NOT I::OR PUBLICATION WITHOUT WRITER'S CONSENT KB-5 INSTITUTE OF CURRENT WORLD AFFAIRS BOPHUTHATSWANA" c/o Professor F. de Villiers A' 'Bi'a'ck Sate 0r 't'ate of Mind'?' School of Law, UNIBO P/Bag X2046 nabatho, Bophuthatswana May 18, 1982 Mr. Peter Bird Martin Executive Director Institute of Current World Affairs Wheelock House West Wheelock Street Hanover, New Hampshire 03755 USA Dear Peter, Bophuthatswana is a unique --live in Bophuthatswana and $. Africs. place in southern Africa. It is Over sixty percent of Bophuthat- considered by South Africa to be swana's citizens still live and an independent black state, but work in South Africa, mostly in it consists of seven completely townships outside of Pretoria. separate pieces of land. It has Looking at the dispersal accepted independence but it of the Tswana; in Botswana which lies entirely within South Afri- was the largest traditionally ca's borders. It has a bill of Tswana region, there are the fewest rights which South Africa does number of people. The next larg- not, and has declared apartheid est area, Bophuthatswana, has the and discrimination on the basis next largest number of people. of race, creed or color illegal. Then, near Pretoria, in mostly However, it is making conscious impoverished "township" communit- efforts to have the cultural ies are the vast majority of make-up of the country be mostly T swana pe o ple. blaeks of Tswana descent. So, we are presented with Bophuthatswana is the re- a landlocked "country" broken sult of South Africa's attempts into numerous unconnected pieces. to create a" constellation of The majority of the "country's" states" by returning the differ- citizens live and work "abroad" ent black ethnic groups to the in the neighboring countries. This areas where they originated. (In new "nation" has a legislated crude terms, "send 'era back societal order completely anti- where they came rom.") In this thetical to the considerably case the Tswana people were more powerful country that surrounds moved to an area of South Africa it. very close to Botswana, and told With no formal borders between that their old home Was now South Africa and Bophuthatswana, their new home. the responsibility for behaving If it's any indication according to the laws of the land of how succesful or intelligent- is certainly placed upon the ly the demographic lines of the individual. A white South African past few decades have been drawn told this correspondent, "it's the majority of Tswana--the really quite ridiculous. You can largest ethnic group of Botswana drive two hours out of Johannesburg Kendal Price is a Fellow of the Institute studying the cultures of South Africa, her black homelands, and the bordering African nations. most significantly, she felt simply for monetary gai---aeago it was he! proximity of the with those here for personal Bophuthatswana Army barracks reasons--have had to absorb an that kept the criminals away. over thirty percent dcrease in The Bophuthatswana Army the value of their meney in the is not used for police functions last year alone. Being only a few years old it At this pint it is hard is barely functional as a to say if Bophuthatswana is ust military force, and is tactical an expensive and wasteful attempt strength is so low, the South by South Africa to permanently African Border Police still do disfranchise the Tswana people. a large percentage of Bophuthat- It might be a unique and unexpect- swana's border patrol work. edly successful seolal testing Yet, it is perceived of as a ground for apartheid South black army, and therefore natur- Africa's transition to full ally protective of black people. integration and effective black Unlike the blacks in the South leadership. African Defense Force, who are mostly recruited from and used in Souh West Africa/Namibia and who stick out as obvious foreigners when used for guard Kndal B. Pric duty in Johannesburg--the black soldiers here are from here. Does all of this suggest an elaborate Scheme of facades? Bophuthatswana is an "independ- ent" nation that geographically makes a mockery of the word. It has black leaders with polit- ical Power but still very little economic control over the dest- iny of the country. And its extremely small army is almost entirely dependent upon the onecountry it would most likely oppose for idiological reasons. The only thing for certain is there are quite a few people curious enough about just what Bophuthat swana i s t o want t o come and see it for themselves. There is a housing crunch at the moment as large numbers of people arrive from all over southern Africa, England, the United States, and many Europ- ean countries. Largely these are professionals and technic, ians whohave come to work on the huge consSruction projects health, and education programs. Very few, however, were induced to come by offers of large paychecks. Being paid in South African Rand, even those here Received in Hanover 6/1/82 KBP-5, May 8, 982 -3-.