Shoshong, the Bangwato capital where bogwera thrived and crumbled

These were the Initiation Schools for boys and girls (bogwera and bojale).  It was also in Shoshong that the initiation schools were abandoned, when a new kgosi, Khama the Good, rejected the practice as heathen. Today, 122 years since abandoning their capital, which once was home to 30 000 inhabitants, the Bangwato are not famous for the initiation schools, but European explorers' literature shows that Shoshong inducted boys and girls into age regiments (mephato) and initiation schools every three or five years.  Ironically it was also here in Shoshong that bogwera and bojale was discontinued.

Interestingly, it was actually the death of mephato that immediately resulted in the sudden demise of Shoshong when immediately a bitter civil war ensued in 1864.  The European traveller, Dr Emil Holub observed in his second visit that the population had reduced drastically to 6 000, from 30 000 in a space of 10 years, as multitudes of tribes dispersed from Shoshong fleeing the civil war.