The Establishment Of The Protectorate (Part 15) The Struggle For Ghanzi

With London’s blessing, in 1892 his British South Africa Company (BSACO) sponsored articles advertising Ghanzi as an environmental paradise. “Never too hot or cold, noted for its always gentle breezes,” Ghanzi was described as an ideal location for “a gentlemen’s health resort” as well as farming activity.

Prospective settlers were subsequently enticed with the prospect of free farms of 5,000 morgen (4,283 hectares) for the first few dozen families who paid the one pound application fee. By 1893 hundreds of poor Boers, in particular, were ready to trek to the new Eden, but their dreams were delayed by longstanding Batawana claims to the territory.