1896 Was A Year Of Ecological Crisis

Jeff Ramsay | Monday January 11, 2016 14:30

Local livelihoods were also affected by such parallel developments as the imposition of Hut Tax, the outbreak of 1899-1902 South African War, and the completion of the Mafikeng to Bulawayo railroad. A significant long-term outcome of all of these tribulations and developments was a sharp expansion in the flow of migrant labour out of the Protectorate.

While the absence of comprehensive data make it impossible to fully quantify the extent of this migration before the 1940s, a variety of sources indicates that by 1910 most of Botswana had already become a peripheral, increasingly underdeveloped labour reserve within the southern African macro-economy.

During this period those dikgosi who enjoyed the status of imperial recognition as gazetted chiefs began to occupy an intermediary political position between the colonial state and their own subjects. Yet despite the growing economic marginalisation of their communities many dikgosi were able to maintain a significant degree of autonomy for themselves and their polities.

The disastrous nature of the 1890s ecological crisis was not immediately apparent. In historic times Botswana has always been a semi-arid country prone to drought. Droughts were recorded in every decade during the nineteenth century, with the worst ones being in 1845-51, 1856-62, and 1876-9, as well as 1896-99. Batswana had thus evolved ways of coping without crops.

Locust swarms were less common, having not been seen in the region for many decades before they began to re-appear around 1890. At first, however, they were merely a nuisance, and indeed provided people with variety to their diet. But, as the 1890s wore on the swarms kept getting bigger and spread all over the country.

When the rains failed in 1895 there was no great problem as grain had been stored. But nothing in the experiences of the most white-haired Batswana could have prepared them for the 1896 arrival of rinderpest, or bolwane as the scourge was locally known. Within months it was officially estimated that 90% of the territory’s cattle had perished. Sebele’s herd of some 10,000 was reportedly reduced to just 77 beasts. Other dikgosi as well as commoners similarly suffered. In May 1896 a traveller wrote:

“Hundreds of dead oxen laying in every stage of decomposition, behind the bushes- in places a dozen a batch! The whole air was vitiated by the stench of them, and amidst them we had to camp! I observed that  the natives were busily skinning all the dead beasts, and apparently making biltong of the flesh...

“I don’t see how this country can escape a famine now- their crops have all failed from drought, and the remnants are eaten by locusts; their cattle are nearly all dead! I suppose a score of live cattle where there should have been a thousand or two! Khama alone is said to have lost 70,000 or 90,000 head.”

By 1897 the Bechuanaland Annual Report noted that: “All of the tribes, except perhaps Linchwe’s, are at present very short of food, and many have not the means of purchasing sufficient food for their families. They are, however, making an effort to obtain money for the purpose of buying food by going out to work in Kimberley, Jagersfontein, Johannesburg, and other places.”

As the effects of the crisis spread many missionaries, as well as colonial officials initially saw the destruction of cattle as a positive development. For example, Rev. Howard Williams in his 1896 annual report:

“The loss of their cattle has driven large numbers to seek work. Certainly the best thing that could happen as far a teaching them the value of labour...Work was the last thing thought of except among the poorer classes and with these the period rarely exceed six months. All that is altered. A generation will pass before this country will recover its lost wealth in cattle.”

Such indifference was, however, overwhelmed as the crisis deepened. Throughout 1897 and 1898 missionary reports consistently speak of horrific mortality rates brought on by famine and fever. When the same Williams visited Kolobeng in June 1898, where several thousand Bakwena of the Kgari faction had been staying he was shocked to find the place nearly deserted. The local kgosi, Baanami told him that his followers were either “in graves or scattered in all directions seeking food or work.” Williams supports this observation by supplying statistics for four of the community’s makgotla showing recent death to former membership ratios of 57/150, 21/70, 11/14 and 14/40. He further noted that 15 out of 34 church members had died at Kumakwane, along with nearly all members of its once predominant Griqua community and one fifth of the Batlokwa. In Kanye an estimated 1,500 perished in 1898, while over a third of all students at the L.M.S. school in Molepolole died in 1898. s