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Conflict and Conflict Alliances in the Kgatleng District of Botswana

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

John A. Wiseman
John A. Wiseman
Affiliation:
Lecturer in Politics, University of Newcastle upon Tyne
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Extract

Following the useful distinction made by Marc J. Swartz this is a study in ‘local-level’ rather than ‘local’ politics, because of the fundamental fact that ‘actors and groups outside the range of the local multiplex relationships are vitally and directly involved in the political processes of the local group’.1 The political process is therefore not discrete. My focus is on the interrelationships existing between political forces within and outside the Kgatleng District of Botswana, and my analysis deals with the situation as it existed during the early 1970s; changes in certain key variables – most crucially the attitude of the Chief to the Government – could radically alter the configuration of alliances, as may be seen from my postscript.

Type
Africana
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , September 1978 , pp. 487 - 494
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1978

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References

page 487 note 1 Swartz, Marc J., ‘Introduction’ in Swartz, (ed.), Local–Level Politics: social and cultural perspectives (London, 1969), pp. 1–46.Google Scholar

page 487 note 2 For a more expansive view see, Wiseman, John A., ‘The Organisation of Political Conflict in Botswana, 1966–1973’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Manchester, 1976,Google Scholar and ‘Multi-Partyism in Africa: the case of Botswana’, in African Affairs (London), 76, 302, 01 1977, pp. 70–9.Google Scholar

page 487 note 3 In Botswana it is necessary to distinguish between ‘tribe’ and ‘ethnic group’, since not all members of the former belong to the latter, and vice versa – for example, the Tswana, the dominant ethnic group, are divided into eight distinct tribes of which the Bakgatla is one. Although ‘ethnicity’ is basically a cultural concept, ‘tribe’ is really a political description relating to a centralised chieftaincy, and hence the members of other ethnic groups who pledge their allegiance to a particular Tswana chief are members of that tribe. Individuals or groups may change their tribe by transferring their allegiance to a different chief. Thus, birth and ethnic homogeneity are not necessary components of this definition of tribe. As it happens, the Bakgatla are amongst the most ethnically homogeneous of all the Tswana tribes.

page 488 note 1 For details, see Gillet, Simon, ‘The Survival of Chieftaincy in Botswana’, in African Affairs (London), 72, 287, 04 1973, pp. 179–85.Google Scholar

page 488 note 2 See Proctor, J. H., ‘The House of Chiefs and the Political Development of Botswana’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), VI, 1, 05 1968, pp. 59–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

page 488 note 3 See Tordoff, William, ‘Local Administration in Botswana, Part 1’, in Journal of Administration Overseas (London), 12, 4, 10 1973, pp. 172–83,Google Scholar and ‘Local Administration in Botswana, Part 2’, in ibid. 13, 1, Jaunary 1974, pp. 293–308.

page 488 note 4 However, it must be realised that the cases in which the opposition is strongly represented on a Council still tend to be the exception rather than the rule. In most Districts the B.D.P. has a clear majority without recourse to nomination.

page 488 note 5 In 1973 all roach in Botswana were dirt apart from a few miles in the urban centres, and so the comparison is between good and bad dirt roads.

page 488 note 6 It is probably significant that the largest B.D.P. majorities in Council elections were in the Sikwane and Mathobudokwane constituencies which had reasonably good access to Gaborone.

page 489 note 1 Kgatleng/Tlokweng is basically a Bakgatla constituency but includes a few villages outside the District.

page 489 note 2 Linchwe openly admitted in an interview that he knew he was being ‘bought off’ and fully accepted the implications.

page 482 note 3 Cf. the conflict cleavage between Muyombe and its outlying villages in north-east Zambia as described by Bond, George C., The Politics of Change in a Zambian Community (Chicago, 1976), especially pp. 28–30.Google Scholar

page 492 note 1 The Chairman of the Council may be appointed from outside the body of Councillors, although in practice this has tended not to happen.

page 493 note 1 In Mochudi this conflict was emphasised by the fact that the Council offices had been built adjacent to the kgotla or traditional meeting place of the Tswana and the centre of communication between the Chief and his people.