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Linchwe I and the Kgatla Campaign in the South African War, 1899-1902*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

R. F. Morton
R. F. Morton
Affiliation:
University of Botswana
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Extract

Although the importance of the African role in the South African War (1889-1902) is now recognized, this study of the Bakgatala ba ga Kgafela is the first to demonstrate an African perception of events and argue that the Kgatla initiated military action and pursued goals independent of a simple British vs. Boer formula. The war created major economic and political opportunities for the Kgatla, a people physically separated and colonially partitioned. Half the Kgatla lived in the Kgatla Reserve of the British-ruled Bechuanaland Protectorate, and the other half lived in the Saulspoort area of the western Transvaal under Boer rule. Their leader, Linchwe I (1874–1924), maintained his capital at Mochudi in the Protectorate and received only partial allegiance from the Saulspoort Kgatia. Soon after the war began, Linchwe involved his regiments actively in fighting alongside the British in the Protectorate and raiding on their own in the Transvaal in an effort to eliminate Boer settlement and political control in Saulspoort and other areas of the western Transvaal. Kgatia regiments also emptied Boer farms of cattle which, in addition to restoring the national herd decimated by the 1897 rinderpest, Linchwe used in establishing his political hold over the Saulspoort Kgatia. Protectorate officials were grateful for Kgatia support, but Linchwe disguised the extent and nature of Kgatia operations and concealed from the British his political objectives. Linchwe's campaign made possible in the years following the war the reunification of the Kgatia under his authority, the distribution of wealth among all his people and the reduction of colonial interference in the political lives of his people.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 26 , Issue 2-3 , March 1985 , pp. 169 - 191
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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References

1 The Kgatla of this paper are properly referred to as Bakgatla-ba-ga-Kgafela. Linguistically they belong to the Eastern Tswana cluster of peoples who are found principally in the Rustenburg and Pretoria districts of the Transvaal. Schapera, I., The Tswana (London, 2nd edn., 1976), 10.Google Scholar

2 Schapera, I., A Short History of the Bakgatla-bagaKgafela of Bechuanaland Protectorate (Communications of the School of African Studies, University of Cape Town, n.s. no. 3) (Cape Town, 1942), 19–20Google Scholar; Ellenberger, J. ‘The Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Boer War, 1899–1902’, Rhodesiana, XI (1964)Google Scholar; Hickman, A. S., Rhodesia Served the Queen (Salisbury, 1970), 183–97, 233–251Google Scholar; Teichler, G. H. J., ‘Some historical notes on Derdepoort-Sikwane’, Botswana Notes and Records v (1973), 125–130Google Scholar; Truschel, L. W., ‘Nation-building and the Kgatla: the role of the Anglo-Boer War’, Botswana Notes and Records iv (1972), 185–193.Google Scholar

3 (Johannesburg and Cambridge, 1983), esp. 38–52.

4 Warwick, Black People, 4.0, for example, assesses Kgatla-British relations in terms of Kgatla ‘loyalty’, and his statement that Linchwe's reluctance to resist the Boers was based on expediency is unsupported by examples.

5 For the history of the Kgatla and the effect of partition, see Morton, R. F., ‘Chiefs and ethnic unity in two colonial worlds: the Bakgatla-ba-ga-Kgafela of the Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Transvaal, 1872–1966’, in Asiwaju, A. I. (ed.), Partitioned Africans : Studies in Human Relations across Africa's International Boundaries, 1884–1984 (London and Lagos, 1984).Google Scholar

6 Proclamation no. 9 of March 1899.

7 See résumé and translation of de Villiers to Superintendent of Natives, 1 July 1898, CAD NA 761/03, SNA 119, National Archives, Pretoria (NAP); Linchwe to Ellenberger, 16 Oct. 1902, RC 8/8, Botswana National Archives, Gaborone (BNA).

