UNDERDEVELOPMENT IN EASTERN BECHUANALAND: THE DYNAMIC ROLE OF THE MAFIKENG – BULAWAYO RAILWAY, FROM THE LATE 1800s to 1960s A Thesis Submitted to the Committee on Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the Faculty of Arts and Science TRENT UNIVERSITY Peterborough, Ontario, Canada © Bafumiki Mocheregwa, 2016 History M.A. Graduate Program May 2016 ABSTRACT Underdevelopment in Eastern Bechuanaland: The Dynamic Role of the Mafikeng – Bulawayo Railway, From the Late 1800s to 1960s. Bafumiki Mocheregwa This thesis offers a comprehensive look at the changing roles of a colonial built railway in what is now eastern Botswana. It was built for the extraction of mineral wealth and migration of cheap African labour in Southern Africa but it later assumed a different role of shaping the modern Botswana state. The thesis deals with several other issues related to the railway in Bechuanaland including land alienation, the colonial disregard of the chiefs’ authority, racial discrimination and the economic underdevelopment of Bechuanaland. Since there were no other significant colonial developments at the time of independence, this thesis argues that the railway was the only important feature of the British colonisation of Bechuanaland. From early on, the railway attracted different cultures, identities and religions. It was also instrumental in the introduction of an indigenous capitalist class into Bechuanaland. Keywords: Bechuanaland, colonisation, railway development, racial discrimination, underdevelopment, society, capitalism and capitalist class, labour migration, Botswana, trade, Rhodesia, the Rand. ii PREFACE On September 30th, 1966, Bechuanaland was declared an independent country. The discussion to make that move had begun a few years prior. The British colonial administration had lasted for about eighty years but left very little in terms of development. At that time the whole territory had less than four kilometres of tarred road, education was barely in its infancy, and the new Tswana society hardly had a capitalist class. Botswana was among the poorest countries in Africa with a GDP of about $70, according to the World Bank.1 This measure of underdevelopment was alarming but it was primarily because from the beginning, the British Colonial Government had no interest in the territory. While its neighbours had some mineral deposits, Bechuanaland had no known minerals at the time so the colonialists did not waste time and effort investing in a barren desert country. There had long existed a trade route: the Road to the North, which linked the Cape to the interior of Southern Africa. It cut across the eastern side of what became Bechuanaland because to the west of Bechuanaland lies the Kalahari Desert, a geographical barrier which would make any sort of travel difficult. The Road to the North was very important in the trade of late iron-age goods. During the early years of colonialism, this iconic route became pivotal in the extraction of resources from neighbouring countries such as Southern Rhodesia and South Africa. Early pioneers and magnates such as Cecil John Rhodes became attracted to, and pursued the idea of building a railway line to link the Cape to Cairo. This line would be strategically important for the British but most importantly it would serve Cecil Rhodes’ economic 1 http://www.worldbank.org/en/country/botswana/overview accessed 27 February 2016. iii gains. Bechuanaland was therefore only colonised because the famous “Road to the North” traversed its eastern margin. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS No work of this magnitude is completed by a single individual without any help from others, for that I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to a few people who have been instrumental in the writing of this thesis. Professor Timothy Stapleton, my supervisor and mentor, has worked tirelessly from the day we met to the completion of this work. It would not have been completed without his vision and supreme knowledge of the subject matter. My thesis committee members, Professor David Sheinin and Dr. Van Nguyen-Marshall have also been pivotal in the entire writing process of this work. Their advice has truly been immeasurable for which I am grateful. Professor Jennine Hurl-Eamon, and Dr. Michael Eamon have both supported me throughout my study at Trent University and I am deeply grateful for their efforts. The staff at the Botswana National Archives and Records Services (BNARS) have also been kind to provide the primary material cited in this thesis. I am also deeply grateful for the advice and support I received from Mrs. Nilima Bakaya of Livingstone Kolobeng College as well as Professors Part Themba Mgadla and Ackson Kanduza. I also wish to send a special word of gratitude to Rre Mokotedi Sentsho, Ms. Thabang Boemo Emmanuel, Mr. We-Bathu Kwele as well as my good friend Mr. Reuben Ntuluki of the Carbon Environmental Awareness Society (CEAS) for the outstanding support rendered to me throughout my studies. My good friends Nathan Gardiner, Cory Baldwin, and Catherine O’Brien also deserve a pat on the back for the support they have given me throughout my stay in Peterborough. v This work is dedicated to my mother Faniki Seoleseng, and my great-grandmother Mma Phenyo Tumo. