The Bakgatla Baga Mmanaana (Part 2)

The Kgosi had supported the mission, most notably by ordering both boys and girls to attend its school lessons. The presence of the missionaries also undoubtedly encouraged European traders to the village.

But, by the end of the decade, there was rising tensions between the bagaMmanaana and other neighbouring merafe of the Madikwe region and the Transvaal Boers in the context of the latter party’s growing determination to impose its hegemony. In the second half of 1851 all of the Dikgosi living west of the Boers received new demands that they accept Boer rule. While Sechele and the rival Bangwaketse rulers Senthufe and Segotshane refused to give in, but the merafe living to their immediate east initially succumbed. These included Mosielele’s bagaMmanaana as well as the Bahurutshe of Moilwa and Mangope, Balete of Mokgosi, and the Batlokwa of Matlhapeng.