Volume 51 Issue 3 -March 2013 : Heritage

It may be claimed that little can be learnt from a map of an area which, until fairly recently, comprised only farms and farm land. Indeed at first glance the 1906 map of the Gaborone freehold block does seem to bear out that belief because little seem to have changed between 1906 and today.

The major features are all present, the international boundary with South Africa and the boundaries with the ‘Bakhatla` and Bakwena Territories, the freehold farms, the Crown Reserve, the railway and the roads.

But a closer look shows very quickly that the road network into and out of Gaborone then was very different from what it is today.

Perhaps surprisingly, the only road which led directly from the Crown Reserve was to Molepolole which then ran, as it still does today, through Bonnington Farm to Mogoditshane. What changed in the mid-1970s was that the junction at the railway station and the old hotel was shifted northwards.

Apart from this one road, the four others – to Mochudi, Sikwane, Ramotswa and Zeerust all fanned out from a junction immediately east of the Notwane River and in what was later to become the Batlokwa Tribal Reserve.

The road to Mochudi went through the middle of Huijser`s Chance Farm (now belonging to President Ian Khama) and by-passed Oodi which was then located at its earlier site away from the Notwane River.

The road to Sikwane cut through a corner of Huijser`s Chance and then passed through Clent Farm whilst the road to Ramotswa traversed the three freehold farms, Notwane, Kentholme and Werribee and sliced through a corner of Athol Holme.

The relationship of the railway, the roads and the boundaries of the various farms are worth careful attention. It needs to be kept in mind that the railway (1895-6) was constructed before the freehold farms were demarcated and sold by the British South Africa Company to European buyers.

Logically then, the railway was used to provide the boundary between the farms, between Content and Sowen Flat (today`s Phakalane) and Glen Valley, for instance.

Seemingly it did not provide the western boundary for the Crown Reserve which was pushed some way beyond the railway.

It may be, however, that the reality was (and is) that the boundary of Bonnington Farm was provided not by the Crown Reserve but by the railway reserve - but this is  point which needs to be clarified.

To the north, another river, the Segoditshane was used to mark the boundary between the Crown Reserve and Broadhurst A farm.

As the railway provided one boundary, the Notwane river logically provided another – the Crown Reserve, for Glen Valley and, Broadhurst A.

To the south, the river also provided the boundary for Notwane and Kentholme but, for reasons which elude me, not for Werribbee or Forest Hill.

Today, it may prompt surprise that the area across the river, now Tlokweng, is left un-demarcated, an empty space. In 1906, the area, as with the land to the west of the river was owned by the British South Africa Company – with the crucial exception of the Crown Reserve which the British had held back for themselves.

The area was however occupied by the Batlokwa tribe and unusually the British South Africa Company was reluctant to evict them, in part because of their aged Kgosi Gaborone.

An unusual interim agreement was reached between the two that until Kgosi Gaborone eventually died – which he only did in 1933 when thought to be 102 – the Batlokwa would pay an annual rent of £150 for the land they were occupying,

Until he died (and they were evicted), the area would not be demarcated as farms and sold off. But before leaving the subject of the river, it is important that careful note be taken of the tiny, barely visible enscription, ‘middle of Notwani River`.

Normally no one will have the slightest interest in determining the middle of a river unless it happens to be an international boundary between one country and another, as was the case during the dispute between this country and Namibia over Sedudu island.

The only explanation seems to be that around 1906 there had been a possibility, or perhaps still was, that the Notwane River would form the boundary with South Africa. This idea may cause surprise.

But It has long puzzled me, as it would have puzzled others, to understand why the entire length of the country`s eastern and southern border with South Africa i

s provided by rivers – from Ponts Drift in the north, by the Limpopo and Madikwe, by the Notwane, the Molopo and onwards to Bokspits via the  fossil river, the Nossop.

The one and only exception in that enormous distance occurs with the Gaborone block where the border ceases either to use an obvious river, the Notwane, as a border or to follow a straight line from the Madikwe at Sikwane to the Notwane at Ramotswa.

Instead it departs from conventional practice with a kink which seems, arbitrarily to place the border post at Tlokweng/Kopfontein where there are no distinguishing or distinctive natural features. .

This map prompts a number of other questions.

For instance, were the size of many of the newly created farms - and therefore the Crown Reserve itself and thus the area later available for the new national capital – pre-determined by the river and the railway line?

How was the size of the others determined because some - Huijser`s Chance and Forest Hills, for instance - were extremely large whilst others, such as Werribee were considerably smaller?  

And what about those roads which had presumably been established before the new farms were demarcated.

How long was it before the owners of those freehold farms objected and the roads to Mochudi, Sikwane and Ramotswa were closed off and new routes had to be established? 

But what other routes were available if it proved impossible to reach agreement with farm owners.

Those new routes, north and south, could only follow as closely as possible to the railway line which meant that the direct road to Sikwane, for instance, was made to disappear forever. ENDS

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