Tswana people
Based on Wikipedia: Tswana people
The Trap at Khutiyabasadi
In 1884, a calf was tied to a tree in the Okavango Delta. Its mother, bound to another tree nearby, lowed in distress. To the warriors of the Ndebele army pushing through the tall reeds, exhausted and disoriented in unfamiliar swampland, this seemed like a sign they were finally catching up to what they had come for: the legendary cattle herds of the Batswana.
It was a trap. And within hours, more than two thousand men would be dead.
The story of the Tswana people is often told as a dry recitation of migrations and tribal divisions. But buried within that history are moments of stunning tactical brilliance, centuries of sophisticated statecraft, and the rise of some of the most organized societies in pre-colonial Africa. The Batswana—as they call themselves, with "Motswana" being the singular form—are today the dominant ethnic group of Botswana (a country literally named for them) and one of the largest ethnic groups in South Africa, numbering over four million speakers of their language, Setswana.
But to understand who they are, you need to understand how they got there. And that story involves cattle, trade routes stretching to the Indian Ocean, wars against both African empires and European colonizers, and one of the most lopsided military victories in southern African history.
The Cattle Kingdom
Long before Europeans arrived, the ancestors of the Batswana had built their wealth on cattle. This was not mere pastoral farming—it was an economic system as sophisticated as anything in the medieval world.
The Toutswe people, who occupied the eastern region of what is now Botswana, kept their herds in kraals—enclosed compounds designed to protect livestock from predators and raiders alike. These cattle represented more than food. They were currency, social capital, and political power made flesh. A chief's authority could be measured in the size of his herds.
The timing of the Batswana arrival in their current homeland remains imprecise, but scholars generally agree on around 600 CE as a reasonable estimate. This massive cattle-raising civilization flourished for seven centuries, reaching its peak around 1300 CE.
What made this society remarkable was its connectivity. The Batswana were not isolated pastoralists but active participants in trade networks that stretched via the Limpopo River all the way to the Indian Ocean. Glass beads from Asia have been found at Batswana archaeological sites—luxury goods that likely arrived in exchange for ivory, gold, and rhinoceros horn. While Europe was mired in the early Middle Ages, the Batswana were trading with merchants whose supply chains reached to the other side of the world.
Cities Before Colonialism
One of the most persistent myths about pre-colonial Africa is that it lacked urban centers. The Batswana provide a decisive counterexample.
By the time the first written European records appeared in 1824, Batswana chiefdoms had capitals of ten thousand people or more. To put that in perspective, medieval London in 1300 had a population of roughly eighty thousand—only eight times larger than these African settlements, despite Europe's supposed civilizational advantages.
The most famous of these was Kaditshwene, the cultural capital of the Bahurutshe people, one of the principal Batswana tribes. Founded in the late 1400s, Kaditshwene sat atop deposits of iron and copper ore. It was not just a residential center but a manufacturing hub, producing metal goods for trade across the region.
Another major settlement, whose ruins still stand in South Africa's Suikerbosrand Nature Reserve, tells an even more dramatic story. Known as Kweneng, this site was occupied continuously from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century—four hundred years of continuous habitation. The remains stretch over ten kilometers long and two kilometers wide, featuring numerous circular stone-walled family compounds. This was not a temporary camp or a seasonal gathering place. This was a city.
The Bangwaketse Ascendancy
When European observers first began documenting the region in 1824, they found the Bangwaketse had become the dominant power among the Batswana tribes. Under their leader Makaba II, the Bangwaketse had perfected a strategy that would have been familiar to any medieval European lord: concentrate your wealth in defensible positions, then project military force outward.
The Bangwaketse kept their vast cattle herds in well-protected desert areas where raiders could not easily reach them. From this secure economic base, they launched military expeditions against their neighbors, accumulating still more cattle and extending their influence.
But the Bangwaketse were not destined to dominate forever. The 1840s and 1850s brought a transformation that would reshape the entire region: trade with the Cape Colony.
Cape Colony-based merchants offered something the Batswana desperately wanted: guns and horses. Four major chiefdoms—the Bakwena, Bangwaketse, Bangwato, and Batawana—formed an unprecedented cooperative arrangement to control the ivory trade. The tusks that flowed south were converted into firearms and cavalry mounts that flowed north.
