Volume 51 Issue 2 - February 2013 : Heritage

 

The area of Gaborone was first settled in when Kgosi (Chief) Gaborone led his tribe of Batlokwa people in the 1880s. They named the first settlement Tlokweng (place of the Tlokwa people).  A colonial fort was set up in a nearby area (now called “The Village) in the 1890s.` (Gaborone City web site)

It is strange that the origins of any capital city should be so poorly known or so badly described.  The historical period in question, the 1890s, is a difficult one but even so, let`s see if it is possible to provide a more coherent description of the beginnings of modern Gaborone. The establishment of Gaborone as a late 19th century settlement was the result of three related factors. First and foremost were the belligerent moves by Rhodes` British South Africa  Company which eventually led to the overthrow of Lobengula and the creation of the new state, Rhodesia. Immediately related to this was the need for the British to establish telegraphic contact between Mafeking, Cape Town and London with Old Palapye and Fort Motloutse.

The third need was to establish an operational base further south which would replace Motloutsie where water supply was always a problem. The requirements for the new site which Col. Frederick Carrington was instructed to identify in 1890 were uncannily similar to those which  pre-determined the choice of Gaborone as the country`s new capital 70 years later. Carrington was told to find somewhere in the general vicinity of Kolobeng (which had become irrelevant by 1960), had a reasonably secure water supply, was central and which provided the means of controlling (be accessible to ) the southern Tswana tribes. Neither in 1890 for the British nor in 1960 for the Batswana could this quest have proved to be other than routine. Gaborone then, even without the railway, was a nodal point for wagon traffic.

Carrington suggested that the new British base should be situated so that it controlled what must have been a ford or drift across the Notwane (where the old Tlokweng bridge is situated) from where roads splayed out – to the south (Mafikeng), to the west (Molepolole, the north (Mochudi), the north east (Sikwane) and the east (the Rand). Reports at the time also indicated that the new settlement would be located some distance away from the Batlokwa who had settled there a few years earlier, in 1887, and were living a few miles away to the north on the further side of the river.

This observation may puzzle observers today who are well aware that the Batlokwa occupy land which is immediately opposite Carrington`s old colonial ‘village`. In fact, a much smaller Tlokwa population had settled  around Kgosi Gaborone`s old kgotla in a settlement then known as Moshaweneng rather than where today`s main kgotla is located. .

The British didn`t hang around. Once they had taken the decision to establish Gaborone as their new Headquarters they rapidly dumped Motloutse and consolidated their resources at their new base.  In quick succession, W.H. Surmon was appointed Assistant Commissioner for the Protectorate in August 1890 and posted to the new Fort Gaborone.

The word, ‘fort` can give us huge problems especially when any of us bother to look at the minimal remains today of the Gaborone fort. The word can be used to describe a formidable, sophisticated defensive position as well as those in Botswana which were rudimentary, rapidly constructed and never tested. Burrett has suggested in his book, Plumer`s Men, The History of the Rhodesia Frontier Force, that, ‘the Fort itself was an earthen structure in the form of a pentagon with raised gun emplacements in each of the corners.

There was a central entrance along one of the sides and was surrounded by a deep trench.` Burrett`s personal conclusion was that the design of the Gaborone Fort replicated those at Macloutse and Elibe which had been constructed only a little earlier. Contemporary pictures suggested that inside the Fort there was a substantial rectangular building which may have been the commissariat`s store and/or offices. However there must have been other structures, the remains of which used to be visible, burnt brick floors in two places as well as in one gun emplacements. Originally there was an open parade ground on this east side.  Later this area was developed with a court and residence built for the Resident Assistant Commissioner while a prison and post office were added slightly to the east.

Burrett`s observations may suggest that Britain invested more in its new Protectorate HQ than was actually the case. In 1896, for instance, Jules Ellenberger, clerk to Surmon, wrote complaining that, ‘since 1890 I have lived here in a tent, then in a hut built at my own expense which is now almost unfit for occupation.`

Whether the British did nor or did not eventually obtain some sort of a land right from Sebele is unclear to me. If they did not, they simply took what they wanted and that was that.  In the event, matters became quickly muddied because in June 1891 Sechele and Sebele with their Bakwena advisors signed a concession agreement with Riesele and Nicolls ceding to them a staggering 800 square miles (2 072 square kilometers) which included the new British base at Gaborone, as well as settlements of non-Bakwena people, such as the Tlokwa, which had been previously approved by them.

Even though Tswana Chiefs at the time were enjoying welcome incomes from the ever present European concessionaires it is impossible today to understand how the Bakwena (and not just a single Chief with a mirror and a bottle of brandy) could have considered their decision for several days before giving away so much of what they possessed, including access to the waters of the Notwane. 

In 1895, the British Administration concluded that whilst the concessionary agreement was undoubtedly genuine, it was unlikely that the Bakwena had fully understood what they had given away and that it could not possibly have been in their interests to have done so. The agreement was promptly terminated.  But within months Sebele had once again given away land but this time to the British Government for the construction of the new railway line.  But that is another story. ENDS

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