Bechuana

“ Further, the Bechuana custom may throw light on a widespread legend which relates how a wily settler in a new country bought from the natives as much land as could be covered with a hide, and how he then proceeded to cut the hide into thongs and to claim as much land as could be enclosed by the thongs. ”

“ Now a Bechuana of very moderate rank would be ashamed of such an edifice by way of a residence; and even the poor—if we may use the word—can build houses for themselves quite as good as that of Dingan. Instead of being round-topped, like so many wickerwork ant-hills, as is the case with the Kaffir huts, the houses of the Bechuanas are conical, and the shape may be roughly defined by saying that a Bechuana’s hut looks something like a huge whipping-top with its point upward. ”

“ The fear or awe of the unknown is also betrayed amongst the Bechuanas in connection with certain objects which they are forbidden to touch, and certain food which is tabooed by custom. Like mo.st of the North American redskins, each Bechuana tribal group venerates a national token, such as a crocodile, a monkey, some wild beast or fi^h, and celebrates dances in its honour. ”

“ Astounded at their defeat, they turned to the southward, and invaded the Bechuana country.
“At that time our missionaries had established themselves at Koranna, and when the report of the Mantatees advancing was brought to them, the Bechuanas were in a great consternation; for although finer-looking men than the eastern Caffres, they are not by any means so brave and warlike. ”

“ Many of these Bechuanas are rich in cattle, sheep, and goats. They have their cattle-posts away in the bush, where the stock is looked after, cows milked, and once or twice a week a pack-ox is loaded up with skins of milk and taken to the kraal for use. These “vieh-posts” are in charge of their slaves, called Vaalpans. They are the Bushmen of the country kept in subjection by the Bechuana tribe, and are a very harmless and quiet people, the only drawback to their liberty being they cannot leave their masters’ service; otherwise they have full liberty of action. ”

“ Mochuri struck me as one of the cleanest Bechuana towns that I ever saw. It is situated in a depression between two hills, being surrounded by a high thorn-fence, and having all the enclosures about its farmsteads well cemented and neatly preserved. Until 1876 the Bakhatlas were the only central Bechuana tribe that cultivated tobacco and used it as an article of commerce. Besides being agriculturists, they spend a good deal of their time in tanning leather. Nearly all of them speak Dutch.
MISSION HOUSE IN MOLOPOLOLE. ”

“ This isolated action of the Bakhatla Chief and people in a remote corner of the Empire, on the boundaries of the late Boer Republic, had its moral and material value. The Boers, who virtually owned the whole of Bechuanaland to the south, except Mafeking town, found that it would pay them better to adopt a friendlier attitude towards the other Bechuana tribes. Thereby a Dutch Field Cornet pronounced all the Bechuana Chiefs as the original Afrikanders — with the exception of Lentsue of the Bakhatla, and Montsioa of the Barolong in Mafeking. ”

“ I gained the knowledge that we can put all our confidence in most of the Bechuana tribes and most of the Bechuana chiefs between the Waal river and the Zambesi. They are one race, but different tribes, with regard to their mental capabilities, their customs, &c. Mankwenune, the chief of the Batlapins, proved a man to whom we can not well trust; but through recent events he has become a better man. Another chief, Montzua, is a man whom we can trust in every way ”

“ The missing Bechuana was a Batloka, and the evidence went to show that the poor fellow had been compelled to rest so often and so long from his weakness, hunger, and sore feet, that he had fallen far into the rear, and, missing his way, had strayed into a rocky valley full of bushes that were notoriously the haunt of lions. ”

“ Southernmost of all the Bechuana tribes are the Ba-Tlaro, settled on the north-west frontier of Griqualand West, where, however, they have to a large extent become merged with the better-known Ba-Tlapi,* or " Fish People." These Ba-Tlapi, whose national token is a fish, and who carefully abstain from touching this sacred animal, occupy a hilly district north of Griqualand West, bordering on the Vaal, and were also amongst the rival claimants for the coveted diamantiferous region now annexed to Cape Colony. ”

