The Establishment Of The Protectorate (Part 18) - �Petition And Pack�

Jeff Ramsay | Monday October 5, 2015 11:30

While Rhodes’ Cape Colony government had snubbed the Phuti during his stay, he had been warmly welcomed by many others as a model African Christian, while the press not under the Chartered Company’s influence had given him sympathetic coverage. 

It was in this context that new impetus was given to the invitation that Khama, along with Bathoen and Sebele, take part in the centenary celebrations of the London Missionary Society (LMS). What might have initially been a perfunctory gesture began to emerge as an audacious opportunity for the three dikgosi  to travel to Britain as the Society’s guests of honour.

While giving high profile public testament of the seeds planted by the likes of Moffat and Livingstone, the trio with the Society’s not insubstantial support, would be in a position to pursue the more substantive purpose of directly lobbing not only the British government, but in the end more importantly public, against Rhodes’s designs on their territories.

In June 1895 Khama replied to a telegraph message announcing the new High Commissioner Sir Hercules Robinson’s arrival in Cape Town. In the reply he pointedly observed: “You mention Mr Rhodes in your telegram. Is he not the man who insulted me in my own town after I had done all I could to help the Government in the Matabele War?”

Any small hope that the Phuti may have harboured about the Protectorate regime under Robinson was dealt a final blow on the 27th of June 1895 when his Deputy, Sydney Shippard, awarded the entire region between the Motloutse and Shashe rivers to Khama’s dissident brother Raditladi to rule as an independent chief with the closing statement: “This is the Queen’s decision and he who transgresses it will bring punishment upon himself.”

The next day Khama went over Robinson’s head by forwarding a “Petition to the Right Honourable Joseph Chamberlain, Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for the Colonies”, which was co-signed by 135 additional leading Bangwato. The petition, which had been drafted in English by Khama’s secretary Simeon Seisa, with further editorial input from the resident LMS missionary W.C. Willoughby, began by observing:

“The petition of the undersigned Chief and Headmen of the Bamangwato tribe, resident in Palapye, in the British Protectorate, humbly showeth; - That your petitioners have heard with alarm that their country is to be placed under the Government of the Chartered Company, or under the Cape Colony. Your petitioners placed themselves under the British Government some years ago, believing that it was a wise and righteous government, which would not oppress them simply because their skins are black; and they still wish to remain under the Government of the Great Queen...

“Your petitioners have heard much of the injustice and oppression which the Chartered Company inflict upon the tribes that live in the north; and your petitioners fear very much lest they should be killed and eaten by the Company. For the Petitioners see that the Company does not love black people; it loves only the country of the black people; it loves only to take the country of the black people and sell it to others that it might see gain.

“Your petitioners have already given the Company the right to dig minerals in their country and they say: ‘Let the Company be satisfied with the minerals, and, as for us continue to be the children of the Great Queen.’”   

Not surprisingly as it passed through the chain of officials long corrupted by Rhodes the petition’s delivery was delayed, with Shippard holding on to it for almost a month before passing it on to Robinson. For their part Robinson and Rhodes decided to send Jameson to Palapye to try to get Khama to withdraw the petition and come to a new arrangement with the Company.

While Jameson failed to get any solid commitment from Khama during his subsequent talks, he nonetheless left Palapye hopeful that Khama would be bought off with concessions, including rescinding Shippard’s award to Raditlhadi. What Jameson failed to realise was that even as he was trying to charm and reassure Khama that he could come to a mutually beneficial understanding with Rhodes, the Kgosi was already packing for Britain.

Nor was Khama alone as Bathoen and Sebele had by then confirmed their intention to also go to Britain. 

Thus it was that by the time Chamberlain finally received the Bangwato petition in August 1895 it was accompanied by separate additional  petitions from the Bakwena and Bangwaketse, as well as the news that the Three Dikgosi were setting off for Cape Town with the intention of proceeding to London.