By 1880, these four allied chiefdoms had established control over essentially all of modern Botswana. In the process, they subjugated the Bushmen (the indigenous hunter-gatherers who had inhabited the region for millennia), the Bakalanga, the Bakgalagadi, the Batswapong, and other groups who became minorities under Batswana rule.
The Battle That Stopped the Boers
The nineteenth century brought new threats from the south. Following the Great Trek of the 1830s—when Dutch-descended Afrikaners left the Cape Colony to escape British rule—Boer settlers established themselves along the borders of Tswana territory in the Transvaal.
Tensions escalated through the early 1850s. The Afrikaners, confident in their military superiority, began encroaching on Batswana land. In 1852, a coalition of Tswana chiefdoms under Sechele I decided they had had enough.
The Battle of Dimawe—note the name, because it appears twice in Batswana history for two different battles—pitted the Tswana coalition against a Boer Commando force led by Commandant-General Pieter Scholtz and Paul Kruger, who would later become president of the Transvaal Republic and a central figure in the Boer Wars against Britain.
This was no primitive clash. Both sides had artillery. Both sides had rifles. The Boers had expected their technological advantages and military experience to deliver a quick victory.
They were wrong.
The Boers launched their offensive. The Batswana held. And then the Boers found themselves in retreat, pursued by Batswana forces that launched retaliatory raids deep into the Transvaal's Marique district. Boer settlements, villages, and farms burned.
After eight years of intermittent conflict, both sides met at Potchefstroom in 1860 to negotiate peace. The agreement established what would become the modern border between South Africa and Botswana. The Batswana had defended their homeland against one of the most militarily capable European settler populations in Africa.
The Genius of Kgosi Moremi
While the southern borders were now secure, danger still threatened from the north. The Ndebele—an offshoot of the Zulu nation that had established a powerful kingdom in what is now Zimbabwe—periodically raided Batswana territory.
In 1884, an Ndebele army under the commander Lotshe marched south into Batawana territory. More than 2,500 warriors set out from Bulawayo, the Ndebele capital. They expected an easy campaign against what they considered inferior opponents.
What they encountered instead was one of the most brilliantly executed defensive operations in African military history.
The Batawana chief, Kgosi Moremi, understood that his people could not defeat the Ndebele in open battle. The Ndebele were famous for their discipline and ferocity, having inherited the military traditions of the Zulu impis. But Moremi had two advantages his enemies lacked: horses and guns.
When the Ndebele arrived at the village of Toteng, they found it abandoned. As they settled in to enjoy what seemed like a bloodless conquest, seventy mounted Batawana warriors appeared under Moremi's personal command. Every man carried a breech-loading rifle—technology the Ndebele generally lacked.
What followed was a masterclass in asymmetric warfare.
Moremi's cavalry began hit-and-run attacks, galloping in close enough to deliver lethal volleys, then racing away before the Ndebele infantry could close with them. The Ndebele had no way to respond. Without horses, they could not catch the Batawana. Without guns, they could not shoot back at effective range.
Meanwhile, a second group of traditionally armed Batawana warriors made their presence known, creating the impression of a larger force surrounding the Ndebele.
Lotshe took the bait. He divided his army, sending one group to chase Moremi's cavalry while the other pursued what they believed was the main Batswana force.
This was exactly what Moremi wanted.
Into the Swamp
Day after day, Moremi led his pursuers northward, deeper into the Okavango Delta. For the Batawana and their Wayeyi allies—a local people who had joined the defense—this was home terrain. For the Ndebele, it was a nightmare landscape of treacherous swamps, thick reeds, and hidden waterways.
As the Ndebele struggled through the unfamiliar environment, small bands of Batawana marksmen continued to harass them. Men dropped from sniper fire. Morale crumbled. And still Moremi retreated, drawing them deeper in.
The calf tied to the tree was one of many deceptions. The Batswana used every trick they knew to keep the Ndebele moving forward—cattle glimpsed through the reeds, defenders who seemed just out of reach, anything that suggested the Ndebele were close to their goal.
They were close to something. But it was not what they expected.
