Tswana people

The Tswana people are an Indigenous people from southern Africa who live primarily in the nations of Botswana and South Africa. The Tswana population in the mid-2020s was estimated to be between four and six million, with the majority living in South Africa. The Tswana in Botswana make up a majority of that nation’s population. The name Botswana means “land of the Tswana” in Setswana, the language of the Tswana people. The Tswana have traditionally been herders and farmers who developed a stratified social structure run by a hereditary line of village chiefs. Some of the larger Tswana chiefdoms in Botswana have representatives who sit on the nation’s parliament.

Brief history

Pottery found in southern Africa suggests the ancestors of the Tswana were living in the area between 1300 and 1500 CE. Anthropologists and language experts believe the people originally migrated to the region from eastern Africa near modern-day Tanzania. By 1500, the people had moved south and west and separated into three related linguistic groups. One group became the Basuto and Sotho peoples; another group was known as the Pedi peoples. In South Africa, the third group was called the West Sotho, who later became known as the Tswana.

The Tswana people became accomplished cattle, goat, and sheep herders and planted crops such as grains and tobacco. They were also known for their wood and ivory carving, metalwork, and leatherwork. Some Tswana began to move south into what is today the North West Province of South Africa, splitting into two main groups—the Tlhaping and Rolong tribes and the Bafokeng tribe. Farther north, the Kwena and Hurutshe tribes joined to form the Ngwaketse chiefdom in about 1700. The chiefdom became a powerful military force, controlling the region’s hunting, cattle, and copper mining.

As Tswana chiefdoms began to spread across the region, they grew in power but also encountered sometimes hostile neighbors and a growing number of Dutch and British settlers. The early decades of the nineteenth century were marked by wars and instability as the Tswana were often uprooted by the changing political environment of the region. With the discovery of gold and diamonds in the area in the late nineteenth century, many Tswana men were recruited to work in the mines. During this time, the British were concerned that Dutch farmers would try to encroach on Tswana lands in the north, so in 1885, the government declared the region as the Bechuanaland Protectorate. A protectorate is a self-governed area under the protection of the British Crown. In 1966, the Bechuanaland Protectorate became the independent nation of Botswana.

In South Africa, the Tswana lost much of their lands as the Dutch and British fought a series of wars to claim the region’s territory. When the Dutch and British provinces were united in 1910 as the new nation of South Africa, Tswana chiefdoms lost all power in the region. In the mid-twentieth century, South Africa adopted a harsh series of discriminatory laws known as apartheid. Black South Africans were segregated into designated “homelands,” with the Tswana people given the Bophuthatswana homeland, seven disconnected areas in north-central South Africa. Bophuthatswana was absorbed back into a united South Africa after apartheid ended in the early 1990s.

Overview

Most of the modern Tswana people live in Botswana and the North West and Northern Cape provinces of South Africa. The Tswana people have embraced some modern technology and goods, but many still adhere to their traditional cultural beliefs and continue to rely on herding and subsistence farming for their livelihoods. The Tswana are not a unified people but are divided into numerous tribes under the control of a leader called the kgosi, or “chief.” Three of the larger tribes—the Ngwato, Kwena, and Ngwaketse—were named for three brothers who established their own chiefdoms in the seventeenth century. These three tribes have anywhere from forty thousand to more than one hundred thousand members each. In Botswana, the eight largest tribes are each governed by a supreme chief known as a Kgosikgolo. Each Kgosikgolo is granted a seat on a special advisory council to the nation’s parliament.

The position of kgosi is hereditary and is traditionally passed down from father to firstborn son. However, on rare occasions, a daughter has inherited her father’s position. A person’s tribal lineage is symbolized by a sacred totem, which was usually represented by an animal such as an elephant, crocodile, or lion. While the Tswana are subject to the laws of their respective nations, some villages still maintain a traditional legal system for local matters. The system consists of a complex series of courts and mediators known for imposing sometimes harsh punishments.

Traditional Tswana villages are typically structured around cattle herding, with wealth and status equated with how many cattle a person owns. The villages are organized according to age groups, with men and women of approximate ages tasked with handling certain responsibilities. Farmland is usually located outside of the village. During the harvesting and plowing seasons, families volunteer to help other families when needed and, in turn, receive help when they need it.

Most people have abandoned traditional Tswana clothing for modern Western-style attire. Many older cultural rituals have also been discarded, but the Tswana still perform traditional music and dance during village ceremonies. Coming-of-age initiation ceremonies are sometimes still held for both boys and girls, though they are not as elaborate and grueling as they were in the past. Traditional folk medicine is still practiced by many Tswana, though they do have access to modern healthcare facilities.

The Tswana people speak Setswana, a language that is part of the wider Bantu language group. Bantu languages encompass more than 400 individual dialects and are spoken by more than 300 million people across central and southern Africa. Prior to the nineteenth century, Setswana was exclusively a spoken language until European missionaries created a written form. In 1930, Setswana-speaking author Sol Plaatje became the first Black South African to publish a novel in English. He also translated the works of William Shakespeare into his native Setswana.

Bibliography

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