Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
‘Khama & Co.’ was the attempt of an African monarch in colonial east-central Botswana to make his state's internal economy self-reliant through participation in commerce. The company was founded in 1910, and flourished, but the ‘Jousse Trouble’ in 1916 obliged the British imperial administration to dictate its closure. Pressures came from commercial interests well established elsewhere in southern Africa, which wished to subordinate African enterprise to white supremacy, and maybe to incorporate the Bechuanaland Protectorate within Southern Rhodesia or the Union of South Africa.
1 For more detailed treatment of the 1844–1930 period, see Parsons, Q. N., ‘The economic history of Khama's Country in southern Africa’, African Social Research, xviii (12 1974), 643–75.Google Scholar
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3 Parsons, , ‘The economic history of Khama's Country’, 662–3.Google Scholar
4 ibid., 667–70.
5 Ettinger, Stephen, ‘South Africa's weight restrictions on cattle exports from Bechuanaland, 1924–41’, Botswana Notes and Records, iv (1972), 21–9.Google Scholar
6 Though built in 1897, the railway was closed in 1899–1900 by war: cf. Croxton, A. H., Railways of Rhodesia (Newton Abbot, 1973), 46–57.Google Scholar
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8 Cf. Phimister, Ian, ‘Rhodes, Rhodesia, and the Rand’ University of London, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, seminar paper SSA/73/10Google Scholar; Denoon, Donald, A Grand Illusion. The Failure of Imperial Policy in the Transvaal Colony During the Period of Reconstruction 1900–05 (London, 1973)Google Scholar; Dachs, Anthony, ‘Rhodes's grasp for Bechuanaland 1880–1896’, Rhodesian History, II (1971), 1–9Google Scholar
9 E.g. Bundy, Colin, ‘The emergence and decline of a South African peasantry’ African Affairs, LXXI, 285 (10 1972), 369–88CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kosmin, Barry, ‘The Inyoka tobacco industry of the Shangwe people’, African Social Research, XVII (06 1974), 554–77.Google Scholar
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12 Mockford, Julian, Khama: King of the Bamangwato (London, 1931), 179.Google Scholar
13 Holbech, Young & Sadler (Hove, Sussex) to Khama, 18 07 1912Google Scholar, Khama Papers (Serowe). The origin and result of the letter are unknown. The firm destroyed its records of that period in the 1960s: Young, Henderson & Sadler to Parsons, 29 Sept. 1971.
14 Jousse, Paul (pseud. ‘Inquisitor’) in Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 8 03 1914.Google Scholar ‘Khama & Co.’ has no relation to the Khama firm of haulage contractors in London S.E. 27. The firm was named after the original location of its garage in Khama Road, S.W. 17. (Personal communication.) See note 64 below re ‘Jousse Trouble’.
15 Garrett, R. (Serowe) to Acting Resident Commissioner (R.C.), 29 02 1916Google Scholar, File J.978 (old series): Botswana National Archives (B.N.A.), Gaborone. (Files J.978 and J.978A cited in this article have since been amalgamated into S.29/5/1).
16 R.C. to Assistant Resident Magistrate (A.R.M.) Serowe, 9 June 1910, J.978. (B.N.A.)
17 Gaopotlhake, to Liddel, , 5 10 1910 (Khama Papers).Google Scholar
18 Khama, (Serowe) to High Commissioner (H.C.), 28 03 1916, J.978A. (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
19 Jousse, Paul (pseud. ‘Inquisitor’), Khama the King: Truth about the Bechuanas (Johannesburg, 1914), 25.Google Scholar
20 One thinks of the response of the white trading community towards crises in the Ngwato Reserve in the 1930s (the ‘flogging’ of Mackintosh), the 1940s and 1950s (the Seretse marriage dispute), and the early 1960s (the advance to Independence).
21 Saron, Gustav and Hotz, Louis (eds.), The Jews in South Africa: a History (Cape Town, 1955), 250 ff.Google Scholar
22 Parsons, , ‘The economic history of Khama's Country’, 667.Google Scholar
23 See S.29/2 (B.N.A.).
24 Smith, G. W. to , L.M.S., 1 03 1923Google Scholar (encl. in Jones, Neville to , L.M.S., 28 03 1923Google Scholar). London Missionary Society Archives (L.M.S.A.), Congregational Council for World Mission, now in S.O.A.S. library, University of London. Some gauge of the £22–23,000 profit of the company may be had from comparison with total government expenditure on District Administration for the whole of the Bechuanaland Protectorate between 1910 and 1916—£28,750. (Revenue from Hut Tax totalled £208,687 in the same period; there was no income tax on whites until 1922). Source: S.294/7 (B.N.A.).