The Kill Zone
Khutiyabasadi was an island in the swamp, dominated by high reeds and surrounded on its western side by deep water. Moremi had spent weeks preparing it as a killing ground.
Three well-armed Batawana regiments waited in concealment, joined by Wayeyi warriors under their leader Qhunkunyane. They had dug tunnels and trenches hidden by the reeds. They had built a wooden platform where a few defenders stood visible, creating the impression of a small, vulnerable force. They had placed cattle on a nearby islet as bait.
Most importantly, they had constructed a papyrus bridge across a channel—and deliberately weakened it at crucial points.
When the Ndebele finally arrived, exhausted and depleted from days of pursuit, they saw exactly what Moremi wanted them to see: cavalry crossing to the island, cattle waiting to be seized, and what appeared to be a fordable stream with a convenient bridge.
Lotshe ordered the charge.
The bridge collapsed under the weight of hundreds of warriors. Men who had crossed deserts and defeated rival armies suddenly found themselves floundering in deep water. Few, if any, knew how to swim.
The waves of soldiers pressing from behind pushed more men into the water. Those who tried to ford the channel found it too deep. The Ndebele formation disintegrated into chaos.
Then the signal was given.
From tunnels and trenches on three sides, the hidden defenders emerged and opened fire. The Ndebele, trapped between the water and the guns, had nowhere to go. The battle became a massacre.
When the main firing ceased, the Wayeyi launched their canoes—called mekoro—into the river to hunt survivors. They killed the floundering men with their oars, holding them under until they drowned. Witnesses later said the water ran black with blood.
The Reckoning
Of the 2,500 warriors who had left Bulawayo, fewer than 500 made it home.
The killing did not stop at Khutiyabasadi. Moremi's cavalry pursued the survivors across the dry plains south of the Chobe River. Those who escaped the pursuit faced exhaustion and starvation. The safer route through Gammangwato territory had been blocked by Khama, another Batswana chief who had coordinated with Moremi.
The message to the Ndebele king Lobengula was unmistakable: your regiments are no match for us. Stay out of our lands.
The Ndebele never again mounted a major incursion into Batswana territory.
The British Alliance
Less than a decade later, the Batswana would find themselves fighting alongside the British against those same Ndebele.
The First Matabele War of 1893-1894 pitted the British South Africa Company against the Ndebele kingdom. The Company had fewer than 750 troops in their police force, plus an uncertain number of colonial volunteers. But they had a crucial ally: Khama III, the most influential of the Batswana chiefs.
Khama contributed 700 Tswana warriors who marched on the Ndebele capital of Bulawayo from the south. Though they arrived too late to participate in the main fighting—the Salisbury and Fort Victoria columns reached Bulawayo on November 4, 1893, while Khama's force did not arrive until November 15—their presence helped secure the British conquest.
Some historians have noted that Khama's delayed arrival may have been strategically convenient. Had the Batswana arrived in force before the Company columns, the newly conquered territory might have been annexed to the Bechuanaland Protectorate rather than becoming the Company's possession. Whether this was coincidence or calculation remains debated.
The Apartheid Era
The twentieth century brought a cruel irony for the Tswana people of South Africa.
In 1961, the apartheid government created the Bophuthatswana Territorial Authority, and in 1972 declared it a self-governing state. On December 6, 1977, Bophuthatswana was granted nominal "independence"—though no country outside South Africa ever recognized it.
This was one of the bantustans, or "homelands"—territories created by the apartheid regime to strip black South Africans of their citizenship. The logic was perverse but internally consistent: if Tswana people were citizens of Bophuthatswana, they could not claim rights in South Africa proper.
Bophuthatswana was not even a contiguous territory. It consisted of scattered pieces of land, gerrymandered to include black population centers while excluding valuable resources and economic opportunities. Its capital was Mmabatho, and 99% of its population spoke Tswana.
The "homeland" system collapsed with apartheid itself. In March 1994, Bophuthatswana was placed under emergency administration. On April 27, 1994—the day of South Africa's first democratic election—it was reincorporated into South Africa. The fragments of Bophuthatswana now form parts of the North West, Free State, Northern Cape, and Gauteng provinces.
