Education and Training of a Tswana Chief Under the British Colonial System in Botswana: The Case of Kgosi Mokgosi III of Balete, 1920-1945

Abstract

African chiefs were pivotal to the British colonial policy of ‘Indirect Rule’ in British tropical Africa. With
skeletal staff on the ground, the British ruled through the chiefs since it was economic to do so. The British
started indirect rule in Nigeria at the turn of the twentieth century after which it spread to East Africa and
then Central Africa. In most cases chiefs had to be collaborators with the colonial system to remain in
office. In some of these colonies special schools were provided for training chiefs to become ‘cadres’ in
the colonial system. Indirect Rule reached Botswana in the early 1930s amidst spirited resistance from
Tswana dikgosi (chiefs). Critically, the straightforward Tswana succession system through primogeniture
made it difficult or impossible for the Tswana dikgosi to work with the colonial system as collaborators.
Consequently, whereas deposition of chiefs was common in other colonies, in Botswana this was rare.
Whereas there was no special school for dikgosi in Botswana and they had to be sent to South Africa, the
British colonial administration had an idea of the kind of education to be accorded the dikgosi. Mostly
utilising archival records, this paper uses the example of Kgosi Mokgosi III of Balete to demonstrate
that even in a case of a kgosi (chief) whose behaviour the colonial authorities disapproved of, they had
no choice but to accept and nurture him through schooling even when he did not perform well or got
expelled for leading a riot. Furthermore, the authorities sought to prepare him for the chieftaincy (bogosi)
by enlisting him into the colonial police service, and attempting to have him serve in the Second World
War. Mokgosi was the heir apparent of the Balete from 1931 to 1945 after which he became kgosi from
1945 to 1966 and performed his duties well.