25 Acting R.C. to H.C., 15 01 and 5 04 1916, J.978A (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
26 Jousse, to Acting R.C., 19 09 1913, J.978 (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
27 B.T.A. profits ran to £22,146 in 1895–6. Cf. Parsons, , ‘The economic history of Khama's Country’, 658.Google Scholar
28 Statement of Casalis, A. H., 26 02 1903 (Khama Papers)Google Scholar; Ratshosa, Simon, ‘My Book on Bechuanaland Protectorate’ (MSS.), p. 211 (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
29 Khama, to , R. C., 28 08 1902 (Khama Papers).Google Scholar
30 S.29/8 (B.N.A.).
31 Khama, to Casalis, , 25 12 1911 (Khama Papers).Google Scholar
32 Khama, to Jousse, , 9 04 1912 (Khama Papers).Google Scholar
33 Acting R.C. to H.C., 11 1915Google Scholar; Sloley, to H.C., 10 12 1915, J.978A (B.N.A.).Google Scholar Cf. Jousse, , Khama the King, 20–1.Google Scholar
34 Jousse, to Acting R.C., 19 09 1913, J.978 (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
35 R.C. to H.C., 18 11 1913, 9 04 1914, and 13 10 1915Google Scholar; Francistown, A. C. to R.C., 4 05 1914Google Scholar, ibid.
36 Acting R.C. to Jousse, , 5 11 1913Google Scholar, ibid.
37 Jousse, to Acting R.C., 13 11 1913Google Scholar, ibid.
38 Jousse, to Acting R.C., 14 11 1913Google Scholar, ibid.
39 The B.S.A. Company was certainly pressing for the incorporation of the Tati District—the area round Francistown—into Southern Rhodesia at this time, and a subsidiary of the B.S.A. Company was in process of opening up copper mining in Khama's Country. Cf. C.O. 879/No. 1003 (Public Record Office, London). On the 1894–5 incorporation attempt into Rhodesia, see Dachs, ‘Rhodes's grasp for Bechuanaland’; Parsons, Q. N., ‘Khama III, the Bamangwato, and the British’ (Ph.D., University of Edinburgh, 1973), 88–120. (Copies in B.N.A.; S.O.A.S.).Google Scholar
40 A.C. to R.C., 24 Jan. 1914, J.978 (B.N.A.).
41 R.C. to Assistant Commissioner (A. C.) Francistown, 27 01 1914Google Scholar, ibid.
42 Eastern Province Herald (Port Elizabeth), 16 04, 1 05 and 6 05 1914Google Scholar; Jennings, A. E., ‘Khama's Country’ Sunday Times (Johannesburg), 16 04 and 3 05 1914Google Scholar. (Reprinted in Diamond Fields Advertiser Weekly edn., 16 04 1914Google Scholar). See also Christian Express (Lovedale), 1 07 1916.Google Scholar
43 Francistown, A. C. to R.C., 4 05 1914Google Scholar; Ag. R.C. to H.C. 17 Nov. 1915, J.978 (B.N.A.).
44 Francistown, A. C. to R.C., 4 05 1914Google Scholar, ibid.
45 R.C. to H.C., 8 05 1914Google Scholar, ibid. In a subsequent letter he added: ‘There has never been a case of friction in Khama's country except in that of the Bechuanaland Trading Association, and all traders are unanimous in their testimony as to the courteous treatment they have received from the Chief and his Council.’ R.C. to H.C., 23 05 1915Google Scholar, ibid.
46 H.C. to R.C., 16 and 18 06 1914Google Scholar; R.C. to Khama, , 31 08 1914.Google Scholar
47 R.C. to H.C., 20 10 1914Google Scholar, ibid.
48 Cape of Good Hope Nos. 15 of 1856, 18 of 1873, 7 of 1875, 30 of 1889—substantively adopted in Laws of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1891.
49 Khama, to R.C., 26 02 1915, J.978 (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
50 ibid.
