1896 Was A Year Of Ecological Crisis :: Mmegi Online

During the last half decade of the 19th century Botswana was plagued by the worst series of natural disasters in its modern history. Years of drought, locust infestation, and an array of human epidemics resulted in up to 20% of the Protectorates� population perishing, along with most of the territory�s livestock and much of its remaining wildlife.

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.

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