"A nation without a past is a lost nation,
and a people without a past is a people without a soul."
Sir Seretse Khama, 1921 - 1980,
first President of the Republic of Botswana.
Missionaries and Traders
Bechuanaland was visited by Europeans towards the close of the 18th century. The generally peaceful disposition of the tribes rendered the opening up of the country comparatively easy. When European traders and missionaries began arriving in Botswana in the early nineteenth century they found the lives of most Botswana communities being disrupted by Bakololo and Amandebele invaders. As a result a number of more powerful rulers emerged such as Sebego of the Bangwaketse, Sechele of the Bakwena, Sekgoma of the Bangwato and Letsholathebe of the Batawana who built up their emerging states by acquiring both knowledge and guns from the European visitors. In return for guns they traded ivory and other game products, while inviting missionaries to establish schools in their territories.
In the 19th century numerous missionary societies were formed in Europe and America to send out proselytizers around the world. The London Missionary Society was one of the first to preach amongst the Batswana. The London Missionary Society established stations in what is now Griqualand West in 1803, and in 1818 the mission station of Kuruman (near present-day Vryburg in South Africa), in Bechuanaland proper, was founded. The untiring Robert Moffat headed the station for 50 years. The Rev. John Campbell, one of the founders of the Bible Society, also travelled in southern Bechuanaland and the adjoining districts in 1812—1814 and 1819—1821, adding considerably to the knowledge of the river systems.
Largely as the result of the work of Moffat (who reduced the Bechuana tongue to writing), and of other missionaries, the Bechuana advanced notably in civilization. The arrival of David Livingstone in 1841 marked the beginning of the systematic exploration of the northern regions. His travels, and those of C.I.Anderson (1853—1858) and others, covered almost every part of the country hitherto unknown.
The famous Dr. David Livingstone arrived in 1841, worked out of Kuruman for about two years, and then married Moffat's daughter, Mary. Though much more interested in exploration than missionary work, and later much more involved in the abolition of the slave trade, Livingstone set up a mission station at Kolobeng among the Bakwena. Livingstone, in his African Travels, says that he came upon the tribe of the Bechuanas. They were a people savage to the last degree, but ostentatious to a remarkable extent. As an illustration of it, he said that when his party wished to get some food from them, the Bechuana chief said, "Behold an ox;" but when they looked, they found but a miserable goat.
The Transvaal Boers invaded Botswana in 1852, but were driven away by a coalition of merafe (often translated as tribes) who temporarily united under the overall leadership of the Bakwena ruler Sechele.
From Kuruman, Christianity very gradually spread to the interior. Missionaries settled amongst the people, often at the invitation of the chiefs who wanted guns and knew that the presence of missionaries encouraged the traders. By 1880 every major village of every tribe in Botswana had a resident missionary and their influence had become a permanent feature of life.
The missionaries worked through the chief, recognizing that the chief's conversion was the key to the rest of the tribe. Chiefs' responses varied - from Khama's (of the Bangwato) wholehearted embrace of the faith, to Sekgoma Letsholathebe's (of the Batawana) outright rejection, which he claimed was in defence of his culture.
The cause of Christianity was not to be advanced by bloodshed and devastation. The Bible had been translated into the language of the chief tribes, which is called Chuan or Sechuan (1831) and single Gospels into Matabele and Mashona. Roman Catholic missions in this territory were under the charge of the Jesuits connected with the Zambesi mission. Protestant missions were carried on by the London Missionary Society, which extended its work to this territory in 1862, and by the Hermannsburg Missionary Society of Germany, which entered the territory in 1864. It is difficult to obtain the exact statistics of either of these societies, since the mission reports of both covered land beyond the borders of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. It is estimated by 1900, however, that the number of their adherents was not far from 12,000. Somewhat over 100,000 of the people are pagans, and about 15,000 were Christians.
At the time of the first contact of the Bechuana with white men the Cape government was the only civilized authority in South Africa; and from this cause, and the circumstance that the missionaries who lived among and exercised great influence over them were of British nationality, the connexion between Bechuanaland and the Cape became close.
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