Botswana Missions...

[1] commons.wikimedia.com/botswana

         The development of missions played a major adverse role in the lives of the people living in Botswana. These missionaries as mediators between disputes between indigenous people and white men who encroached on their land seeking fame and riches , while some wanting a new way of life.[2]

[3] commons.wikimedia.com/richardmoffat

Missionaries began arriving in Botswana early on the 1800’s. Among these missionary groups was the London Mission Society(LMS). The famous of the LMS missionaries was Robert Moffat and Dr. David Livingstone.  Robert Moffat came to Botswana in 1817 and worked evangelizing among the Batlhaping people then South Africa. Moffat is known for helping the people by asking groups like the Griquas who were better equipped with weapons and experts in horse riding to fend of raiding attacks on the tribe. This made Moffat popular amongst the people their and helped pave the way for missionaries like Dr. David Livingstone.[4]

[5]commons.wikimedia.com/drdavidlivingstone

Dr David Livingstone was one of the most influential missionaries and explorer in his time. Livingstone was known as the Ngaka or Doctor in the African language.  Livingstone came to the region in the 1840’s and became one of the first resident live in missionary in Botswana. The missionaries main purpose was to persuade the Botswana people to come to Christ and do away with what they thought to be demonistic practices. These practices included: bogera mystic schools, boloi witchcraft, and rain-making chanting. These practices included dancing and use of musical intruments in their daily lives. Livingstone is famous for converting King Kgosi Sechele I of the Bakwena.[6]

  Kgosi Khama III, of the Bangwato was a devout LMS Christian enforced Christian principles on his subjects. Anyone who was caught endulging in non Christians values were said the be severely punished or banished from the Kingdom.[7]

These early missions would pave the way for modern missionaries of today like the Baptists and Jehovah’s Witness’s and Catholic Church. They would provide the breaking down of the culture barrier once thought to be impossible to break in Africa.

[1] commons.wikimedia.com/botswana
[2] “History of Botswana” http://www.ambafrance-bw.org/History-of-Botswana  (accessed: 2- 25- 2016)
[3]  commons.wikimedia.com/richardmoffat

[4] Gasebalwe Seretse

Correspondent"The missionary legacy: How the LMS Helped Build Botswana" http://www.mmegi.bw/index.php?sid=6&aid=978&dir=2011/august/monday15(accessed:2-25-2016)

[5]  commons.wikimedia.com/drdavidlivingstone

[6]Gasebalwe Seretse

[7]Gasebalwe Seretse

Correspondent 

First Contact with Botswana

[1] www.voanews.com

          Batswana, a word used to represent all citizens of Botswana(mainly referring to the Tswana). Before European contact the people of Botswana lived as farmers and herders based under each other’s tribal rules.[2]  “Between the arrival of the first European missionary among Batswana in 180 I and the writing of the above passage by the missionary Willoughby in 1905, 'Becwana' acquired 'general use' as label for a large number of people inhabiting the interior of southern Africa. Although the word 'Batswana' did not likely originate as 'white man's terminology'”  We can see by this passage, how the term may have came about and the understanding for both European and the Africa alike.  Also to note that the missionaries in Botswana identified the people of Botswana as not like other Africans or European, but a separate identity of themselves.[3]

[4]  21548675.weebly.com/

 Early Missionaries

Several missionaries early in the 1700’s began to form views in union with early Europeans who were in search of cattle and other resources to bring back to the Cape Colony in what is now South Africa.  They began settling along the Batlhaping. In 1801, with the Dutch government and several members of the Griqua, two missionaries, Jan Kok and William Edwards affiliated

with the LMS, began an  2 week long expedition in hopes of evangelizing further North. The government hopes were different than that of the missionaries, where they hoped to expand trade further North.[5]

[7]www.Mazungue.com

Bechuanaland Protectorate
 Hostilities broke out in the late 1800’s between the Shona and the Ndebele who were migrating from the Kalahari Desert and the Boers from South in Transvaal. After several appeals to the British from Khama the 3^rd and Sebele the 1^st, the Crown on the 31^st of March 1885 put Bechuanaland under its protection. The territory in the North remained under the direction of the Bechuanaland Protectorate(currently Botswana), while the Southern territory became control under the Cape Colony(currently South African Northern province)
[6]











[1] voanews.com
[2] "A Brief History of Botswana" http://africanhistory.about.com/od/botswana/p/BotswanaHist1.htm(accessed: 2-20-2016)
[3] Steven Volz "Pula: Botswana Journal of African Studies vol.17 (2003) nO.1 European Missionaries and Tswana Identity in the 19th Century"(accessed:2-2-2016)
[4] 21548675.weebly.com/
[5] Volv
[6]"Bechuanaland Protectorate" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Botswana#Bechuanaland_Protectorate(accessed: 2-20-2016)
[7]www.Mazungue.com











Botswana identified the people of Botswana as not like other Africans or European, but a separate identity of themselves.