The Batswana Today
Modern Botswana takes its name from the Batswana people. The country—formerly the British protectorate of Bechuanaland—has been remarkably successful since independence in 1966, transforming itself from one of the poorest countries in Africa to an upper-middle-income nation through careful management of its diamond resources and stable democratic governance.
Eight major tribes form the core of Botswana's Tswana population, each with a traditional paramount chief titled Kgosikgolo who sits in the Ntlo ya Dikgosi, an advisory body to parliament. The principal tribes include the Kwena, Bangwaketse, Rolong, Kgatla, Mangwato, and several others.
But the largest concentration of Tswana people actually lives in South Africa, not Botswana. Over four million South Africans speak Tswana—one of the country's eleven official languages. The North West Province alone has 2.2 million Tswana speakers.
In the urban areas of Pretoria, where Batswana form a majority, a distinct dialect has emerged. Called Sepitori or Pretoria Sotho, it blends Setswana with words from other languages and dialects, reflecting the cosmopolitan mixing of the city. It sounds quite different from the standard Setswana spoken in rural North West Province or across the border in Botswana.
One Tribe's Remarkable Wealth
Among the various Tswana tribal groups, one has achieved a kind of success almost unique in Africa: the Royal Bafokeng Nation.
The Bafokeng, based in the Phokeng area near Rustenburg, had the extraordinary good fortune—or foresight—to have their ancestral lands sit atop some of the world's richest platinum deposits. Rather than watching this wealth flow to outside corporations, the Bafokeng negotiated mineral rights and royalty agreements that have made them genuinely wealthy.
They established Royal Bafokeng Holdings, a sovereign wealth fund to manage the community's income. Today this fund oversees assets valued at approximately four billion dollars—not for a country, but for a single tribal nation of perhaps 300,000 people.
The investments include the Royal Bafokeng Stadium (which hosted matches during the 2010 FIFA World Cup), the Royal Marang Hotel, and Lebone College, an elite school. Development experts widely regard the Bafokeng model as Africa's most progressive example of community investment—proof that resource wealth can benefit local populations rather than disappearing into corruption or foreign bank accounts.
Food and Culture
To understand a people, it helps to understand what they eat.
The staple food of the Batswana is bogobe, a porridge made from sorghum meal. The most popular variety is called Ting—fermented sorghum porridge with a slightly sour taste. Another version, Bogobe jwa Logala or Sengana, cooks the sorghum porridge with milk for a richer dish.
The national dish of Botswana is seswaa—meat that has been boiled until tender, then pounded or shredded. Served alongside bogobe at weddings, funerals, and celebrations, seswaa is comfort food with deep cultural significance.
Madila is cultured sour milk, traditionally prepared in a lekuka—a leather sack used for processing and storing the milk as it ferments. The resulting product, similar to thick yogurt or kefir, is eaten as a relish with pap (maize porridge) or mixed into motogo, a soft breakfast porridge.
For special occasions, Batswana wear leteisi—a distinctive cotton fabric known in Sotho as shweshwe. Originally a German import that became popular across southern Africa, this indigo-dyed fabric with its geometric patterns has become so associated with traditional dress that many assume it is indigenous. Married women and new mothers wear mogagolwane, a small checkered blanket, during traditional celebrations like baby showers.
The Long View
The story of the Batswana offers a corrective to simplistic narratives about African history. Here was a society that built cities, conducted international trade, developed sophisticated military tactics, and successfully defended its homeland against both African empires and European colonizers.
The trap at Khutiyabasadi was not a fluke or an accident. It was the product of a military tradition that understood terrain, psychology, and technology. Kgosi Moremi did not defeat the Ndebele through superior numbers—he defeated them through superior strategy, exploiting his advantages in mobility and firepower while neutralizing his enemy's advantages in discipline and close combat.
Today's Batswana are heirs to that tradition of strategic thinking. The success of Botswana as a stable, prosperous democracy—an exception in a region plagued by conflict and corruption—reflects the same careful calculation. The wealth of the Royal Bafokeng Nation reflects the same determination to control their own resources.
And the four million Tswana speakers in South Africa, having survived the brutal engineering of apartheid's homelands policy, continue to maintain their language, their culture, and their identity. The attempt to make them foreigners in their own land failed. They remain, as they have been for fourteen centuries, the Batswana—the people of the Tswana.