The Ethnic Composition of Tswana Tribes

Isaac Schapera

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781000323443
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Sociology
• Index: Social Sciences

First published in 1953 and this edition in 1991, this book was created in association with the International African Institute. Since its first publication, anthropology and African Studies have changed a great deal, but the bedrock of both remains unchanged: solid, sensitive ethnographic and historical accounts of the peoples and cultures of the continent.

PART I
ETHNIC AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

I
INTRODUCTION

The Native inhabitants of the Bechuanaland Protectorate are divided politically into units that will he spoken of here as “tribes” (Tswana morafe, setšhaba). Before the establishment of the Protectorate in 1885, the tribe could be defined for all practical purposes as a group of people managing their own affairs under the leadership of a chief who was independent of any higher authority. Nowadays every tribe in the Territory is subject to the over-riding control of the British Administration, but in relation to one another they are still politically distinct, and they acknowledge no common or “paramount” Native ruler with authority over them all.

The chiefs of the largest tribes, and several others of minor importance, are almost all of Tswana stock, i.e. they belong by origin to what may be termed the Tswana cluster of the Sotho group of Bantu-speaking peoples.¹ The chiefs of the remaining tribes, all of which are relatively small and politically insignificant, are of diverse origins; most of them are also Bantu (of Kgalagadi, Kalaka, Herero, or Subia, stock), but a few are either Hottentots or “Basters”.²

1. The one exception are the Malete, whose ruling line is ultimately of Transvaal Ndebele (i.e. Nguni) stock; but they have been so long and so intimately in contact with peoples of Tswana stock as to be indistinguishable from them to-day in language and culture, and they are commonly accepted as Tswana.

2. This term (Tswana MaSetedi) is applied to such peoples as the Griqua, who are the product of early miscegenation between Hottentots, Europeans, imported East Indian slaves, and others.

In the present study, we shall be dealing only with those tribes whose chiefs are of Tswana stock.³ There are altogether sixteen such tribes in the Protectorate. Eight of them (Ngwato, Kwena, Tawana, Ngwaketse, Kgatla, Malete, Tlôkwa, and Tshidi-Rolong) have separate territories of their own (officially termed “Reserves” or “tribal areas”), with statutorily-defined boundaries, and the Administration accords to their hereditary rulers the official designation of “chief”. Two others, the Khurutshe and the Seleka-Rolong, live in the Tati Native Reserve (Francistown District), which they share with non-Tswana tribes; but each has its own location (whose boundaries are conventionally, and not statutorily, defined), and their rulers are officially known as “sub-chiefs”. The remainder, whose rulers are all classed as “headmen”, have no areas specially set aside for them. They live on Crown land, at the pleasure of the Administration, and in theory are liable to be moved at any time.⁴

3. The Malete are included, for the reason mentioned above.

4. Cf. Schapera, Native Land Tenure in the Bechuanaland Protectorate (1943), pp. 57 f.

My personal knowledge of the Tswana tribes is confined to the ten named above, and it is primarily with them that I shall be dealing here. As shown in the following Table, they vary considerably in size and in territorial extent:

Tribe	Population (1946)	Area (sq. m.)	Density (per sq. m.)
Ngwato	101,000	40,000	2.5
Kwena	40,000	15,000	2.7
Tawana	38,700	34,500	1.1
Ngwaketse	38,600	9,000	4.3
Kgatla	20,100	3,600	5.6
Malete	9,500	178	53.4
Tshidi-Rolong	5,300	420	12.6
Khurutshe	2,900	161	18.0
Tlôkwa	2,300	67	34.3
Seleka-Rolong	1,100	16	68.7

The population figures, which are taken from the 1946 census returns, cannot be regarded as more than approximate. They include not only residents of the tribal areas, but people who were said to be away from home at the time of the census; the number of absentees, however, was not specified for the Khurutshe and Seleka-Rolong. It should also be noted that the Tshidi-Rolong are in fact a much larger tribe than here shown, although most of its members live outside the Protectorate, in the Union of South Africa. The figures given are for the inhabitants of the “Barolong Farms” only, i.e. of the land held by the tribe in the Protectorate. The Seleka-Rolong are also more numerous than shown, since many of them live in other parts of the Francistown District, outside the Tati Native Reserve; but no figures are available for the latter. In 1936 the total number of Seleka-Rolong, both in their Reserve and outside, was given as 2,030.

