Tribal Innovators

Tswana Chiefs and Social Change 1795-1940

Isaac Schapera

• Publisher: Routledge
• Edition: 1
• Year: 2021
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Ethnic & Tribal Religion
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000324068

This book is a completely revised version of a study published in 1943. That study, entitled Tribal Legislation among the Tswana of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, dealt with the role of chiefs as agents of social change and, in particular, with the changes they brought about by making new laws. It described the various kinds of legislative process current among the Tswana, and reviewed systematically the content and scope of the many laws made, from the earliest known instances up to the time of writing (1942), in eight different chiefdoms or 'tribes'; it also stated, where possible, why those laws were enacted, and discussed how far they really succeeded in establishing new ways of life.

PART I
THE CHIEF AS INNOVATOR

Sketch map of Bechuanaland Protectorate 1940

1
Social Change among the Tswana

THE TRANSFORMATION OF TSWANA LIFE

When the territory known until 1966 as the Bechuanaland Protectorate¹ became a British dependency in 1885, its native inhabitants, most of whom bear the collective name of Tswana (Batswana), were found grouped into a number of separate chiefdoms or 'tribes'.² The most important were the Ngwaketse in the south, Kwena and Kgatla in the centre, Ngwato in the north, and Tawana in the distant north-west around Lake Ngami. The Kgatla, whom ethnologists class as 'Eastern Tswana' (cf. Schapera 1953: 10), were recent arrivals from the Transvaal (1871). The four others, all 'Western Tswana', had also migrated from there, but in the first half of the preceding century. They came as a single tribe, ruled by a Kwena chief. The Ngwaketse and Ngwato then broke away separately (c. 1760-80), and soon afterwards (c. 1795) the Tawana seceded from the Ngwato.

¹ On the attainment of independence in 1966, the name was officially changed to Botswana ('Tswana-land'). I use the older form throughout to stress the fact that I am dealing with conditions before and during the period of colonial rule.

² The English term 'tribe', instead of the more appropriate 'chiefdom', was locally current long before 1885, and was subsequently also used by the Administration (e.g. in its legislation). Since it has several advantages, I propose to retain it here. By it I mean, specifically for the Tswana, 'a body of people occupying their own territory under the rule of a chief who is' (or rather was, before the imposition of British rule) 'independent of any higher authority.' The corresponding Tswana term is morafe or setšhaba.

The five tribes varied greatly in size, though all except the Kgatla probably had more than 10,000 members each.³ Those members, who everywhere included conquered groups and immigrants (or their descendants), not only differed in origin. Sometimes, notably among the Ngwato and Tawana, they also differed in language and customs. But the ruling communities were all of Tswana stock, speaking the same language and having basically the same mode of life, social and political institutions, and systems of religion and magic. The chiefs of the Kwena, Ngwato, and Ngwaketse also claimed agnatic descent from a remote common ancestor; the founder and cponym of the Tawana was a son of the Ngwato chief Mathiba (ruled c. 1780-95); and the royal families of the four tribes often intermarried. The Kgatla chief was not similarly related to the others. His people, too, differed from the Western Tswana in details of dialect and other items of culture.

³ According to the latest census figures, their populations in 1964 were: Kgatla 32,000, Kwena 73,000, Ngwaketse 71,000, Ngwato 200,000, and Tawana 42,000. The 1936 census figures, said to be much less accurate, gave the following: Kgatla 14,000, Kwena 26,000, Ngwaketse 24,000, Ngwato 101,000, and Tawana 42,000. (All figures are to the nearest thousand.)

Each tribe had its own territory and was politically independent. Many, sometimes most, of its members lived together in a large 'town' (whose local subdivisions, each consisting of one or more descent groups, are commonly known in English as 'wards'). The rest, usually belonging to subject communities, occupied their own villages elsewhere; these seldom contained more than several hundred people each, and in the north, among Ngwato and Tawana, were often much smaller and therefore more numerous. A short distance outside each town or village were the blocks of fields cultivated by its inhabitants. Farther away, and scattered about according to water supplies and grazing conditions, were the 'cattle posts' (meraka) where owners kept most of their livestock.

Each tribe also managed its own affairs under the leadership of a chief (kgosi), whose office was hereditary from father to son. He controlled many aspects of public life. He was both lawgiver and judge; he regulated the allocation of land, the annual cycle of agricultural tasks, and several other economic activities, including external trade; he often led the army in war, and supervised or personally conducted various religious and magical rites (especially rainmaking) on behalf of his subjects collectively. Under him were several grades of local rulers, usually also hereditary, such as community sub-chiefs and village or ward headmen. Their duties within their own groups were broadly similar to his. But they were all subject to his overriding authority, and appeals could be made to him from their court judgments and other decisions. Every ruler, from the chief downwards, was helped and advised by his brothers and other close agnates. As need arose he also consulted an assembly of all the men in his tribe or local group.

By 1885 all tribes except the Tawana had been in contact with Europeans for half a century or more. From about 1830 onwards, especially, they were visited fairly often by traders, hunters, missionaries, and explorers. David Livingstone's discovery of Lake Ngami in 1849 opened the road to the north-west, with its great wealth of ivory, ostrich feathers, and other hunting spoils. The number of European visitors grew rapidly, traders began to settle in the tribal capitals, and (by 1870) there were also mission stations and small schools in most of them. European clothing and utensils, including firearms and wagons, were in fairly common use. Many men were also going out to work for periods of a year or so on the Kimberley diamond mines and in other parts of what is now the Republic of South Africa.

