¹ The Taungs Reserve lay in the south-western corner of British Bechuanaland and was the second largest (690 sq. miles) and by far the most crowded of the reserves. It had a population of 15,135 in 1886 (C 4889, 29).

² Attorney General's Department (hereafter cited as AG) 497, and AG 522, affidavits of Tlhaping and Tlharo headmen and councillors, February 1897; Native Affairs Department (hereafter cited as NA) 179−97, Commissioner of Police, Kimberley, to Secretary to the Law Dept., December 1896.

³ A 10–97, 15; Diamond Fields Advertiser, 31 Dec. 1896.

⁴ A 10–97,7; C 8797, 58.

⁵ NA 179−97, telegrams 32, 33, 46; A 11−98,7; A 10–97, 9.

⁶ NA 179−97, tel. 46. Two police were wounded.

⁷ C 8797, 6, 7; A 10–97, 9; NA 179−97, No. 113, Police Commissioner Robinson's report; Bechuanaland News, 23 Jan. 1897.

⁸ AG 522; NA 179−97, tels. 64, 65; A 10–97, 23, 24; Cape Times, 14 Oct. 1897.

⁹ For the Commanding Officer's Report on the Langeberg campaign see G 3–98; Bechuanaland News, 23 01. 1897.Google Scholar

¹⁰ G 3–98, 40.

¹¹ In the final months of the campaign, the Bechuanaland Field Force totalled 2,326 men of whom 2,246 were combatants. 1,520 men (with artillery) were available for the final assault. G 3–98, 60, 61, 37, 38.

¹² C 4956, 15.

¹³ C 4643, 33–6 (Mankurwane); C 4956, 6 (Luka Jantjie). Though not first by birth, the vagaries of tribal succession together with his loyalty to the British had made Mankurwane the most important Tlhaping chief. Luka Jantjie, whose sovereignty extended over several areas, was chief over the people living roughly between the Kuruman Hills and the confluence of the Vaal and Harfe Rivers. From 1895 he appears to have been living in the Langeberg.

¹⁴ Details on the history of the area may be readily gleaned from secondary sources. See, for example, Walker, E. A., A History of Southern Africa (London, 1957);Google ScholarAgar-Hamilton, J. A. I., The Road to the North (London, 1937); Cambridge History of the British Empire, vol. VII (Cambridge, 1963);Google ScholarDavenport, T. R. H., The Afrikaner Bond (London, 1966).Google Scholar

¹⁵ C 4889, 8; C 5070, 86. The total African population living between the Kuruman Hills and the Transvaal border was about 28,295, of which 4,730 were Tlharo. The rest, with few exceptions, were Tlhaping. In the area between the Kuruman Hills and the Langeberg, the population was almost exclusively Tlharo. No reliable figures appear to exist as to their numbers. C 4889, 28–32.

¹⁶ Impounding: C 5897, 47, 1889; C 6929, 37, 1892; C 6857, 49, 1893. Wages: C 6857, 18; C 6269, 46. Brutality: C 6857, 18. Labour: C 4890, 17.

¹⁷ C 5070, 81, Magistrate Taungs to Administrator (Tlhaping); C 5897, 38−9; C 6269, 37 (Tlharo, both). The Tlharo retained their traditional religion and their lack of missionary assistance accounts perhaps in part for the smaller incidence of their complaints in official correspondence.

¹⁸ C 5070, 77; C 6829, 34.

¹⁹ Shippard, Administrator throughout the period of Crown Colony rule (1885−95), was a former judge of the Supreme Court of the Cape Colony.

²⁰ C 6269, 10–11, 1889−90 (Shippard); C 5363, ao; C 6269, 11, 40, 28.

²¹ NA 179−97, No. 124, statements A. Blum and Inspector Elliot; A 10–97, 10–12; A 11–98, 3.

²² B.B. Proclamation No. 15 (August 1886) provided for the payment of 10s. for every hut erected for the occupation of a family; Ios. for each wife whether occupying a separate hut or not; and 10s. for every hut occupied by any married man (C 48900, 55). Although provision was made for payment in grain or stock if necessary, the annual reports reveal that only cash was collected before the Rebellion.

²³ A wheel tax of 2s. 6d. per wheel was imposed from I Apr. 1894 (C 7629, 38; Proclamation No. 195, B.B. 1894). Although intended to provide funds to repair roads, these remained almost without exception in bad condition, and the Tswana could see little if any advantage to themselves in the tax (NA 752, 24 Nov. 1898; see annual reports).