My first task will be to describe the manner in which each of the ten tribes came into being, and to discover what principles, if any, can be regarded as underlying the process by which new tribes are created among the Tswana. And, since the tribes vary so greatly in size and territorial extent, we shall have to investigate also the factors responsible for either the growth or the diminution of a tribe once it started on its independent career.

Further analysis shows that the tribes dealt with here also differ considerably in ethnic composition and degree of cultural homogeneity. In some, the population is very largely of Tswana stock, and almost all the people speak the same language and have basically the same other features of culture. In others, the population is of very mixed origins, several different languages being spoken, and there is great diversity in traditional modes of subsistence, forms of social organization, and other aspects of culture. I propose to show how far such differences occur in the population of each tribe, and to explain, if possible, the reasons for their occurrence. This is not merely a matter of historical interest. Some tribes have a well-defined class system that is lacking in others, and some have also developed a system of territorial administration that does not occur elsewhere. Such differences in social and political organization appear to be associated with differences in ethnic composition and territorial extent, so that the study of tribal history must be considered essential if we are to understand the existence of the present systems.

II.
THE NATIVE PEOPLES OF BECHUANALAND

As a preliminary to our main task, it is necessary to describe briefly the various peoples inhabiting Bechuanaland, and to outline the history of their settlement in the Territory. The total number of inhabitants was returned in the 1946 census as approximately 294,000, of whom 290,000 were Natives (“Africans”), 2,200 Europeans, 1,700 Coloureds, and 100 Asiatics.¹ Since the area of the whole Territory is approximately 275,000 sq. miles, the density is just over one person per sq. mile. But the population is very unequally distributed. The immense waterless stretches of the Central and Southern Kalahari are inhabited by only a few thousand people, scattered widely apart in small communities. Almost all the others live in the more favourable eastern regions, in the better-watered areas along the Botletle River, and in the Okovango basin.

1. Annual Report of the Bechuanaland Protectorate for 1948, p.4.

The Native peoples of the Territory, with whom alone we are here concerned, are derived from many different stocks.² Politically the most important are the Tswana, a division of the Sotho group of Bantu-speaking peoples.³ They are found not only in the Protectorate, but also in the northern parts of the Cape Province (especially in the districts sometimes collectively termed “British Bechuanaland”), in the western and central districts of the Transvaal, and in the Thaba Nchu District of the Orange Free State.

2. For my present purpose, I shall normally use the term “stock” for people who claim to have the same immediate origin, and who are generally recognized as constituting a historically distinctive group. A “cluster” consists of several different stocks, who share certain linguistic and cultural characteristics that readily distinguish them from others. Some of the stocks in any one cluster may also have a more remote common origin, but this certainly does not apply to all the stocks in that cluster. Thus, I regard as a single stock each of the various sections into which the Rolong or the Kgatla became divided; similarly, the Tawana, who originally were part of the Ngwato but who broke away from them at the end of the eighteenth century, are also treated here as now being a separate stock.

3. The Sotho are conventionally classified into three main divisions: Tswana (or Western Sotho); Southern Sotho, of Basutoland and immediately adjacent regions; and Transvaal or Eastern Sotho, of Central and Eastern Transvaal. All of these can be further subdivided. Cf. N.J. van Warmelo, Preliminary Survey of the Bantu Tribes of South Africa (1935), pp. 96–116; idem, “Grouping and Ethnic History: Sotho Group”, in The Bantu-Speaking Tribes of South Africa (ed. I. Schapera, 1937), pp. 57–63.

