Armed Bechuanas in 1893
Sandy Grant | Wednesday June 1, 2016 15:01
On the other hand, it doesn’t properly reflect the involvement of many Batswana in the South African War of 1899-1902 or in the first world war in South West Africa. Archival photos are invariably tantalising.
They tend to come with either minimal information, with information which has no immediate value or with no information at all. What is then left is the need to try and tease out information from the photo; in other words to try and get it speak to you.
Sometimes it is possible to pick up detail in this way. Sometimes it is impossible to glean anything at all.
About this photo, for instance, we are told that it was taken in 1893 and that the armed Bechuanas were under Captain Coupe. We may know nothing about Captain Coupe, although it may later be possible to pin him down, but we certainly know what was happening in 1893.
Thus, the ever invaluable Historical Dictionary of Botswana tell us that, ‘ in 1893 Bangwato regiments fought alongside Bechuanaland Border Police in the war against Lobengula’s army‘.
The story of that particular conflict can wait for another day although, for those unfamiliar with this particular conflict it may come as a major surprise to learn that Batswana were engaged with the white colonialists against a neighbouring African leader. In theory, I suppose, Khama III and Lobengula should have been aligned against the white imperialists but in this instance, it is clear that Lobengula, of the two, was viewed as being the bigger threat.
The colonial period, certainly for this country, does tend to throw up a number of such seeming paradoxes.
But let’s have a hard look at this photo and see what it can tell us. Because these gents are not in military uniform I would describe them as irregulars.
On the other hand, they all wear a flash on their hats, a common means of identification which indicates that they were part of a known unit of some kind. In this instance, the flash tells us that they were all members of one of the mophato or regiment deployed by Khama against Lobengula. All of them appear to be exceptionally well armed with, I take it, Lee Enfield rifles.
All of them, bar perhaps one, wear hats and all are well clothed. Gone are the days for these people when a group of this kind might have been poorly clothed and equipped with a mix of ancient guns and spears.