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Botswana History
The protectorate of
Bechuanaland: AD 1885-1966
When the region north of the Molopo river is made the British
protectorate of Bechuanaland, in 1885, the expectation is that it will
merge eventually with Cape Colony to the south or, after the success
of Rhodes's venture in the early 1890s, with Rhodesia to the north.
This intention is frustrated by the resolute action of a tribal chief
who sees the implicit dangers for his people. Khama III, king of the
Ngwato and a convert to Christianity, travels in 1895 to London with two
other local chieftains. They persuade the colonial secretary, Joseph
Chamberlain, to promise their region the continuing protection of the
crown. In return he extracts a strip of their territory for construction
of the railway to the north.
Inevitably the tribal areas become dependent economically on their rich
neighbours, providing migrant labour for both the Transvaal and the Cape
colony. After the union of South Africa, in 1910, there is frequent
pressure from Cape politicians to annexe Bechuanaland. But the British
government holds to Chamberlain's pledge, confirming in 1935 that no
transfer of sovereignty will take place without the agreement both of
the people of Bechuanaland and of the British government.
Nevertheless Westminster's tacit collusion in the politics of South
Africa becomes evident in a case which wins world-wide attention in 1950
- that of Seretse Khama, grandson of Khama III and heir to the
leadership of the Ngwato.
Seretse, while studying at Oxford, marries a British woman, Ruth
Williams. This causes consternation in South Africa, where just two
years previously the new Nationalist government has introduced apartheid
laws against sexual relationships between different races. Under South
African pressure the British ban Seretse Khama and his wife from
Bechuanaland.
It is six years before Seretse is allowed to return - as a private
citizen, still banned from inheriting the tribal kingship. But in 1965,
when internal self-government is introduced, he takes his place at last
at the head of his nation. By now Sir Seretse Khama, is he elected
Bechuanaland's first prime minister.
Independence: from AD 1966
In the spirit of the 1960s, when the British empire is being rapidly
dismantled, independence follows only a year after Bechuanaland's
internal self-government. The new republic takes the name Botswana, with
Seretse Khama as its first president.
During the 1970s Botswana allies itself with other independent nations
of the region (first Zambia and Tanzania, and subsequently Mozambique
and Angola) to put pressure on Rhodesia and South Africa to introduce
majority rule. With increasing unrest in the white-dominated nations,
Botswana receives a flood of refugees, many of them politically active.
This results in frequent raids from South Africa during the 1980s.
Seretse Khama dies in 1980 and is succeeded as president by his deputy,
Kerumile Masire. Masire remains president for most of the next two
decades, being elected for a new five-year term in 1994. He dies in
office in 1998 and is succeeded by his vice-president, Festus Mogae.
Ever since independence a majority of seats in the national assembly has
been won by the Botswana Democratic Party, founded in 1965 by Seretse
Khama. But the elections have been fair, and the Botswana National Front
(also dating from 1965) has provided a genuine opposition. Botswana's
relative wealth, from the export of diamonds, and the wise leadership of
two long-serving presidents have given the republic an unusually stable
record.
Source: www.historyworld.net
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