8 Commission of Enquiry re Kaffirs and Burghers, Marico District, 18 May 1885, HC 4/13, BNA; Res. Commr. to High Commr. 9 Sept. 1895, HC 140/6, BNA; Testimony of Dikeme, pp. 84–86, s. 343/24, BNA; P. L. Breutz, Tribes of Rustenburg and Pilanesberg Districts (Pretoria, 1953), 267; Res. Commr. to Windham, 1 Oct. 1902, NA 2160/2, SNA 62, NAP.

9 Morton, ‘Chiefs and ethnic unity’. Like other people in the region, Linchwe and the Kgatla were extremely hostile towards the BSAC. For the telegraph incident, Loch Memorandum 24 April 1890, HC 8171, BNA; Shippard to Loch, 25 May 1890, and Fuller to Carrington, 29 July 1890; HC 116/3, BNA; interview with Harris Thulari, Modisane, Mochudi, 1982.

10 HC 108, BNA. The source of the rumours was Khama III of the Ngwato. Statement of Ratshosa, 23 April 1894, and of Khama, 9 May 1894, in AC 2/2/1, BNA.

11 Chamberlain to Robinson, 19 Nov. 1895, HC 196/1, BNA. As fate would have it, the Jameson troopers, made up of BSAC and Protectorate Border police, assembled in the Protectorate prior to their raid in the Transvaal on the pretext that Linchwe was fomenting a rebellion against British rule. J. Ellenberger to D. R. Hunt, 8 July 1937, MSS. Afr. s. 1568 (6) Rhodes House, Oxford (RHO).

12 Mokae was the son of Moseleketse, Linchwe's father's brother in the tenth (possibly ninth) house of Pilane. For an abbreviated list of the descendants of Pilane, Linchwe's grandfather, see Breutz, , Tribes of the…Districts, 258–9Google Scholar, and Schapera, I., Handbook of Tsusana Law and Custom (London, 2nd edn., 1955), 308.Google Scholar

13 Breutz, , Tribes of the…Districts, 267.Google Scholar

14 Edmeston to Native Commr., W. Transvaal, 27 April 1903, CAB NA 6721/03, SNA 116, and 30 July, CAD NA 1405/03, SNA 140, NAP. Also the statement of Dikeme Pilane in Record of Evidence, s. 343/24, 85–86, BNA.

15 Maree, W. L., Uit Desternis Geroep die Sendingwerk von die Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk onder die Bakgatla von Wes-Transvaal en Betsjoenaland (Johannesburg, 1966), 123Google Scholar; also interviews with Amos Kgamanyane, Mosanteng (1979), Rramaiba Moremi, Makwadi (1979), Galemone Monowe (1979), all of Mochudi; and Dupleix Pilane, Gaborone (1981).

16 For Segale, see Morton, R.F., ‘Separation and survival in two colonial worlds: Linchwe's Kgatla in the Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Transvaal, 1872–1899’ (typescript), 23–4.Google Scholar

17 For the impact of the Squatters Law (‘Plakkers Wek’) in the Transvaal, see S. Trapido, ‘Landlord and tenant in a colonial economy: the Transvaal, 1880–1910’, Journal of Southern African Studies, v, (10. 1978), 26–58.

18 The Protectorate and its people became involved in the war because of the strategic importance of the railway that passed along its eastern border. General description of the war has been based on Warwick, Black People and the South African War, 28–51; despatches from the Times (I am very grateful to Neil Parsons for the copy of his detailed notes from this source); Ellenberger, ‘The Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Boer War’; Truschel, ‘Nation-building and the Kgatla’; Sillery, A., The Bechuanaland Protectorate (Cape Town, 1952), 89–95Google Scholar; Wul, D. and Dent, F., The Boer War as Seen from Gaborone (Gaborone, n.d.)Google Scholar; Makaya, M. T., ‘The African Role in the Anglo-Boer War in the Bechuanaland Protectorate’ (B.A. dissertation, University College of Botswana, 1979).Google Scholar

19 The Rustenburgers occupied Derdepoort as early as 9 October (Hickman, Rhodesia Served the Queen, 193). Other persons have been labelled as commando leaders, including Johannes Rieckert and Cmmdt. J. F. Kirsten.

