The Establishment Of The Protectorate (Part 6) �Have You A Commando�

Jeff Ramsay | Monday June 29, 2015 17:33

The parting exchange between the Kgosi and the General betrayed the ambiguity of the situation:

Sechele: “I wish to say I have always been in favour of the English Government, but you have come to me prematurely. Go back and do the work you have in hand, and then we shall see the benefit of the Protectorate.”

Warren: “The Chief has spoken well.”

Sechele: “What do you think will happen now?”

Warren: “I cannot tell. Can I look into the future? But suppose a Boer commando comes down tomorrow, and sweeps away your cattle what then?

Sechele: “Would they come now while you are here in this tent; would they come while you are with me? Are we not one? Or have you a commando ready to attack me if I refuse to come under your Protectorate?”

On his departure, General Warren further received the following written statement that was drafted by Sechele’s son Kgari at the direction of Kgosi, joined by his brother Kgosidintsi and senior son Sebele with Sam Edwards assisting with the English translation (all of whom signed the document):

“At a meeting of Bakwena with Sir Charles Warren, messenger of the Queen of England, he made known to us the pleasure of the Queen to establish a Protectorate on these lands, and showed us the boundaries of the Protectorate; and our decision is to express thanks for the Protectorate in which we are included.  But, we wish to see how the Queen’s Protectorate will help other Chiefs which are included in it, namely Mankoroane [Mankurwane], Montsioa [Montshiwa], and Ghasitsive [Gaseitsiwe]. Should we find that they are well protected by the Queen, we shall also be agreeable and without a word of dispute”.

In the context of the discussions that had taken place at the Molepolole Kgotla, the above statement’s conclusion must have caused the General some further discomfort. During the assembly Kgosi Sechele had repeatedly raised the welfare of his southern neighbours as a litmus test of the quality of future friendship between the Bakwena and British.

With respect to Gaseitsiwe, Sechele had referred to an earlier incident in which his fellow Kgosi had been seized by a Boer commando under a flag of truce, which had resulted in his having at the time been ransomed with cattle by the Bangwaketse.

More challenging for Warren would have been the statement’s reference to the plight of the Barolong and more especially Batlhaping under Montshiwa and Mankurwane respectively, where the Bakwena had voiced their expectation that lands that had been claimed and/or seized by white settlers during recent conflicts would be restored to the two merafe.

Bakwena mistrust with respect to land issues south of the Molopo was well founded for, as we have previously noted, Warren had already been tasked by London to enforce Cecil Rhodes’ land promises to the Stellaland settlers.

As it was, by May of 1886 the colonial Land Commission that Warren put into place, which was chaired Rhodes’ close associate Sidney “Morena Maaka” Shippard, had robbed the Batswana living south of the Molopo of 92% of their land. While 13% of the land was awarded to white settlers as freehold farms, another 79% was taken by the British Government as Crown lands.           

Warren next proceeded to Shoshong where his announcement of the Protectorate at a Kgotla meeting convened on the 12 May 1885 was rather more enthusiastically welcomed by Kgosi Khama III, though most of the Bangwato were reported to be privately opposed to the British presence.

During the meeting most of the speakers emphasised their concern that the land of the Bangwato should not be sold to white men. There was also insistence that their law banning alcohol from the country should be upheld.

For his part Kgosi Khama concluded the gathering with the following words (official English translation):

“Concerning these words you have spoken, wherein the Bamangwato can help in this Protectorate, I reply that the land of the Bamangwato is a very large land stretching far away. It is our hunting ground. It is not [just] all our grazing and garden ground. It is by this hunting ground that we can help, and if our help is sought, then laying aside of parts of such country for the purpose of the English Government would be the way.

“It is a great country but you can see by all the people present that we are very numerous, and our flocks and garden grounds ought not to be narrowed unduly. What we want is to go forward and improve, and I think we can do so if wisely connected with the English, for after we have seen your ways we shall take up some of them.

“But at first we shall not be able to understand, as we do not know how you would take possession of a country like this, but we are willing to be taught by the English how to manage a country like this, and we put confidence   in the  way  they do things.”