In the Protectorate, the Tswana are represented by three main subdivisions, the distinctions between which are mainly geographical, but partly also cultural and historical:

• (a). Southern, comprising the Tlharo, Rolong (Tshidi, Rratlou, and Maebu, sections), Tlhaping, Hurutshe, Ngwaketse, Kwena, and Mmanaana-Kgatla, of the Lobatsi, Ngwaketsi, Kweneng, and Kgalagadi, Districts;¹
• (b). Northern, comprising the Ngwato, Tawana, Kaa, and Khurutshe, together with some relatively recent immigrant groups of Tlharo and Rolong, of the Francistown, Ngwato, Ngamiland, and Ghanzi, Districts; and
• (c). Eastern, comprising the Kgatla, Tlôkwa, Malete, and several minor groups (such as the Phalane and other Kwena offshoots, of the Mochudi and Gaberones Districts.

1. These “Districts” are the regions into which the country has been divided by the Government for administrative purposes; the names given are those in official use.

As already noted, some of the peoples mentioned are independent tribes, living either in their own “Reserves” or on Crown land. All the others are to-day subject communities, i.e. they live in the territory, and come under the rule, of a chief to whom their own hereditary rulers are subordinate.

The basic features of Tswana culture may be summarized as follows. In pre-European times the people derived their subsistence mainly from animal husbandry and the cultivation of crops, each household being directly responsible for producing its own food. To-day they are still essentially subsistence farmers, but to satisfy the new wants developed by contact with Western civilization many have also engaged in new occupations, including above all temporary wage labour for Europeans. In some tribes more than half the able-bodied men are away every year working in industrial and farming areas of the Union. Their absence, often prolonged, has altered the structure of social life and greatly affected adherence to traditional customs and beliefs.

The members of each tribe tend to settle in large villages. The tribal capital, where the chief himself lives, sometimes has from 5,000 to 20,000 inhabitants. Most other villages contain only several hundred people each, although a few have more than 1,000.² A short distance beyond each settlement, and often extending as broad zones for many miles across country, are the fields cultivated by its inhabitants. Much farther away as a rule and scattered about irregularly are the cattleposts where the great bulk of the livestock is kept. During the agricultural season most people leave their permanent homes in the village and settle for the time being alongside of their fields. The cattleposts, however, are inhabited all the year round by the older boys of each family, or sometimes by servants.

2. The 1946 census lists 4 settlements with populations of 10,000 or more; 5 with populations of 5,000–10,000; 11 with populations of 2,000–5,000; and 28 with populations of 1,000–2,000.

Each tribe is governed by its own chief, who even under European rule still exercises important executive, judicial, and legislative, functions. He is helped in the performance of his duties by several grades of council, one of which embraces all the adult men. He organizes major public activities through the age-regiments (mephato) that are formed every few years, when all the eligible young men are initiated simultaneously with some member of the royal family, who is henceforth their recognized leader. There are also age-regiments of women corresponding to those of the men, but they do not play as prominent a part in public life. In the old days the chief was likewise the high priest of his people; sometimes, too, he practised rainmaking and other forms of magic on their behalf. To-day the professed religion of most Tswana is Christianity, and although magic still flourishes strongly the chief is no longer officially associated with this side of tribal life.

Within the tribe, the outstanding social unit, apart from the household and the family-group, is the ward. This is a patrilineal but non-exogamous body of people living together in a single village or part of a village, and organized into a separate administrative unit under the leadership and authority of a hereditary headman. The members of a ward are often related to one another by blood or by marriage, but almost every ward now also contains people of alien origin. The Tswana are further divided into many totemic groups, also non-exogamous, which cut across the political divisions into tribes. These groups are to-day of little social importance.

Apart from the dominant Tswana, the Protectorate is inhabited by various Bantu-speaking peoples who differ both from them and from one another in language, history, and culture. The m...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Preface
• Part I: Ethnic and Historical Background
• Part II: Origin and Growth of the Tribe
• Part III: Ethnic Composition of the Tribe
• List of References
• Map