British South Africa
BOTSWANA
Sofia Goodman
COLONIAL BOTSWANA
Botswana was first colonized relatively late, with British gold prospectors first arriving in 1867. However, the Boers who had settled in South Africa centuries before were constantly encroaching on the land that today constitutes Botswana. The largest ethnic group, the Tswana, suffered greatly in violent clashes with the Boers. Ultimately, the chief of the Tswana, Khama III, petitioned to Britain for protection against the Boers. Although Khama III acted unilaterally, without the support of other chiefs, the British established the Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1890. British rule in this new protectorate was notably un-intrusive and indirect; there was no large settler community and the colonial presence was generally minimal. There were multiple failed attempts to incorporate this new territory into the Union of South Africa, but the unified resistance from the chiefs was too strong.
Although the British political presence was light, the arrival of missionaries imposed western religious ideal. Motivated by the desire to modernize and improve their drought-ridden, ailing economy, the Tswana chiefs embraced modernization and were some of the first converts to Christianity. One such chief, Seretse Khama was very crucial in the struggle for independence.
Khama became the most powerful chief as a child in 1923. He pursued higher education in Britain, where he met and married a British woman. Because South Africa was intolerant of interracial relationships, Khama was exiled from the country. This effectively barred him from ruling his people because capital of Botswana was actually located in South Africa at this time, to ease colonial administration of the territory. This huge scandal incited resistance and nationalism in Botswana.
TIMELINE
1867
British arrive
1890
Formation of Bechuanaland Protectorate
1923
Seretse Khama becomes chief of Ngwato
1950
Seretse Khama exiled
1951
Joint Advisory Council created
1960
Bechuanaland People's Party (BPP) established
1962
Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) established
1963
Constitution Council drafts new plan for self-rule
1965
BDP wins legislative elections
Seretse Khama elected PM
Capital moved to Gaborone
1966
Botswana becomes indepenent
1967
Diamonds discovered at Orapa
Botswana National Front (BNF) established
INDEPENDENCE
In the early part of the 20th century, two Advisory councils, “African” and “European” formed to allow more participation in governance. However criticism of the discriminatory segregation led to the formation of the Joint Advisory Council in 1951. This Council pushed for independence. In 1963 a deliberately multi-racial Constitution Conference drafted a constitutional plan for self-rule, which was soon approved by the British. The capital was moved from Mafikeng in South Africa to Gaborone in Botswana. The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP), which was formed by Seretse Khama, gained widespread support and won legislative elections in 1965, which established Khama as Prime Minister. The next year, on September 30, 1966, in an election with universal adult suffrage, Botswana was voted into independent nationhood. Khama was the first president.
The independence process in Botswana was remarkably peaceful and well-organized. Much of this success can be attributed to the prescience of the BDP. This party was intentionally created as a post-independence party, whose primary concern was effective leadership once independence was inevitably won. Because the parties involved weren’t exclusively nationalistic, Botswana’s transition to post-colonial independence was significantly easier than the struggle many other countries experienced. The strength of the BDP’s grassroots efforts was especially impressive. A massive BDP interview campaign asked citizens what they expected from an independent Botswana. Also, party leaders carefully examined the existing political structures of newly-independent African nations and Western democracies, incorporating al. this observation into a carefully-considered, successful multi-party model for Botswana’s government.
POLITICAL PARTIES
A number of political parties were important to success of Botswana independence efforts. Their perspectives aligned and diverged in interesting ways:
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BPP (Bechuanaland People’s Party): This was the first nationalist party which formed 1960 in and pushed for full independence by 1964. Their approach was more radical than the BDP, but as the first party, their more progressive approach was necessary to definitively shift the cultural conversation toward independence.
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BDP (Botswana Democratic Party): This extremely well-organized and dominant party was formed by Seretse Khama in 1962. The BDP positioned itself as more moderate than the BPP and emphasized its identity as a national, non-tribal, non-racial party. Leaders in the party were careful to distinguish their ideals of non-racialism in Botswana from the South African multi-racial model. Due to widespread support from local chiefs, the educated and the wealthy, the BDP won 1965 elections and have been the dominant political group in Botswana’s multi-party system ever since.
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BNF (Botswana National Front): this is a Socialist party formed in 1967 by Kenneth Koma in response to the moderate politics of the newly-independent Botswana. It continues to be the official opposition party in Botswanan politics.
EARLY POST-INDEPENDENCE
Shortly after independence, the previously-depressed economy of Botswana was invigorated by the 1967 discovery of gold and diamonds at Orapa. Before this discovery, the GDP per capita was $8, but the discovery of diamonds into infrastructure rocketed this figure to $6,000 per capita today, which is one of the highest in Africa. In addition, the mining company, de Beers, did not simply plunder Botswana but instead entered into a 50-50 joint venture with the government, who re-invested the influx of cash into infrastructure and job creation. There is no question the discovery of diamonds was the primary catalyst to Botswana’s growth.
Politically, Botswana is the poster child of multi-party success. As only one of two stable, multi-party systems in Africa (the other is The Gambia) Botswana maintained the ideals of anti-corruption independence was predicated on. Having a multi-party system increases the potential for stability and success because it provides more political choices and dilutes the potential for corruption.
Although clearly successful, early post-colonial Botswana did experience minor power struggles between between chiefs and the central government. These were resolved by elevating chiefs into local government officials. In this way, the pre-colonial system was successfully absorbed into the new governmental structure.