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| Arts/Culture Review
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Rivalry and squabbles in a royal tale
REVIEWED BY TIRO SEBINA
8/10/2004 11:01:27 PM (GMT +2)
Tshekedi Khama: The Master Whose Dogs Barked At, Gasebalwe Seretse, published by Gasebalwe Seretse, (2004)
Available from Exclusive Books, P110
BEING an unabashed republican, I find it tricky to read and respond to books about feudal succession disputes. In the words of cultural and literary theorist, Walter Benjamin: “To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognise it the way it really was. It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up in a moment of danger.” The moment of danger in Gasebalwe Seretse’s book is the royal rivalries and squabbles that led to the ousting of Tshekedi Khama (1905-59) from the Bamangwato throne. The position of the author is that the demise of Tshekedi was the result of machinations of a “brood of vipers”, royal uncles who nursed animosity towards him.
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 In a gossipy and racy fashion that needs more analytic and interpretative rigour, the book narrates the rivalries, feuds and the succession disputes that marked the Bamangwato patriarchal power politics in the late 1940s. This is a self-published book by a self-taught historian and writer. At the root of the disputes are issues of power, privilege, cattle and property, race and marriage. The author seems to be suggesting that Tshekedi’s loss of power, marked the beginning of the disintegration of the Bamangwato poly-ethnic community.
It is also an interesting book because the author is probably the grandson of one of Tshekedi’s trusted lieutenants. The book provides us with an “insider’s” perspective. The objective of this book is to present Tshekedi as a leader who transformed the Bamangwato Kingdom into a modern state, a man under whose administration the Bamangwato “saw great developments”. After all, the author admits being brought up on stories glorifying Tshekedi. He seeks to cast Tshekedi in a good light as a farsighted African nationalist, who had the interest of his community at heart. Tshekedi is depicted as a reformer and a development oriented ruler. Little evidence is provided in the book to support the claim.
The author also presents Tshekedi as an uncle, guardian, mentor and benefactor and a man who loved and cared for his nephew more than anyone else. The uncle who cared for his nephew during his sickly childhood and wanted the best of education and training for his successor.
The story of dramatic Ngwato royal rivalry also covers Tshekedi’s disagreeable dealings with the Ratshosas and the Raditladis and Bakalanga ba ka Nswazi and the flogging of a delinquent and profligate European wagon-builder ,Phineas MacIntosh. A genealogy chart of the Ngwato royal lineage and some photographs of the protagonists are included in the book.
The Kgotla meeting of 1949 at which Seretse Khama’s marriage to an Englishwoman was discussed, is presented as signalling the end of the illustrious regency of Tshekedi. According to the book, Tshekedi seen by his rivals as using the issue of Seretse’s marriage to an Englishwoman as an excuse, ousted Seretse to cling to bogosi. A long list of some of Tshekedi’s bitterest enemies is included. In chapter two, there is another long list of Seretse supporters in Tshekedi-Seretse divide. The bulk of the book consists of excerpts translated and transcribed from the June 1949 Serowe Kgotla meetings.
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