20 Rev. Thomas Phiri, interviewed by I. Schapera, 6 July 1931, Schapera Papers. Phiri was, in 1899, Linchwe's secretary and confidant. According to Phiri, Malan convinced Linchwe that the Boers ‘could drive the British into the sea'. If another report is to be believed, Malan also dangled before Linchwe the promise that ‘if he sided with the Republic and obeyed the Boer government…,the Boers [would] restore to him a portion of his Father's country in the Pilandsberg [Saulspoort]’. H. R. deBertadano, Capt., Intelligence, Pretoria and Northern districts, to Ag. Commr. Native Affairs, Pretoria, n.d. [1902], NA CAD 857/02, SNA 26, NAP.

21 For a detailed account of Linchwe's relations with the British between 17th and 25th October, see Morton, ‘Babolayeng BagaKgafela’, 11–13.

22 Diary of J. Ellenberger, 4 Nov. 1899, EL 1, Zimbabwe National Archives, Harare (ZNA).

23 Maree, Uit Desternis Geroep, 133; Ellenberger Diary, 18 Oct. 1899, ZNA. With the exception of Deborah Retief, the D.R.C. missionaries were eventually expelled by Protectorate officials to the Transvaal for the duration of the war.

24 Ellenberger diary, 25 Oct. 1899, ZNA.

25 Klass Segogwane, interviewed by I. Schapera, 2 Sept. 1932, Schapera Papers.

26 Segogwane and Phiri interviews, Schapera Papers.

27 Information regarding peaceful contact between the Kgatla and the Boers has survived entirely in Kgatla traditions, even though Ellenberger, the magistrate at Gaberones, received almost daily reports from Linchwe and his messengers in October-December 1899 and recorded them in detail.

28 According to Amos Kgamanyane, Mosanteng, Mochudi. Kgatla traditions have other versions, including Phiri and Segogwane, but all agree on the substance of the insult. As Hickman learned when talking to an Afrikaner of Rustenburg in 1967, Boer traditions also register this event and assign it key importance in the Kgatla decision to fight the Boers at Derdepoort (Rhodesia Served the Queen, 233).

29 Maree, Uit Desternis Geroep, 137; Ellenberger diary, 2 Nov. 1899, ZNA; idem, ‘The Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Boer War’; Schapera, Short History, 44.

30 Ellenberger, ‘The Bechuanaland Protectorate and the Boer War’. Ratsegana Sebeke, Marapo Lands, Mochudi (interviewed in 1982) gave a florid account of the surprise of Mosupabatho, on the Kalakane rivulet.

31 Ellenberger diary, 10 Nov. 1899, ZNA.

32 Mokae was kept by the Kgatla ‘under house arrest’ in Mochudi during the war, and no harm came to him. He was released after the war and returned to Saulspoort (interviews with Amos Kgamanyane Pilane (1979) and Selogwe Pilane, Kgosing (1981), both of Mochudi).

33 Interviews with Selogwe Pilane, Amos Kgamanyane, and Ratsegana Sebeke.

34 Details of the meeting have been culled from the following Ellenberger recollections: diary, 23–25 Nov. 1899, ZNA; ‘The Bechuanaland Protectorate and the War’; ‘Notes on the History of the Bakgatla’ as reproduced in Schapera, Short History, 47; Ellenberger to Hunt, 8 July 1937, MSS. Afr. s. 1568 (6), RHO.

35 Schapera's interviews with Rakabane and Maribe Mokotedi, 6 Aug. 1929, Schapera Papers. Amos Kgamanyane, at the time a ten-year-old herdboy near the junction of the Notwane and Odi rivers, received the order to move the cattle in his care most likely on the morning of 24 Nov. He says he drove his cattle hard the entire day (‘There was no time even to let calves suck their mothers’). He stopped that night and, just before dawn, heard the guns in the direction of Derdepoort.