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT II PREFACE III ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS V TABLE OF CONTENTS VII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 1 METHODOLOGICAL SYNOPSIS AND LIMITATIONS 8 LITERATURE REVIEW 8 COLONIAL BOTSWANA: AN OVERVIEW 24 THE POLICY OF INDIRECT RULE 27 CONCLUSION 32 CHAPTER 2 – RHODES, THE DIKGOSI AND THE RAILWAY ENTERPRISE 33 CECIL RHODES AND THE MAFIKENG - BULAWAYO RAILWAY 34 THE RAILWAY IN BECHUANALAND: THE CHIEFS AND THE PEOPLE 39 COLONIAL EDUCATION, COMPASSION AND ENTERPRISE 48 CONCLUSION 58 CHAPTER 3 – THE BECHUANALAND RAILWAY IN THE SOUTHERN AFRICAN MINERAL REVOLUTION 60 THE TSWANA PEASANTRY AND THE NEW RAILWAY ECONOMY 61 RAILWAYS POLITICS AND LIMITATIONS 69 THE JOURNEY INTO THE UNKNOWN AND MIGRANT LIFE AT ‘EGOLI’ 74 TSWANA WOMEN WITHIN A MIGRANT SOCIETY 82 CONCLUSION 89 CHAPTER 4 – THE TRACKS OF MODERNITY AND CULTURAL NUANCES 91 NEW RAILWAY HUBS AND THE RISE OF A CAPITALIST SOCIETY 92 THE SOUTH ASIAN TRADERS OF BECHUANALAND 94 CAPITALISM AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION IN RAILWAY VILLAGES 103 TSWANA FARMING COMMUNITIES WITHIN THE RHODESIA RAILWAY MONOPOLY 114 CONCLUSION 127 CONCLUSION: THE BECHUANALAND RAILWAY AND UNDERDEVELOPMENT 129 BIBLIOGRAPHY 131 vii 1 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK The existing scholarship on development and underdevelopment is voluminous and has for a long time captivated scholars across the world. Consequently, one must be conversant with this body of knowledge before crafting a work based on any of them. Since this work hinges on some of these theories, it is pivotal to explore some of them. A very good summary of these is Ronald Chilcote’s examination of the dichotomy of certain explanations of development and underdevelopment. He argues, on the one hand, there are interpretations that emphasize the positive achievements of capitalism, which he calls diffusionist theories of development. On the other hand, those that stress the negative consequences of capitalism he refers to as theories of underdevelopment.2 His analysis of diffusionist theories suggests that they can be categorized in at least three types; the first associates Western models of democracy with the political aspects of development in advanced capitalist nations. He credits early writers such as James Bryce and Carl Friedrich, whose works emphasize the values of Western democracy and its important role in the economic progress of the West.3 The second diffussionist theory deals with the significance of cultural traditions as symbols of nationalism beginning with the French Revolution and taking different forms over time until it reached Africa around the 1960s. Although he concedes that there are different forms of nationalism, Chilcote states that “a basic assumption runs through the literature: Nationalism provides the 2Ronald H. Chilcote, Theories of Development and Underdevelopment, (Boulder: Westview Press, 1984), 10. 3 James Bryce, Modern Democracies Volume 1 (New York: Macmillan, 1921), see also Carl J. Friedrich, Constitutional Government and Democracy, 2nd ed. (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1950). 2 ideological impetus and motivation for development.”4 Though some may argue that capitalist countries usually led the pursuit for nationalism, it can also be argued that certain communist societies have also actively participated in nationalist movements and pursued development. The last diffusionist theory deals with the role of the Western world in spreading its values, technology and modernisation in general. It is from this last explanation that the dependency theory of development arises. Dependency theory is the notion that resources flow from a periphery of poor and underdeveloped societies towards the centre of wealthy states enriching the latter while leaving the former impoverished.5 This thesis shall employ this theoretical explanation to analyse the dynamics of underdevelopment in Bechuanaland. It shall demonstrate that the colonisers carefully crafted situations where the colonised became dependent on them and at the heart of that dependency was the use of the Mafikeng – Bulawayo railway. According to Chilcote, underdevelopment theory is a phenomenon characterised by various trends. One of its dominant characteristics is what he calls internal colonialism, which he suggests focuses on the dominance of the metropolitan centre of a nation over peripheral areas that have remained marginal to national development.6 This was an idea presented by Paul Baran in 1957. Baran claimed that the role of imperialism was to penetrate the core of underdeveloped countries and create a political, social and economic dependency on imperial powers. Using this neo-Marxist critique to refer to the relationships between the United States of America and Latin America as well as Europe 4 Chilcote, Theories of Development, 10. 5 For a detailed explanation on dependency theory see for example: Ian Roxborough, Theories of Underdevelopment, (New Jersey: Humanities Press, 1979), 55 – 59, 69; B.