Bangwato in Zim seek repatriation

Professor Neil Parsons of the History Department at the University of Botswana said the residents are descendants and supporters of Raditladi and Mphoeng. The two broke away from the main group following a dispute in the 1890s.

Historian Michael Crowder in his unfinished manuscript on the late Bangwato regent Tshekedi Khama says the root of the conflict was religious. It arose when then Bangwato paramount chief Khama III declared Christianity as the official religion in all Bangwato land with himself as the head of the church. This meant he would head the Bangwato in matters spiritual and temporal. His half-brothers, Raditladi and Mphoeng and their followers challenged this. The conflict culminated in the two brothers seceding and being granted land in Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company Territory.