Pathogens &The Protectorate (III)

At the time no one’s herds were safe, with large owners such as Dikgosi Khama III and Sebele I each losing tens of thousands of beasts.

Throughout the Protectorate, both official and unofficial estimates consistently calculated livestock destruction as ranging upwards from 90%. Bechuanaland Annual Report for 1896-97: “The rinderpest travelled through the country from north to south, at one time at the rate of 25 miles a day, and destroyed not less than 90 per cent —at a low estimate—of the enormous herds of cattle within the Protectorate.” As the report further noted Batswana had suddenly lost their “staple product, the chief means of livelihood, an important item of the food supply, and the capital and the currency of the country.”