“ One Bechuana lost his life while too eagerly seeking for plunder. The slain of the enemy was between four and five hundred.
"The Mantatees are a tall, robust people, in features resembling the Bechuanas; the dress, consisting of prepared ox-hides, hanging doubly over their shoulders. The men, during the engagement, were nearly naked, having on their heads a round cockade of black ostrich feathers. Their ornaments were large copper rings, sometimes eight in number, worn round their necks, with numerous arm, leg, and ear rings of the same material. ”

“ I was hunting one day near Cooe, and happened to ride down the river close upon a number of these girls and two old women, which caused a great commotion amongst them. I was told if they had caught me they were likely to kill me for trespassing into their sanctuary. All the Bechuana tribe have this ceremony. This region being far removed from any white people, the natives are much better behaved, and it was a pleasure to be amongst them. As a people they are quite alive to the ridiculous, and can understand a joke as well as any one. ”

“ The Griqualand West province of Cape Colony belongs also geographically to Bechuanaland, and except in the Kimberley diamond mines region is still largely inhabited by Bechuana. (See Griqualand.)
Physical Features.—The average height of the tableland of which Bechuanaland consists is nearly 4000 ft. The surface is hilly and undulating with a general slope to the west, where the level falls in considerable areas to little over 2000 ft. A large part of the country is covered with grass or shrub, chiefly acacia. There is very little forest land. ”

“ Among the tales of the South African Bechuana, there is one of a younger brother, who has been killed by an older, immediately appearing as a bird, and announcing what has occurred. The bird is twice killed, and the last time burnt and its ashes scattered to the winds, but still reappears, and proclaims that his body lies by a spring in the desert. ”

“ At any rate slavery, if it exists, is not much developed, the chief function of slaves probably being reinforcement of the tribe in warfare.
The Bechuana group consists of several tribes, the principal being, according to Schurtz540, the Basuto, the Makololo, the [142] Bamangwato, the Bakwains and the Bakalahari. Fritsch, describing the Bechuanas in general, makes no mention of slaves. According to Holub, however, they have Makalahiri slaves541. But from some particulars it appears that these Makalahiri are rather a tribe subjected as a whole than individual slaves. ”

“ Partially civilized Hottentots still live grouped together in their kraals and are members of Christian churches. The Bechuana hold their own in several centers; one is in Basutoland, west of Natal, where a number of tribes were welded together under the far-sighted Moshesh into a modern and fairly well civilized nation. In the north part of Bechuanaland are the self-governing Bamangwato and the Batwana, the former ruled by Khama, one of the canniest of modern rulers in Africa.
Meantime, in Portuguese territory south of the Zambesi, there arose Gaza, a contemporary and rival of Chaka. ”

“ They now adopt the usual female dress. "Raised thus from comparative infancy to what they consider womanhood, they view themselves with as much complacency as if they were enrobed in the attire of a daughter of an Eastern potentate. They have reached nearly to a climax in their life, for they expect soon to be married; to be a mother they consider the chief end of a woman's existence."
The Bechuanas generally bury their dead. The ceremony of interment, &c., varies in different localities, and is influenced by the rank of the deceased ”

“ Under the rule of Khame, Sekhomo’s son, decidedly the most enlightened of the Bechuana princes, the town is manifestly reviving, and if during the next few years it should remain free from hostilities on the part of the Matabele Zulus, it may be expected to rise again into its old pre-eminence amongst Bechuana towns. ”

“ They are employed as hunters or herdsmen. “If a Makalahiri servant behaves well and kills a good many ostriches for his master, he is allowed to marry a Bechuana woman”542. Conder describes the Makalahiri as “nomadic hunters, living chiefly in the west, and considered in the light of serfs of the chief”543. It is clear that these hunters, living away from the Bechuanas, and considered as “serfs of the chiefs,” are a subjected tribe and not individual slaves. There are two other tribes subjected to the Bechuanas: the Barwa or Masarwa, and the Madenassana. ”

“ The Bechuana people are a branch of the great Bantu family, who according to the national traditions arrived in Austral Africa later than the other Kafir tribes. Till recently they were even still migrating, though not voluntarily. In order to escape from the Boers of the Orange and Transvaal, many tribal groups had been compelled to move westwards, and before the intervention of the English the native tribes were being harassed all along the line by the Boers of the conterminous districts. ”