51 R.C. to Acting Resident Magistrate (R.M.), 24 02 1915Google Scholar; Acting R.M. Serowe to R.C., 28 02 1915Google Scholar, ibid.
52 Khama to R.C., 26 02 1915Google Scholar, ibid.
53 R.C. to B.T.A., 20 03 1915Google Scholar, Government Secretary (G.S.) to Jousse, 20 Mar. 1915, ibid.
54 Acting R.M. Serowe to R.C., 6 05 1915Google Scholar; Acting R.C. to H.C., 17 11 1915Google Scholar, ibid.
55 Acting R.C. to H.C., 17 11 1915Google Scholar, ibid.; R.C. to Chappell, , 19 08 1915, J.978A (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
56 Acting R.M. to H.C., 22 07 1915Google Scholar; Chappell, to Panzera, (private), 14 07 1915, S29/5/1 (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
57 Acting R.M. to H.C., 24 July 1915, J.978A (B.N.A.).
58 Khama, to R.C., 22 07 1915Google Scholar, ibid.
59 R.C. to Khama, , 29 07 1915Google Scholar, ibid. A month before, Panzera had written privately to Khama saying that he must ‘make a show of enquiring into things’ that the B.T.A. complained of, and implying that the British South Africa Company hated him (Panzera) for foiling their plans: Panzera, to Khama, , 27 06 1915 (Khama Papers).Google Scholar
60 Chappell, to R.C., 4 08 1915, J.978A (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
61 R.C. to Chappell, , 19 08 1915Google Scholar, ibid.
62 R.C. to H.C., 13 10 1915Google Scholar, ibid.
63 Acting R.C. to Khama, , 13 11 1915Google Scholar; H.C. to Khama, , 11 11 1915Google Scholar; Acting R.C. to H.C., 17 11 1915Google Scholar, ibid.
64 Acting R.C. to H.C. 17 11 1915Google Scholar, ibid. Rev. Willoughby, W. C. (to L.M.S., 25 04 1916)Google Scholar thought Government had closed Garrett, Smith & Co. after private pressure from all traders in the Bamangwato Reserve, who feared being swamped by the Chief's stores—but there is no evidence to this effect in B.P. Government files or elsewhere. Willoughby wrote to his fellow missionary a few days later: ‘The Chartered Company may be behind it… They may be wanting to weaken Khama for some bigger plan of their own after the war is over.’ Willoughby therefore advised that Khama should concede: better to bend before the Company now than be broken later–Willoughby to Lewis, 2 May 1916 (Willoughby Papers No. 742, Selly Oak Colleges Library, Birmingham). An anonymous manuscript, forwarded to the L.M.S. apparently at Khama's request (Lewis, to L.M.S. 12 02 1916Google Scholar), ‘The Jousse Trouble’, dated Serowe 21 June 1915—possibly by John Ratshosa—also concluded that Jousse's ‘main object’ was to replace Imperial rule of the B.P. by Rhodesia or the Union, and added that Jousse had indeed gained some support among Ngwato by flouting Khama's beer laws. Panzera's ominous references to the Union and the B.S.A. Company in his private letter to Khama of 27 June 1915 would have been further fuel to the fire of Khama's suspicions (Khama Papers).
65 H.C. to Acting R.C., 6 01 1916Google Scholar; SirSloley, H. C. to H.C., 10 12 1915Google Scholar; Sloley, Chappell, 7 12 1915, J.978A (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
66 Sloley, to MacGregor, , 24 02 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
67 Sloley, to H.C., 10 12 1915Google Scholar, ibid.
68 H.C. to Acting R.C., 6 01 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
69 Chappell, to H.C., 3 02 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
70 Chappell, to H.C., 7 02 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
71 H.C. to Acting R.C., 18 02 1916Google Scholar; Imperial Secretary to Chappell, , 17 02 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
72 Acting R.C. to H.C., 23 02 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
73 Garrett, R. J. to Acting R.C., 29 02 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
74 Acting R.C. to Garrett, , 3 03 1916Google Scholar; Acting R.C. to Khama, , 3 03 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
75 Acting R.M. Serowe to Acting R.C., 2 03 1916Google Scholar; B.T.A. to Acting R.M. Serowe, 2 03 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
76 A.C. to R.C., 4 05 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
77 Chappell, to H.C., 11 03 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
78 Chappell, to Imperial Secretary, 4 04 1916Google Scholar, ibid. Casalis was transferred from Serowe, to Macloutsie—R.C. to H.C., 18 07 1916Google Scholar, ibid. The B.T.A. sold out its interests in the Ngwato Reserve in 1928, mostly to R. A. Bailey: Mockford, , Seretse Khama, 179Google Scholar; Interview with Minnie Shaw, Palapye, 18 Sept. 1969.