After the establishment of the Protectorate, these early European influences all extended their range of activity. Trading stores became far more numerous and widespread; the Christian missions built churches and schools in many outside villages, and some in due course started medical work and other social services; and, owing mainly to the efforts of recruiting agents after the discovery of the Witwatersrand gold mines (1886), the number of migrant labourers increased more and more.

The British Government, through its local Administration,¹ now constituted yet another major source of change. It soon deprived the chiefs of various executive and judicial powers (1891), imposed a 'hut tax' payable annually by the men of all tribes (1899), demarcated tribal 'reserves' (1899), and gradually stationed police and resident magistrates (later known as district commissioners) in each tribal capital. It greatly improved means of travel and communication by subsidizing the construction of a railway line (1896-7) from Cape Colony in the south through the eastern parts of the Protectorate into Southern Rhodesia. From about 1905 onwards it also allowed European farmers to settle in alienated areas adjoining the reserves. This increased the number and variety of local Europeans with whom the Tswana had to deal.

¹ This is the term generally used in official reports. The local Administration was, from 1891 onwards, headed by a Resident Commissioner, stationed at Mafeking in Cape Colony. He was subordinate to a High Commissioner (at Cape Town, and later Pretoria, also in South Africa), who was the legislative authority and the channel of communication with the appropriate Secretary of State in London.

The Administration subsequently introduced veterinary, agricultural, mcdical, and other public services. In 1919 it started a Native Fund, with revenue derived from additional and earmarked taxation, to subsidize economic and educational development. For the discussion of these and other matters of common concern it also created a Native Advisory Council, on which all the main tribes were ultimately represented.¹ It took over the control of education throughout the Protectorate (1930), and finally (1934-8) made several major reforms in the tribal system of internal rule.

¹ In addition to the five already mentioned, these included the Malete and Tlokwa in the south-east, and the Rolong, who, although found mainly in Mafeking district (Republic of South Africa), extend into the south-eastern corner of the Protectorate.

Owing to these foreign influences, Tswana life had by 1940 come to differ markedly in some respccts from the pattern described by early European observers. Many old institutions, customs, and items of material culture persisted either intact or with relatively little change. These included, for instance, kinship and local organization, tribal assemblies for the discussion of public affairs, the grouping of adults into age-sets, the practice of magic, and the manufacture of clay pots and wooden bowls. Others had been much modified (e.g. the powers and functions of the chiefs, wedding and burial customs, and hut-building techniques), and some were far less commonly practised (e.g. polygamy and metal-work). Still others had been abolished or widely discarded. Among them were intertribal warfare, ancestor worship, rainmaking, initiation ceremonies for boys and girls, and compulsory payment of tribute by serfs.

On the other hand, many borrowed innovations had become firmly established. Officers of the Administration, traders, missionaries, and other Europeans, were living and working in every tribal reserve. Christianity was the 'state' religion everywhere, and many persons, including all the chiefs, were members of Christian churches. Each tribe had schools for the formal education of its children, and trading stores where people bought imported goods of many kinds. Almost all adults and older children wore European clothing, and many spoke English. New implements and techniques were widely used in the traditional subsistence pursuits of animal husbandry and crop cultivation. Money was a standard medium of exchange for goods and services, and men also paid annual taxes in cash to both the Administration and their own tribal rulers. Some were employed by local Europeans or in other new forms of occupation at home, and very many more were going out periodically to work on the mines and elsewhere in South Africa.

ROLE OF THE CHIEF

The innovations just mentioned were obviously all due to contact with Europeans; many had in fact been deliberately introduced, especially by missionaries, traders, and the Administration. As obviously, what Tswana took over from Europeans was determined largely by the kinds of European influence they encountered; for example, the vast majority of Tswana Christians in 1940 were Protestants, because for many years only Protestants had done missionary work among them. But these statements do not explain why the people had adopted such innovations, thereby doing what the Europeans concerned wanted of them.

The Administration, although it preferred to seek cooperation, could in the last resort get its way by the use or threat of physical force (see p. 55). Tswana were therefore in effect obliged to submit to the measures it introduced, such as hut tax, liquor prohibitions, and changes in the system of tribal rule. But missionaries, traders, and labour agents could not similarly compel the people to comply with their wishes. They had to work mainly through persuasion and propaganda. Individual Tswana were accordingly much more free to decide for themselves whether or not to become Christians, buy trade goods, or seek work abroad. Such Europeans, moreover, entered Bechuanaland long before the country came under British rule. Until 1885, therefore, they could not look to the Administration for protection and support, but depended instead upon the goodwill of the people with whom they had to deal. They could not even start work in any tribal area without first seeking and getting permission from the local chief.

As will be shown more fully in the next chapter, chiefs sometimes actually invited missionaries to settle with them. Some had likewise asked for British protection several years before it was given. In both instances, that is, they deliberately sought the introduction of European influences. They often also actively supported the work of the Europeans whom they admitted. They themselves became Christians, built churches and schools, and urged parents to send children to school; similarly, they cncouragcd their people to buy ploughs and other 'useful' imported goods, and to earn money for new wants by working abroad. In matters such as these they usually let the tribesman make his own choice; for example, they did not order people to buy European clothing and other trade goods, they did not make either church membership or school education compulsory, and except in sporadic instances they did not force men ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Contents
• Plates
• Vignettes
• Map
• ABBREVIATIONS
• PART I. THE CHIEF AS INNOVATOR
• PART II. LAWS AND ACTS OF THE CHIEFS
• PART III. TSWANA CHIEFS AND SOCIAL CHANGE
• COMPARATIVE TABLE OF CHIEFS, 1795-1940
• LIST OF WORKS CITED
• INDEX