Missing: King Sechele's cannon

| Wednesday August 14, 2013 00:00

Dithubaruba Cultural Festival is fast approaching as it is billed for August 31st and this year the venue is Ntsweng, the old location of the Bakwena capital before it moved to Molepolole.  Dithubaruba showcases Kwena culture.  After visiting the Kgosi Sechele I Museum where there is a hive of activity in preparation for the festival, I came to realise that there is one piece missing from the history of this tribe; Kgosi Sechele's cannon.  This is the cannon that David Magang glorifies in his book, The Magic of Perseverance.  In this book Magang talks about Kgosi Sechele in a deeply reverend way and one can tell that indeed he is a man he adores mightily. This is what inspired me to begin a thorough search for information regarding this article of war.

In a Mafikeng museum sits an old relic of war which for some reason has changed many hands and in the process traversing seas and crossing borders. This is King Sechele's cannon. I arrived here quite early in the morning and my mission was to conduct a reconnaissance of the location where this cannon is held. It is now in the hands of the museum manager Mr Sello Mashile. The first question I posed to him was why this cannon was here instead of Kweneng. He was not aware of the fact that the first African to own this weapon of war was Kgosi Sechele. He was only aware that it belonged to Kgosi Montshiwa of Barolong. He plainly declared that he was not informed of the history of any of the artefacts in their possession beyond the famous Mafikeng siege. In this museum this important piece of history is known to belong to Kgosi Montshiwa, given to him as a trophy from Kgosi Sechele, whatever that means.Another story that is making rounds here is that this cannon was sold to Kgosi Montshiwa for only 20 oxen. In fact the two tribal leaders were friends and Sechele attended Montshiwa's funeral just three days after his death and this pushes for the theory that Monshiwa borrowed this article of war when the Boers were giving him sleepless nights. Another theory originating from Kweneng is that Sechele pawned it for an unspecified number of horses that he badly needed at the time. So there are several theories here and my mission is to explore them all and arrive at a reasonable conclusion on how this cannon ended up in Mafikeng as well as the origins of the weapon.  Power Kawina who is the manager of Kgosi Sechele I Museum says this cannon is full of mystery. This article of history is well-preserved and remains in pristine condition, both the wood (which has been replaced) and the metal tubing of the cannon, thanks to a dry Mafikeng weather. One wonders if we could have something to show if this relic of war was left here in Botswana because of our lack of enthusiasm towards our historic past. 

I find the technical details of this cannon to be fascinating when taking into account the fact that it is more than three centuries old. It was manufactured in 1770 as a ship's gun and has a smooth bore and mounted on wagon wheels for easy mobility on land. Initially when Kgosi Sechele bought it from the German traders and probably with ivory as it was the currency of the time then, it had a different mount which was cumbersome when manoeuvring it on  land. These are rear wagon wheels which measure 122cm in diameter. This allowed the gunners room to adjust the trajectory of this weapon depending on the position of the enemy forces. The calibre of this weapon is a 96mm (3.8 inches) with solid round shots weighing 7.26kg (16lb).  The range of this weapon is amazing as it could reach targets in a distance of 2.7km.  At this range it could punch a devastating blow on anything in its path.  This weapon could be used for direct and indirect fire. In today's technological terms, this weapon is equivalent to a tomahawk cruise missile that can be fired aboard a ship miles from its target. Kgosi Sechele had not bought an obsolete piece of military equipment but a state of the art weapon. For many Boer commandos, this type of weapon was unexpected in a land battle as this was initially designed for naval warfare, it actually caused what the Americans refer to as shock and awe in the battle. Coupled with several muzzle loaded muskets (bo-rakgobela), this weapon won the day for Sechele at the battle of Dimawe between Bakwena and the Transvaal Boers near the present day Manyana in 1852.  Speaking to Galefele Molema who is the tribal historian for Barolong boo-Tshidi in Mafikeng, he has shed some light that the Afrikaaners have acknowledged the presence of this weapon at the afore mentioned battle field of Dimawe.  In the Voortrekker Museum in Pretoria, there is information stating that Boer commandos came under heavy cannon fire at the battle of Dimawe. Unconfirmed reports state that Sechele had more than one of these weapons.

This same weapon won the day for Montshiwa in the 1883 siege of Mafikeng. The quality of this weapon was once more brought to light in 1900 during the Anglo-Boer War. According to information gathered from the Mafikeng museum, it was later acquired by a certain E. Rowland and stood as a garden ornament at his homestead until well into the siege when it was dusted off, fitted upon wagon wheels more than 100 years after its date of manufacture and proved to be one of the town's most effective pieces of artillery.This is truly one of the most interesting pieces in the war inventory of Southern Africa and this weapon alone can be a subject of study for academics. At the time of the Anglo-Boer war, this weapon was only surpassed by one Howitzer named 'The Wolf Gun' which fired a kilometre further and it achieved this because it was manufactured in later years.And how did this weapon get into the hands of Sechele as I will prefer to address him?  One school of thought is that he bought it from German traders who were in an expedition lead by one Gen Caprivi whom the Caprivi Strip is named after. The Germans from the west were pushing further east for more territory and the Boers were a threat to their expansionist quest. The Germans were more than willing to arm Sechele with this state of the art weapon in order that he keeps their competitors at bay.

Speaking to Kgosi Keineetse Sebele, at his Gaborone office, he confirmed to me that when he grew up in Moleopolole, there were several of the round balls that there were known to have been ammunition for the cannon. With the help of metal detectors, it is highly possible that several of these can still be recovered in the area of Ntsweng. There is another school of thought that holds an opinion that this weapon was sold to General Sechele by German missionaries. This would not be surprising since most of Sechele's infantry soldiers were armed with small arms supplied by Dr David Livingstone who was a Scottish missionary. My next mission with Kgosi Keineetse Sebele will be to establish if indeed this cannon was linked to any German missionaries. Bakwena should not rest until this cannon comes to rest in Molepolole. Because this is something of equal interest and importance to Barolong, a replica piece could be manufactured and brought to Kweneng and the foundries will be more than willing to cast this for Bakwena in honour of Sechele.

* Reverend Richard Moleofe is a Pastor of Assemblies of God, a retired military officer, a social and political commentator.