79 Khama, to H.C., 28 03 1916Google Scholar, J.978A (B.N.A.); Lewis, to L.M.S., 4 04 1916 (L.M.S.A.)Google Scholar; Lewis, to Willoughby, , 25 04 1916 (Willoughby Papers).Google Scholar
80 Even the missionary Haydon Lewis, who forwarded a copy to the L.M.S., did not grasp its full significance: cf. Lewis, to L.M.S., 15 08 1916.Google Scholar
81 Acting R.C. to H.C., 5 and 8 04 1916Google Scholar; H.C. to Acting H.C., 14 04 1916, J.978A (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
82 H.C. to Khama, , 13 04 1916Google Scholar, ibid.
83 H.C. to C.O., 13 05 1916Google Scholar; C.O. to H.C., 29 05 1916Google Scholar; H.C. to R.C., 31 07 1916Google Scholar, ibid; R.C. to Khama, , 9 08 1916 (Khama Papers).Google Scholar
84 ‘Khama. Some personal impressions. A peaceful chief’, The Times (London), 28 02 1923, 13.Google Scholar
85 Lewis, to L.M.S., 2 06 1916 (L.M.S.A.)Google Scholar; Khama, to Jas. Haskins, 17 01 1916 (Khama Papers).Google Scholar
86 R.C. to H.C., 18 07 1916, J.978A (B.N.A.).Google Scholar See also Lewis, to L.M.S., 2 06 1916 (L.M.S.A.).Google Scholar
87 Ratshosa, , ‘My Book’, 201–3 (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
88 Declaration of Khama, witnessed by Ratshosa, Obeditse and Fosdisch, E., 7 01 1922 (copy), S.29/5/2 (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
89 Garrett, Simth, & Co. to Standard Bank, Mafeking, 6 02 1922Google Scholar; Serowe, A.R.M. to G.S., 7 04 1922Google Scholar; Ellenberger, J. to Michin & Kelly, 23 06 1922Google Scholar; R.C. to H.C., 14 01 1927, S.29/5/2 (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
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91 Minchin, & Kelly to G.S., 13 12 1926Google Scholar; Francistown, A. C. to R.C., 11 01 1927Google Scholar; H.C. to R.C., 3 02 1927, S.29/5/2 (B.N.A.).Google Scholar
92 See note II above.
93 See protest of Ngwato headmen to R.C., 23 Aug. 1924, against the government's ‘new system of protecting traders to monopolise’—when it overruled Ngwato permission to new traders to set up stores. They asserted that ‘competition is a good thing’ to raise prices given for agricultural produce ‘in support to Tribal revenue’ and for Hut Tax; S.7/1/2 (B.N.A.).
94 Cf. Tordoff, W., ‘Local administration in Botswana’, Journal of Administration Overseas, XII 4 (10 1973), 179–80.Google Scholar
95 Schapera, Isaac, Tribal Innovators. Tswana Chiefs and Social Change 1795–1940 (London, 1970), 80–1.Google Scholar
96 Benson, Mary, Tshekedi Khama (London, 1960), 70–9.Google Scholar See also Parsons, Q. N., ‘Shots for a black republic? Simon Ratshosa and Botswana nationalism’, African Affairs, LXXIII, 293 (10 1974), 451.Google Scholar
97 Francistown, A. C. to R.C., 11 01 1927.Google Scholar
98 Willoughby, to L.M.S., 25 04 1916 (L.M.S.A.).Google Scholar
99 Cmd. 4368 of 1933, 17–18 (British Parliamentary Papers). The Native Advisory Council (officially 9th Session, in fact 10th) of 1929 was highly critical of the decision.
100 H.C. to Colonial Office, received 28 Apr. 1913—C.O. 879/No. 1003, 8 (P.R.O.).