36 Rakabane/Mokotedi, Segogwane and Phiri interviews, Schapera Papers; I. Schapera, Praise Poems of Tswana Chiefs (Oxford, 1965), 99.

37 Surmon to Holdsworth, 23 Nov. 1899, HO3, ZNA.

38 ‘We trusted entirely to information given by Segale as to the position of the laager and how to get there.’ Ellenberger to Hunt, 8 July 1937, MSS. Afr. s. 1568 (6), RHO.

39 Ellenberger diary, 25 Nov. 1899. What remains unclear in Ellenberger's diaries and his other accounts of the events leading up to the battle is whether Holdsworth knew, before sunlight broke over the battle scene, that the ridge in question lay across the river and within the Transvaal. Holdsworth is emphatic in saying he did not. Before the battle occurred, Ellenberger himself did not know the pertinent lie of the land. If Segale in fact told Holdsworth that the ridge was in the Transvaal, he would have said so with Ellenberger present and interpreting. As the only British official present, Ellenberger would therefore have had to protest, on behalf of Surmon and the Protectorate, against Holdsworth's delivery of the fateful order. If such a protest were made, and it could have been made in time, no evidence that it was registered has survived in the record, Ellenberger's included.

40 Ellenberger diary, 25 Nov. 1899, ZNA.

41 Holdsworth, , ‘Report on Reconnaissance in Sequani, Nov. 26th[stc] 1899’. 10 Dec. 1899, HO 3, ZNA.Google Scholar

42 Ibid.; Times, 28 Dec. 1899; Ellenberger diary, 25 Nov. 1899; Edmeston to Native Commr., 27 April 1903, CAD NA 692, SNA 116, NAP. It is possible that Boer casualties were even higher. Ellenberger diary, 30 Nov. 1899; Hickman, Rhodesia Served the Queen, 234–239. 249.

43 Hickman, Rhodesia Served the Queen, 43; Warwick, Black People and the South African War, 18, 41. Kruger's troops made use of Africans, too. For the best short summary of the role of Africans in the South African War, see P. Warwick, ‘Black People and the War’, in P. Warwick, ed., The South African War (Harlow, 1980), 186–209.

44 ‘It was a melancholy incident which might well have lost us the whole of the natives of Bechuanaland and which destroyed the prestige of white men for many a day.’ Williams to Lagden, 23 May 1902, NA 2104/02 SNA 59, NAP.

45 These three motives for Kgatla participation surface commonly in the oral traditions of the Kgatla.

46 Kgatla oral traditions make no mention of British duplicity. They relate that Linchwe wanted war from the day of Rieckert's insult.

47 Williams, quoting Ellenberger's report, in Williams to Lagden, 23 May 1902, NA 2104/02, SNA 59, NAP. Linchwe said nothing about the previous day's twin attack on a Boer laager and herding party near Gaberones, which resulted in as many as sixteen Boer deaths. Phiri interview. He did report the capture of Boer cattle north of Odi, and asked permission to keep them. Ellenberger diary, 26 Nov. 1899, ZNA.

48 Ellenberger diary, 30 11 1899Google Scholar; Times, 21 12 1899.Google Scholar

49 Ellenberger diary, 7 12 1899Google Scholar; Truschel, ‘Nation-building and the Kgatla’. 189; Times, 18 Jan. 1900.

50 Ellenberger diary, 18–25 Dec. 1899; L. S. Amery, ed., The Times History of the War in South Africa, III (London, 1905), and W. van Everdingen, De Oorlog in Zuid Afrika, as quoted in Schapera, Short History, 42–43, 45.

51 Times, 1 Jan. 1900. Small groups of Boers on reconnaissance continued to penetrate the Kgatla Reserve, exacting reprisals on Kgatla and their crops, and trying to attack the railway. Ellenberger diary, 17 Jan. 1900; Times, 22 Jan. 1900.

