Ghanzi In History (Part 5) The Kgalagadi Scramble :: Mmegi Online

Between 1876 and 1885 a Cape Colony official named William Palgrave struggled to establish British rule in the western Kgalagadi. In 1878 he was mandated, as Special Commissioner, to annex Walvis Bay and proclaim a Protectorate over much of the rest of Namibia. But, the latter initiative was ultimately repudiated by the Imperial authorities in London.

As a result in 1884, the Germans were able to begin their own occupation of Namibia on the pretext that the land was not under the effective jurisdiction of another so-called “civilised”, that is to say European, power. The history of Botswana as well as Namibia would undoubtedly have been much different had Palgrave succeeded.

The European scramble for Africa came to Botswana in 1885 with the arrival of separate British and German military expeditions at Shoshong, the capital of the Bangwato Kgosi Khama III.

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