“ Nor would the so-called Bechuana Rebellion of 1895, some of the incidents which distinguished it, the wholesale confiscation of native lands which followed it, and the fate which overtook the 3,000 odd "rebels" who surrendered, make other than excellent reading for a world audience sitting in judgment upon our sins. ”

“ Among the different Bechuana tribes it is the custom to select the name of some animal to distinguish one tribe from another. This would seem to indicate that in former times they were addicted to the worship of animals, like the old Egyptians. We find one tribe bearing a name signifying "they of the monkey;" another, "they of the alligator;" or, "they of the fish."
Each tribe holds the animal from which it derived its name in superstitious fear; nor will a man eat the animal for which his tribe was named, and frequently uses a term signifying hate or dread in referring to it. ”

“ Unirrigated land laid under wheat by the natives is said to yield twelve bushels an acre. Cereals are grown in many of the river valleys. Maize and millet are the chief crops. The wealth of the Bechuana consists principally in their cattle, which they tend with great care, showing a shrewd discrimination in the choice of pasture suited to oxen, sheep and goats. Water can usually be obtained all the year round by sinking wells from 20 to 30 ft. ”

“ Sometimes the magic sympathy takes effect not so much through an act as through a supposed resemblance of qualities. Thus some Bechuanas wear a ferret as a charm because, being very tenacious of life, it will make them difficult to kill.33 Others wear a certain insect, mutilated but living, for a similar purpose.34 Other Bechuana warriors wear the hair of an ox among their own hair and the skin of a frog on their mantle, because a frog is slippery and the ox from [pg 012] which the hair has been taken has no horns and is therefore hard to catch ”

“ All the other tribes can have as many wives as they are able to keep. They belong to the Bechuana family, and live more in the northern part of Griqualand West, near the Harts river, as all the lower parts are occupied by English, Dutch, and others in farms, allowing small native kraals to remain on them, that the occupiers may have the use of their labour when required, and they are allowed a piece of ground to cultivate and grazing for their cattle. ”

“ Whence they derived their architectural knowledge, no one knows. Why the Kaffirs, who are also men of the soil, should not have learned from their neighbors how to build better houses, no one can tell. The fact remains, that the Bechuana is simply supreme in architecture, and there is no neighboring tribe that is even worthy to be ranked in the second class.
We have already seen that the house of Dingan, the great Kaffir despot, was exactly like that of any of his subjects, only larger, and the supporting posts covered with beads. ”

“ The Bakalahari are traditionally reported to be the oldest of the Bechuana tribes, and they are said to have possessed enormous herds of the large horned cattle mentioned by Bruce, until they were despoiled of them and driven into the Desert by a fresh migration of their own nation. Living ever since on the same plains with the Bushmen, subjected to the same influences of climate, enduring the same thirst, and subsisting on similar food for centuries, they seem to supply a standing proof that locality is not always sufficient of itself to account for difference in races. ”

“ The saying of the Bechuana chief, recorded by the missionary, Casalis, was probably, judging by its epigrammatic character, a proverb of his people. "One event is always the son of another," he said—a saying strikingly like that of Leibnitz. ”

“ Whatever effect Christianity may have had in ameliorating the condition of the wives of the converts, it has done very little to lighten the severity of their tasks; the introduction of the plough, however, which is driven by men with the help of oxen (animals which the women never touch) , has relieved the Bechuana women of one of their most fatiguing labours. It is to be hoped that it will gradually tend to the abolition of all the senseless ceremonies of the rain-magic, which I have made this long digression to describe. ”

“ Our fathers lost their lives in capturing you, and we also shall perish in guarding you." So sang till lately the young Ba-Mangwato warriors to their herds ; but of late years most of the Bechuana tribes have discontinued their warlike expeditions. Formerly nomad pastors and hunters, they are now rapidly becoming peaceful tillers of the laud. Every man, every youth, even every girl, has his or her separate plot of ground, and the child thus learns from its tenderest years to cultivate the soil. ”