52 Gardner, B., Mafeking: a Victorian Legend (London, 1966), 141–4.Google Scholar

53 On 7 Dec. 1899, Linchwe told Ellenberger that he was prepared to defend his Reserve and not attack the Transvaal, ‘but, if they cross I shall cross and shall not stop at Sequane, I hear they intend to kill my people at Saul's Poort, and I do not want them to - you give them every possible chance’. Ellenberger diary, 7 Dec. (also 2 Dec.) 1899.

54 Edmeston to Native Commr. 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP. Linchwe received 100 Martini-Henrys before the battle at Derdepoort in November 1899 and the following July the Kgatla turned over to the British at Rustenburg 250 rifles. Linchwe et al. to Lawley, n.d., in the same file.

55 23 Feb. 1900, as per report from Gaberones, dated 16 Feb. 1900. These men included regimental reinforcements from Saulspoort. Amos Kgamanyane Pilane, Mochudi.

56 Edmeston to Native Commr. 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP; Ratsegana Sebeke, Marapo Lands, Mochudi; Segogwane and Phiri interviews. Mochele was the youngest brother of Segale.

57 According to Thari Pumetse, whose father fought in this battle, many Kgatla were killed or wounded (Monneng sub-ward, Mochudi, 1979). The booty consisted of mealies, clothing, six wagons, 140 horses. It was taken to Mochudi, where Linchwe distributed most of it to Kgamanyane's dependants, Ramono, Motshwane and Mochele and kept the rest for himself. (Interview with Ratsegana Sebeke, Marapo Lands, Mochudi, 1982).

58 Times, 19 March 1900. Edmeston to Native Commr. 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP. After the battle, when Boers complained about Linchwe's attack, Plumer replied that he could not be responsible for Kgatla raids if the Boers raided the Kgatla. Between late December and mid-February, there is, however, no record of a commando attack on the Kgatla.

59 From the testimony of Morris's clerks in Saulspoort, the shop supplied commando camps to the east (Phalane, Palmietfontein), in the Saulspoort area at Ruighoek in Tlhakong and Derdepoort. Saulspoort Kgatla to Sub-Native [sic] Commr., 18 March 1903, NA 966/03, SNA 115, NAP.

60 The request was made formally by Segale. Truschel, ‘Nation-building and the Kgatla’, 189. See also Harbor to Nicholson, n.d., RC 5/4, BNA.

61 Schapera, Short History, 20, implies that the Moreteletse ambush occurred soon after the evaculation of Derdepoort. See also Edmeston to Native Commr., 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, NA 116, NAP; Maree, Uit Desternis Geroep, 137.

62 Smuts, ‘Memoirs of the Boer War’, in Hancock, W. K. and van der Poel, J., eds. Selections from the Smuts Papers (Cambridge, 1966), I, 597–8.Google Scholar Kgatla also stole cattle from Africans in the Transvaal. Ellenberger diary, 31 Aug. 1900, 2 Oct. 1900, 26 Nov. 1900 and 27 March 1901.

63 J. Ellenberger's Judgment, 20 June 1901, RC 4/17, BNA. Two orders were issued to Linchwe, on the 14th and 25th June 1900, respectively. See also Ellenberger diary, 22 June 1900.

64 Linchwe et al. to Lawley, n.d., NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP.

65 Linchwe's men ‘were of much value to our Intelligence Department’, Edmeston to Lagden, 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP. See also Ellenberger, Memorandum, 31 Dec. 1927, s. 182/1, BNA, and Ellenberger diary, 20 and 21 Nov. 1900.

66 And without the knowledge of Protectorate officials at Gaberones. Ellenberger diary, 21 Nov. 1900.

67 Williams to Lagden, 23 May 1902, NA 2104/02, SNA 59, NAP; Edmeston to Lagden, 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP. By October the commission for looting had risen to 30 per cent. Mellwyn to ADT, Mafeking, 30 Oct. 1900, RC 4/14. BNA.

