Bakgatla Bagammanaana (Part 10)

The motive for this dramatic decision was apparently Rey’s own misunderstanding of the content of Gobuamang’s protest against Kgosi Bathoen II’s then innovative imposition of a health levy across his reserve, an initiative Rey had already decided to cancel.

Comfortable in his ignorance, Rey noted in his diary that: “They accepted my dictum, and later on, after all the speeches were finished and we left the Kgotla, they gave us a tremendous reception. Natives don’t understand anything except an order: they like to be governed, and as long as it’s fair and just the more despotically one governs the better.”