Thomas Tlou and Alec Campbell, History of Botswana, Macmillan

Botswana, Gaborone, 1984, pp.278, Maps, Illustrations

Despite the great advances made in the study of African history over the past
twenty-five years, national history still remaInS a neglected area of African
historiography. And yet histories of the nation-states that are a legacy of the colonial
carve-up of the continent, precipitated by the Berlin West Africa Conference of
1884-1885, are of vital importance to natJOnals who seek to establish their identity
in terms of their past. For the most part they have had to reply on histories that are
a by-product of the old colonial historiography. Few African historians have tackled
the difficult task of writing the history of the particular country In which they were
born. Even Nigeria, whose historians staff some twenty University history departments,
has not yet produced one who has ventured to write a history of his country. A few
states have at least been fortunate to have their history written by expatriate
historians who are products of the new African historiography, the outstandIng
example being John Iliffe's A Modern History of Tanganyika. But many stIlI have to
make do with histories written before independence, often by colonIal administrators
themselves. Thus this magnificiently produced and illustrated History of Botswana by
Thomas TIou and Alec Campbell is a really welcome event. The fact that it is
designed primarily for use in secondary schools makes It doubly welcome, SInce
nowhere else is a balanced approach to the past more essential.

Until the pubIicatJOn of this volume the only history of Botswana available at any
level was Anthony Sillery's Botswana: a Short Political History. The difference in the
approach of the two books IS immediately apparent from a study of theIr respectIve
Tables of Contents. TIou and Campbell devote over half of their book to the
pre-colonial history of Botswana, while Sillery devotes less than a quarter. The
colonial period, which is the prinCIpal concern of SIllery's volume, IS not neglected by
Tlou and Campbell but is put firmly in the perspectIve of the pre-colonial as well as
the post-colonial history of the country, to which theIr last three chapters are
devoted.

The authors make use of the very considerable research that has been undertaken on
Botswana's history over the past twenty years, to which they themselves have each
made their dIstinguished contributions. For this reason their book, though de'>lgned for
a secondary school audience, will be useful for students studYing the hIStory of
Botswana at a higher level. It will also prove an admIrable introductIOn to the
country for those who have no specific motive other than an Interest In understanding
ItS past.

The auth?rs seem to be on surest ground when dealing WIth the earlier periods of
Botswana s hIstory. Their clear and original account of the DeoplIng of the re<::lon, and
the relatIOnship of the early inhabitants of the country to the development of states
In the region, is based on the most recent archaeological research. Indeed much of the
materIal here cannot as yet be obtained elsewhere even in the learned journals.
CUrIously, It IS when the authors approach the nineteenth century, about which so
much more IS known, that their footsteps are not so steady. In dealing With the
dIfaqane, for Instance, they seem to be more at pains to detail the travaIls of each of
Botswana's present-day peoples and how they came to be where they now are than to
expla th d I .. ,
In e un er ymg causes of thiS great upheaval and its long-term consequences.
They come perIlously close to a hi~tory that is one of "unrewarding gyrations" of
peoples, to use Trevor-Roper's notorious phrase.

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Their account of the colonial period is straightforward and fair, and told without
rancour though the British record in the Bechuanaland Protectorate was certainly not
a matter for pride. They contrast the stagnation under British rule with the
Imaginative developments that have taken place in a country which, at the time of
Independence, seemed to have no other future than its colonial function as a labour
reserve for South Africa. They show how mineral revenues and the boom in cattle
exports have been used to build schools and roads rather than being frittered away as
has been the case in so many African countries that experienced a post-independence
bonanza. They also explain the problems faced by a front-line state whose economy is
deeply dependent on that of South Africa in trying to follow an independent foreign
policy.

There are some factual errors in the period with which this reviewer is familiar that
should be corrected in a second edition: autonomy and independence are not one and
the same thing (p.160); the Bangwato formally joined the Advisory Council in 1939 not
1940, and attended meetings before that date on an ad hoc rather than a regular basis
as suggested on p. I 83; Charles Rey succeeded Resident Commissioner Daniel in 1930
not 1929; In 1941 the Bntlsh High Commissioner to South Africa was Lord, not Sir
Edward Harlech; John Mswazwi was exiled to Serowe, not Mafeking, in 1930.

ThiS all may seem to be mt-plcklng, but facts taught at school lodge firmly In the
briiln, iiS do interpretations. In thiS respect the account of the flogging of McIntosh in
1933 needs conSiderable revIsion.

"'In the first place Mcintosh was brought before Tshekedl's kgotla and sentenced to a
flogging for assaulting a Mongwato youth, not for sleeping with Bangwato women,
though a dispute over one of them was the occasion for the assault. Whtle on moral
grounds Tshekedl may 'rightly' have trIed McIntosh, such an IntepretatlOn does not
help us understand the ensuing criSIS nor ItS resolutIOn. Under the terms of the
British Protectorate the Tswana chiefs had no right to bring Whites before their
courts, even those reSident in their territories. Any complaints against Whites had to
be placed before the ReSIdent Magistrate, to whom Tshekedi had mdeed frequently
complained Without result about the behaviour of McIntosh and another youth given to
the same wild ways. It seems that Tshekedl brought the young McIntosh to Justice In
desperatIOn since the BritIsh would do nothmg to control him, though ReSident
Commissioner Rey believed he was deliberately provoking a constitutional crisis as
part of hiS resistance to measures designed to restrict the powers of the Chiefs.
Tshekedl was suspended (not deposed) on the grounds that he had exceeded his
jUrisdictIOn, not prinCIpally because of White South African pressure as implied here,
though thiS obVIOusly lay at the root of the over-reactIon by the Acting High
CommiSSioner, Admiral Evans, who sent his marines to Serowe in a display of British
mllltary might. Tshekedl was reinstated not because he threatened to take the
AdministratIOn to court but because he formally acknowledged that he had no right to
try a European under the Protectorate dIspensatIOn. Not least of the problems the
British faced In suspending him from Office - and Charles Rey would have liked it to
have been on a long-term if not permanent basis - was the fact that no one else
would take on the chleftancy whICh meant that the British were unable to continue to
operate indirect rule in Gammangwato. Tshekedi's ostensible climb-down therefore
got off the hook an Administration that was under increasing pressure from Press,
Parliament and Public Opinion in Britain for its mishandling of the affaIr.

ThIS reviewer would not be belabouring these details of interpretation if he did not
know how difficult it is to persuade students that what is printed in a text-book does
not have biblical authority. Furthermore, this otherwise excellent textbook will no
doubt deservedly go into many further editions so that suitable corrections can be
made.

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Overall, both publishers and authors are to be congratulated for a Dook that marks an
important new departure in the approach to Botswana's history and which, in the
tradition of Neil Parsons' A New History of Southern Africa, demonstrates how our
understanding of the African past can be enriched by carefully chosen vIsual evidence
in the form of contemporary paintings, drawings and photographs.

Michael Crowder

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