68 Telegram, n.d., attached to Ryan to Ag. Res. Commr., n.d. [received 29 Nov. 1900], RC 4/14, BNA. ‘Linchwe handed the cattle over…and refused to have anything more to do with [them].’ Capt. Morgan (Senior Officer, Transport) sold the cattle at a profit to the army of £416. Morgan to Ryan, 27 Nov. 1900, in the same file. See also Ellenberger diary, 21 Nov. 1900.

69 Williams to Lagden, i4and26Feb. 1902, NA407/02, SNA 17; Williams to Lagden, 23 May 1902, NA 2104/02, SNA 59; Edmeston to Lagden, 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP.

70 Smuts, ‘Memoirs’, 627.

71 Williams to Lagden, 23 May 1902, in which he quotes a dispatch to the Intelligence Officer in Mafeking. NA 2104/02, SNA 59, NAP. See also Ellenberger diary, 16 July 1901.

72 Poultney to Ellenberger, 6 May 1901; also the statement by Smit, 7 May 1901, RC 4/14, BNA.

73 Linchwe et al. to Lawley, n.d., NA 672/03, SNA 116; Griffith to Lagden, 10 Nov. 1903, NA 2482/02, SNA 71, NAP. Linchwe claimed that the abovementioned people were keeping Boer cattle, feeding the commandos and providing them with scouts.

74 Statement of Ramono in Driver to Griffith, n.d. [1902], NA 2160/02, SNA 62, NAP.

75 Times, 23 Dec. 1901.

76 Edmeston to Lagden, 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP. See also T. Pakenham, The Boer War (London, 1979), 566. Boers replied with their own accusations of Kgatla atrocities on Boer civilians.

77 Truschel, ‘Nation-building and the Kgatla’, 189. By November, 1901, Linchwe admitted to having captured 500 cattle. Linchwe to Ellenberger, 26 Nov. 1911, RC 6/13, BNA. Selogwe Pilane, Kgosing, Mochudi, 1981, et al.

78 Truschel, ‘Nation-building and the Kgatla’, 189–90. Linchwe's men destroyed three wagons and captured 133 oxen, four horses, 46 donkeys and one wagon from the attacking commando. Draft to Williams letter, 7 Nov. 1901, covering Perry to Pvt. Secy, to Kitchener, 30 Nov. 1901, RC 6/3, BNA; also Williams to Milner, 7 Nov. 1901, in the same file.

79 Linchwe claimed the loss of between six and seven thousand head. Edmeston to Lagden, 27 April 1902, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP. The Times, 27 Dec. 1981, reported Linchwe's losses at ‘60,000 cattle’. Bierkraal is located on the northwestern side of the Pilanesberg, at a distance from Saulspoort of approximately 32 km.

80 Linchwe et al. to Lawley, n.d., NA 672/03, SNA 116; Williams to Lagden, 27 May 1902, NA 2104/02, SNA 59, NAP.

81 Edmeston to Lagden, 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP. Also statement of Kgatla grievances, Driver to Griffith, 26 Sept. 1902, NA 2160/02, SNA 62, NAP; Transvaal Government, Annual Report of the Native Commissioner, 30 June 1903, B27 Annexure D.

82 Williams to Lagden, 23 May 1902, NA 2104/02, NAP.

83 Edmeston to Lagden, 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP.

84 Ellenberger diary, 27 Feb. 1900.

85 Operating on the assumption that of 14,000 males half were under age and a quarter were over.

86 Most of these casualties were suffered by two regiments - Makoba and Majanko. Another regiment, Manthwane, spent most of the war inside the Protectorate at the border 'guarding the chief. Casualty percentages for the two most active regiments are, therefore, likely to have been well above 18 per cent.

87 It appears that no record or tradition survives stating that Kgatla collaborators were killed or harmed by Linchwe's supporters or regiments.

