances within the settlement, the regional historical context, and the ritual practices and beliefsfor us to surmise that change resulted from a forcible, short-term event such as the word 'revolution' implies. More archaeological research into medieval communities of the Mouhoun Bend will be requiredas is recognized by the authorto clarify the chronology and the nature of socio-political change in the area. Firstly, the chronology of change proposed here will need to be validated. Secondly, in the absence of a comparative dataset, the proposed projection onto a regional scale of the model developed for Kirikongo, a 'regional egalitarian movement', is daring. But this does not detract from the book's qualities, and I recommend it to archaeologists and historians interested in long-term socio-political developments in the Voltaic area. Although the author sometimes stretches the interpretation of available evidence, he also contributes much solid new data and stimulates fresh avenues of thought on pre-1500 West African village life.
Botswana Notes and Records, 1995
The history of nationalism in Botswana, along with the other former High Commission Territories (HCTs) of Lesotho and Swaziland, is fundamentally different from most African countries. At least until the last decade of the colonial era nationalist sentiment was equated with the retention, rather than rejection, of the British occupation. This was because there long existed a consensus among local Batswana that British overrule as a Protectorate preserved nascent Botswana from incorporation into the white settler-dominated states of South Africa and/or Southern Rhodesia. Thus, for many decades, nationalist-minded Batswana were stronger advocates of imperial control than the imperialists themselves. In this context, the seminal twentieth century event in the emergence of modem Botswana nationalism was the 1908-1910 campaign to keep the then Bechuanaland Protectorate (BP) out of the proposed Union of South Africa. ,
“THE FIGHTING BECS” IN BOTSWANA’S DECADE OF WAR 1939 to 1948” by Jeff Ramsay
Mmegi, 1995
The following monograph is adapted from a seventeen-part series of “The Struggle” that appeared in the Mmegi newspaper in 1995 to commemorate the 50th Anniversary of the end of World War II. At the time this author was also assembling an exhibit at Kgosi Sechele I Museum for the occasion: “On the Frontline, Batswana Participation in the World Wars." Both the articles and exhibit were part of a wider collective initiative, spearheaded by the then-existing District Museums, working with local war veterans, to remind the nation of the extent of the Bechuanaland Protectorate’s engagement in the global conflict. Variations of the original articles subsequently appeared in the Botswana Daily News (2003), and Weekend Post (2015), and were condensed for inclusion in the booklet From Boys to Men: The Story of the BDF at 30 - 1977 -2007. “The Fighting Becs” began as an attempt to contextualize the wealth of detail contained in Alan Bent’s 1952 semi-official account Ten Thousand Men of Africa: The Story of the Bechuanaland Pioneers and Gunners, 1941-1946, with a broader understanding of the war’s progression, while taking on board subsequent contributions by locally based scholars about Botswana’s engagement in the conflict (see Bibliography). Additional sources included then-emerging testimonies of war veterans, in the context of the 50th-anniversary commemorations held in Francistown, Mochudi, Lobatse, and Molepolole, along with the findings of two then-doctoral students Ashley Jackson and Deborah Schmitt (nee Shackleton). Nearly three decades later one can take some satisfaction that what was initially uncoordinated collective efforts by various interested parties to recall Botswana’s contributions and sacrifices as part of the British Empire’s war effort succeeded in generating popular and official interest in the Second World War’s local legacy. One tangible outcome of this awakening was Government's decision, effective in 1998, to provide pensions to surviving veterans and family members. In addition to some modest editing of the original text, the content below has been enriched with illustrations and maps.
South African Historical Journal, 2020
The history of people of Indian origin in southern Africa has been dominated by the history of the large and influential populations of South Africa. The neglect of other parts of the region has meant that the particularities of Indian settlement and its relationship with the colonial governance and local populations, especially in the poorest and most marginal colonies, have in turn been neglected. I argue that the fact of the Bechuanaland Protectorate's late colonisation, strong chieftainships and lack of obvious resources meant that Indian settlers were more able to subvert colonial officials' attempts to duplicate the types of wholesale racial exclusion found in South Africa. The Protectorate's marginality meant that, unlike the more politically and diplomatically powerful dominions, they were unable to sidestep central ideological justifications for the broader imperial project itselfthe protected status of subject peoples. Indian settlers were able to combine the fact of a small and relatively weak colonial authority with the threat of political embarrassment to subvert and undermine efforts at their exclusion. The conflict that ensued forged the small but influential and deeply embedded 'Batswana-Indian' community in Botswana.
The Invention and Perpetuation of Botswana's National Mythology, 1885-1966
Botswana has two linked myths that are central to the nation's identity. One is that the Batswana chiefs invited the British to colonize and "protect" them in 1885 from Boer aggression. The second is that Queen Victoria herself, guaranteed to continue this protection in 1895 when the Three Dikgosi ventured to England in 1895. The paper will not only demonstrate that both parts of this mythology are patently false, but will then go on to show why the Batswana went on to believe these ideas. Both parts of the myth essentially were used by the British to mask their predatory actions in annexing Botswana, but the Batswana turned the myths against the British as a political tactic during the Incorporation era. Once this happened, the myths became central to the national identity.
The Batswana-Boer War of 1852-53: How the Batswana Achieved Victory
Botswana Notes and Records, 1991
The Batswana-Boer War of 1852-53 was the seminal event in Botswana's birth as a nation-state. During the war, the Batswana communities (merafe) settled west of the Madikwe and Limpopo rivers formed an alliance against the Transvaal Boers. Although the Boers began the hostilities, by invading south-eastern Botswana, it was they who, nonetheless, soon found themselves on the defensive. After being besieged in their laagers for five months, they sued for peace. For the next quarter of a century, until the imposition of colonial rule, local Batswana-Boer relations remained peaceful. Today few Batswana are aware of the decisive outcome of the Batswana-Boer War of 1852-53. This is because its events have been generally seen as either an episode in the career of David Livingstone or a minor incident in the early history of the Transvaal. Botswana's most important armed struggle has thus been reduced to a footnote in the annals of others. And so, instead of learning about their own ancestors' a great victory, local students are still miseducated to believe that their nation was spared Boer rule by British "protection".