²⁴ C 5363, 34.

²⁵ C 5524, 29–31.

²⁶ C 5620, 44.

²⁷ C 6269, 45.

²⁸ Diamond Fields Advertiser, 27 03. 1897; C.O. 879/43, South Africa, 495, 1895, nos. 31–41.Google Scholar

²⁹ C 7969, 7. See also C 7944, 33, Report of the Inspector of Native Reserves.

³⁰ C 5070, 76.

³¹ Proclamation No. 2, B.B. 1885, sections 2, 8, 9, 10, 30, 31. In cases affecting members of their own tribes, the chiefs had original and exclusive jurisdiction in civil cases, and jurisdiction according to native law in criminal cases, but not in cases of murder, rape, homicide and witchcraft. The powers of the various appeal courts of the Colony were vested in the Chief Magistrate.

³² C 4839, 49.

³³ Ibid. 46, 49; C 5070, 78, minutes of a meeting between the Administrator and Mankurwane, 14 Mar. 1887.

³⁴ London Missionary Society (hereafter cited as L.M.S.) Archives, Africa South, W. Ashton to L.M.S., 23 July 1879.

³⁵ Mackenzie, J., Austral Africa, vol. I (London, 1887), 76. Witnesses at the trials following the Rebellion described themselves as ‘farmers’.Google Scholar

³⁶ L.M.S. Archives, Africa South, box 54, Brown to L.M.S., 6 Sept. 1897. At the outbreak of the rebellion, Brown was stationed at Kuruman and had lived in Bechuanaland for nineteen years.

³⁷ C 4956, 105.

³⁸ U.S.P.G. Archives, annual reports, 1891, 27 Apr. 1891. Bevan was the Anglican missionary at Phokwani.

³⁹ C 4956, 105.

⁴⁰ For his position as tribal priest, see Schapera, I., The Tswana (London, 1953), 60.Google Scholar

⁴¹ C 5620, annual report 1888, 44; L.M.S. Archives, Africa South, box 53, Brown to L.M.S., 27 Feb. 1896.

⁴² L.M.S. Ibid.; C 4956, 25. In his annual report for 1887/8 the Inspector of Native reserves stated: ‘These Christians ignore their chiefs, and in cases of dispute… rush off to their spiritual advisers for advice. Such proceedings are bound to affect the powers of the Chiefs and depreciate them in the eyes of the people’. C 5620, 44.

⁴³ Similar to the relationship established between the L.M.S. and chief Khama of the Ngwato. Chief Mothibi's son Jantjie appears to have attempted to establish a similar relationship in his area. See Mackenzie, J., Austral Africa, vol. I.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Life and Work of W. H. R. Bevan, n.d. (Pamphlet in U.S.P.G. Library). Botlhasitse was Galeshiwe's father.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ L.M.S. Archives, report 1888, Howard Williams, Taungs, 196−8.

⁴⁶ Diamond Fields Advertiser, 23 01. 1897.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Cape Times, 29 09. 1897.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ C 4889, 13−23, 73–84. Commenting on the evidence presented to them, the Commissioners stated that they ‘have not the slightest hesitation in expressing their opinion that a very large number of witnesses have told deliberate falsehoods… If the oral evidence has been unsatisfactory, nothing is too bad to say with regard to some of the documents’. Out of 1,000 claimants, 400 failed to appear before the Commission (Ibid. 10).

⁴⁹ See Davenport, , Afrikaner Bond, 166–7. Sprigg became Prime Minister on 13 Jan. 1896 in the wake of the Jameson Raid and Rhodes's resignation.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ C 4432, 83, 1885; C 5918, 112, 1888. The belief that annexation was imminent arose from the electioneering speeches of Sprigg and others.

⁵¹ This climate would have been intensified by the Jameson Raid and the resultant ill-feeling. It was thought that the confiscation of the lands of rebel tribesmen would result in an increase of available farmlands. This would have brought prices down and made the purchase and renting of farms easier. C 7932, 3; see C 6829, 3 and C 6269, 40−1.

⁵² A 10–97, 23.

⁵³ A 10–97, 15.

⁵⁴ 75. C 5918, 13−4, 28 Oct. 1887.

⁵⁵ NA 179−97, report of Sub-Inspector Baker, 20 Dec. 1896. Confirmatory affidavits submitted with report.