88 Edmeston to Lagden, 27 April 1903, NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP.

89 Linchwe et al. Lawley, n.d., NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP. The Ellenberger diaries contain several references to imported grain for sale to Linchwe and other chiefs. , Cf. entries for 29 11 1899, 2 and 7 Feb. 1900.Google Scholar Linchwe was also required to submit Hut Tax returns throughout the war: ibid. 11 Jan. 1900, 1 Mar. 1901, 18 June 1902.

90 Linchwe to Lawley, n.d., NA 672/03, SNA 116, NAP.

91 ‘ [Linchwe] said that his principal grievance was that the Govt. took cattle from him and gave them back to the Boers under the impression that they were giving them up to the Boers who had surrendered…You think they are surrendered Boers, but they have fought against you.’

Draft of Williams’ letter covering Perry to Private Secy, to Kitchener, 30 Nov. 1901, RC 6/3, BNA. In the same file see also Kitchener's minutes on the above. The same fear applied to cattle in Saulspoort. Linchwe et al. to Lawley, n.d., re restoration of stock to African collaborators with Boers, NA 672/03, SNA 116, and Driver to Griffith, 26 Sept. 1902, NA 2160/02, SNA 62, NAP.

92 Cattle censuses, 1904 and 1911, s. 295/2, BNA. In 1921, the figure was 33,231; in 1931, 30,000; and in 1946, when the first accurate census was conducted, 74,695. Daniel to Stanley, 1 Dec. 1922, s. 4/9, and Neal to Schapera, 15 Aug. 1933, s. 182/1, BNA; and Bechuanaland Protectorate, Bechuanaland Protectorate Government Census 1946 (n.p., n.d.), iv, 66.

93 Selogwe Pilane, Kgosing, Mochudi, 1981.

94 Gabriel Palai, Makophane, Mochudi, 1979. According to Ratsegana Sebeke, Kgatla men also formed their own raiding parties, often hiding many of their looted cattle before bringing a few beasts before Linchwe; cf. also Segogwane and Phiri interviews, Schapera Papers.

95 Selogwe Pilane.

96 Dupleix Pilane (Gaborone, 1979) and Selogwe Pilane.

97 Kgamanyane Pilane, J. R. Phiri, and England M. T. Pilane, all of Saulspoort (1981).

98 Amos Kgamanyane Pilane.

99 Nearly a half-century later, the 1948 ‘Report on the Cattle Industry’ noted that the Kgatla owned good cattle ‘…which they admit owe their origin largely to the cattle acquired from the Transvaal during the Anglo-Boer War. Today there are in this Reserve a number of cattle that would rank high as Afrikander amongst Union cattle breeders.’ v, 1/5/2, Box 1, BNA.

100 Statement of Standford, H. D. M. (Senior Native Commissioner, 1907–1910), in Union of South Africa, Report of the Select Committee on Native Affairs (Cape Town:Cape Times, 1911), 90–1.Google Scholar

101 Statement of Grobler, P. G. W.. in Unionof South Africa, Report of the Natives Land Commission, vol. 11, U.G. 22–1916 (Cape Town, 1916), 264.Google Scholar

102 Transvaal Government, Annual Report of the Native Commissioner, 30 June 1903, B.27, Annexure D.

108 Report of the Natives Land Commission, vol. I, 33.

104 1913: Cyferkuil 372, Rhenosterkraal 563, Legkraal 725, and Wilgespruit 631; 1915: Zandfontein 729; 1916: Rooderand 399 and Spitskop 298; 1918: Welgeval 749; 1919: Koedoesfontein 818 and Doornpoort 251.

105 Farm sizes and purchase dates have been compiled from various files in the National Archives, Pretoria, the Botswana National Archives, and from Breutz, Tribes of the… Districts, 244–5.

106 Minute no. 642, Edmeston to Native Commr., Transvaal, 30 July 1903, NA 1405/03, SNA 140, NAP.

107 Warwick, Black People and the South African War, 181–2.