The Bechunaland News

Sandy Grant | Wednesday September 9, 2015 18:13

 

Vryburg at that time was very much a nothing sort of place but for the British it was a convenient base from which to administer the two Bechuanalands. When the southern chunk was incorporated within the Cape Colony, that base was immediately moved to the Imperial Reserve in Mahikeng.

We may well marvel, therefore, that it was viable not only for a newspaper to be published in Vryburg but also to be printed in the same place. We may also marvel, given the difficulties that newspapers experience in being distributed today, that Townshend & Son should have been able to dispatch copies to most of the principal towns of the Northern Cape and also to worthwhile settlements in the Protectorate – Ramoutsa, Gaberones, Kanya, Moleplole, Mochudi, Sequani, Notwani, Palachjwe, and Macloutsi. 

Bear in mind, however, that this distribution list was drawn up before the railway had been constructed so that it should come as no great surprise to note the omission of Serowe and Shoshong, Mahalapye, modern day Palapye and Francistown. Palachwe referred of course to Khama’s pre-Serowe capital and Macloutsie, near today’s Bobonong was the base which was soon to be abandoned by the British when they settled on Gaberones as being more convenient and central.  Seeing this list, we might wonder how many avid newspaper readers there were in Ramoutsa and Sequani at that time?

The former had notable Asian families trading there but Sequani does come as a surprise. We certainly know that there was then a direct road to it from Gaborones – which, of course, has long ceased to exist – and that this was a pointer of sorts suggesting that it was then a settlement of some significance. And of course, it was, like Ramoutsa, situated  adjacent to a border crossing.

Nevertheless a mystery does remain which hopefully some better-informed person can help to clear up. But we may also wonder what happened to the printing firm Messrs Townshend, Taylor and Snashall when the two Bechuanalands were split apart? Did they remain where they were or did they take themselves and their newspaper off to Mahikeng to become, perhaps the immediate predecessor of the Mafikeng Mail and Protectorate Guardian? There is much here that is of great interest so I very much hope that somebody can fill in the blanks.