⁵⁶ AG 497, 26 Feb. 1897, affidavits of headmen, counciflors, kinsmen of Galeshiwe, Justice of the Peace Ryan, Magistrate Chalmers, and others (hereafter cited as AG 497, affidavits); A 11–98, 8.

⁵⁷ Cape Times, 13 10. 1897; Bechuanaland News, 16 10. 1897. Sprigg was convinced of Bosman's complicity (see Cape Hansard, 1897, 313). That other Transvaalers were engaged in the same type of activity is indicated by the allegations against another exfilibuster, Mussman, who was living in the area (AG 497; AG 522).Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Cape Times, 13 and 14 10. 1897.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ AG 497, affidavits; A 11–98, 8.

⁶⁰ C 7932, 8; C 4890, 38.

⁶¹ C 7932, 4–6; C.O. 879/43, South Africa, 495, nos. 4, 6, 31. Toto even made a rather ambiguous attempt to protest in more violent terms which, even if rebellion was not his intention, led to the sending of a police force.

⁶² Cape Times, 14 10. 1897 (game); Diamond Fields Advertiser, 23 and 30 01. 1897 (threats).Google Scholar

⁶³ Cape Times, 14 10. 1897.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ C 7944, 34, 1894−5.

⁶⁵ C 5918, 200.

⁶⁶ C 7962, 53. See also C 34, 1894–5.

⁶⁷ C 7629, annual report, Shippard, 7.

⁶⁸ C 5897, annual report, 1889, 47.

⁶⁹ Cape Times, weekly edition, 29 09. 1897.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ L.M.S. Archives, Africa South, box 53, Brown to L.M.S., 22 April 1896; W. Ashton to L.M.S., 20 April 1896; Brown to L.M.S., 12 Junr 1896, 29 April 1896 This was the Rev. John Brown of Taungs, not to be confused with the Rev. Tom Brown of Kuruman.

⁷¹ C 5620, 1888; C 6857, 1892–3, 9.

⁷² NA Annual Report, 1896, 52, For many years they had used the plough for cultivation and not the hoe. U.S.P.G. Archives, Annual Reports, 1897, 78, I Feb. 1897. For further evidence of Tlhaping prosperity see: Bechuanaland News 23 Jan. 1897; NA Annual Report, 1897, 71; Macnab, F., On Veldt and Farm, London 1897, 43, 152.Google Scholar

⁷³ C 6857, 1892–3, 9.

⁷⁴ L.M.S. Archives, Africa South, Box 53, J. Brown to L.M.S., 12 June 1896, in enclosed letter 13 May 1896.

⁷⁵ C 6829, 1890–2, 37.

⁷⁶ C 6857, 1892–3, 48–9.

⁷⁷ Diamond Fields Advertiser, I 01. 1897.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Tabler, E. C., Pioneers of Rhodesia, Cape Town, 1966, 103, 139, 140; C 794, 1894–5, C 6829, 1890–2, 37.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ Bechuanaland News, 16 02. 1895; NA Annual Report 1898; Usually, labour migration only took place between ploughing and harvest seasons, and therefore was secondary to peasant production. NA Annual Report, 1897, 71.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ The disease appears to have made its first appearance in Africa in Somaliland in 1889. It first appeared near Bulawayo in about Mar. 1896 and then, due to the increased traffic between the territories, spread rapidly southwards, reaching the Taungs Reserve in August (G 33∓97, 1,4). By Dec. 1896, out of 20,000 cattle in the Taungs area, only 800 were still alive (A 10–97, 17).

⁸¹ L.M.S. Archives, Africa South, box 53, J. Brown to L.M.S., 16 Sept. 1896.

⁸² G 33–97, 26–7, 2 Sept. 1896. Mankurwane had been succeeded by his son Molala.

⁸³ A 10–97, 17; 30–97, 17. Molala repeatedly requested that the shooting should cease as it had not succeeded in stamping out the disease (G 33–97, 27).

⁸⁴ ‘They tell me you are a doctor’, said Molala Mankurwane to a government veterinary surgeon’, … but can you do nothing but kill?’ (G 33–97, 27). For Galeshiwe's incomprehension see NA 179–97, letter from Galeshiwe to Molala Mankurwane, 17 Dec. 1896.

⁸⁵ Most of the men employed to handle the inoculation—‘specials’—were untrained in this work and were later blamed for much of the spread of the disease (NA 452, tel. 30; Fox Bourne, H. R., art. ‘The Case for the Bechuana Rebels’ in Fortnightly Review, 1897, 10).Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Cape Times, 14 10. 1897. The spraying of the veld with Jeyes Fluid probably gave rise to the belief that the veld was being poisoned. When the disease spread further south, the Gaikas and Fingoes responded similarly (NA 453, tel. 36; NA 452, tel. 33).Google Scholar

⁸⁷ NA 779−97, 8 Oct. 1896, tel. 130. This did not apply to infected herds which strayed outside the Reserve's boundaries.

⁸⁸ Cape Times, 14 10. 1897.Google Scholar

⁸⁹ NA 453, tel. 36; NA 452, tels. 33, 30. However, the inadequacy of such comparisons must be borne in mind. The Rolong's cattle losses were probably less (C 8141, 35−6). Furthermore, they obtained a far more generous land settlement than the Tlhaping (C 4889, 72).

⁹⁰ C 8797, A 10–97, 7; Fox Boume, II.

⁹¹ NA 779-97, no. 124, 5 Jan. 1897; see also Commissioner of Police, Kimberley, , to Secretary to the Law Department, 9 12. 1897.Google Scholar

⁹² Passes: C 8797, 8; NA 179−97, 5 Jan. 1897; alliance: A 10–97, 15; land: C 6269, 37; Cape Times, 13 10. 1897; Bechuanaland News, 16 10. 1897.Google Scholar

⁹³ There was a tradition of greater militancy at Phokwani; many dissidents appear to have been attracted to the area for this reason (Cape Times, weekly edition, 14 07 1897).Google Scholar

⁹⁴ Diamond Fields Advertiser, 3, 10, 57 04., 15 05, 24 09. 1897; Cape Times, weekly edition, 6 10. 1897.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ NA 179−97, tel. 50; AF 497, 59 Feb. 1897. For his part, Petlhu was sentenced to death in Feb. 1898 (Cape Times, 12 Feb. 1898).

⁹⁶ AG 97 affidavits; AG 522, affidavits of Tlhaping and Tlharo headmen and councillors, Feb. 1897; NA 179−97, Commissioner of Police, Kimberley, to Secretary to the Law Dept., 4 Dec. 1896. In December, Alphonse Blum (the first white man murdered in the Rebellion) and the local clergyman appealed for measures to relieve the Tswana's distress.

⁹⁷ NA 179−97, Commissioner of Police, Kimberley, to Secretary to the Law Dept. Dec. 1896.

⁹⁸ AG 497, affidavits; Cape Times, weekly edition, 29 Sep. 1897, prisoners interviewed; Mackenzie, ‘Bechuanaland’, 286; Diamond Fields Advertiser, 15 May 1897.

⁹⁹ See footnote 14.

¹⁰⁰ William, F. Lye, ‘The Distribution of the Sotho people after the Difaqane’, in Leonar, Thompson ed., African Societies in Southern Africa pp. 192–3.Google Scholar For genealogies, see Breutz, P. L., The Tribes of Vryburg District, Pretoria, 1959.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ L.M.S. Archives, Africa South, box Brown to L.M.S., 25 Jan. 1897; Diamond Fields Advertiser, 9 Jan. 1897, Bevan interviewed.

¹⁰² L.M.S. Archives, Africa South, box 53, Brown to L.M.S., 16 Sept. 1897.

¹⁰³ He hoped that all the Africans in Bechuanaland and Griqualand West would participate (AG 522, affidavits of headmen and councilors).

¹⁰⁴ Cape Times, weekly edition, 29 09. 1897, prisoners interviewed; AG 497. For anticipated Rolong participation, see statement of Ghasibatje in latter.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁵ It was the view of more than one official that had the rebels enjoyed initial success, a general uprising would have followed. NA 179−97, no. 113 (magistrates), no. 185 (native officials and Commissioner of Police, Kimberley).

¹⁰⁶ Bechuanaland News, 23 01. 1897.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁷ C 8797, 6.

¹⁰⁸ Diamond Fields Advertiser, 6 05 1897.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁹ Bechuanaland News, 13 05 1897; Diamond Fields Advertiser, 27 03. 1897.Google Scholar

¹¹⁰ See above pp. 4–6.

¹¹¹ NA 179–97, nos. 68, 113.

¹¹² Cape Times, 14 10. 1897; Diamond Fields Advertiser, II 10. 1897.Google Scholar

¹¹³ Bechuanaland News, 16 and 23 01. 1897.Google Scholar