Tswana's in South Africa

Tswana's In SA

The Tswana (Tswana: Batswana, singular Motswana) are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group who are native to Southern Africa. They are, though, heavily influenced by various Khoisan peoples, with Khoisan people being absorbed into the populations of, particularly western, Tswanas. The Tswana language belongs to the Bantu group of the Niger–Congo languages. Ethnic Tswana made up approximately 79% of the population of Botswana in 2011
The first pottery in South Africa associated with the Sotho is called Icon and dates to between 1300 and 1500. As with the Nguni, anthropological and linguistic data suggest an East African origin for Sotho-Tswana speakers, in this case in what is now Tanzania. By 1500 the Sotho groups had expanded to the south and west and separated into the three distinct clusters; the South Sotho (later became the Basuto and Sotho), the West Sotho (later the Tswana), and the North Sotho (later the Pedi). It is important to note however that all three clusters share very similar dialects, beliefs and society structures and the main distinctions between the three groups were only established as a result of the early 19th century difiqane period.

Most Sotho people were herders of cattle, goats, and sheep, and cultivators of grains and tobacco. In addition, the Sotho people were skilled craftsmen, renowned for their metalworking, leatherworking, and wood and ivory carving. In fact, most archaeologists presume the Sotho were the main body of early stone builders in this part of the country, because Iron Age sites studied by them resemble the areas reported by early eyewitnesses very closely.
In the 16th century, the Tswana settled in what was known as the Western Transvaal. They were divided into two main groups: the Tlhaping and Rolong under Chief Morolong (the metal worker) and the the Bafokeng (people of the dew). Oral traditions celebrate Morolong as 'the forger' who 'danced to iron'.
In Botswana, the Tswana States started growing when the Kwena and Hurutshe migrants founded the Ngwaketse chiefdom among Khalagari-Rolong in south-eastern Botswana by 1700. They engaged in hunting, cattle raising, and copper production.
A period of warfare, political disruption, and migration commonly termed the difiqane (Zulu: mfecane) characterized the first quarter of the nineteenth century. The difiqane engendered a period of chaos, during which the Tswana experienced varying degrees of suffering, impoverishment, political disintegration, death, and forced movement. At the same time, however, some groups, particularly the western Tswana chiefdoms, eventually prospered and strengthened to the extent that they incorporated refugees and livestock.
European traders and missionaries (of the British nonconformist sects) began to arrive in the Tswana region in the first two decades of the nineteenth century. Trade (ivory, furs, and feathers being the most valued items) escalated after this period, and control over this trade dramatically empowered some Tswana chiefs, who were able to consolidate their control over extensive areas. By the mid-nineteenth century, Afrikaners, newly settled in the Transvaal, posed a threat to Tswana; Tswana chiefdoms acquired firearms to protect themselves, and many Tswana moved westward, into the area that is now Botswana. Christian missions were established throughout the region in the nineteenth century.
The discovery of diamonds and gold in the 1860s and 1870s in southern Africa led to the industrialization of South Africa and the introduction of the migrant-labor system, which continues to draw thousands of Tswana men to the mines (although recruitment from Botswana has been restricted since 1979). In 1885 the Bechuanaland Protectorate was established in the north of the region, and, in the south, British Bechuanaland (now Republic of Botswana) was established as a Crown colony.
By the late nineteenth century, Afrikaner and British officials had seized almost all Tswana territory, dividing it among the Cape Colony, Afrikaner republics, and British territories. In 1910, when the Cape, Transvaal and British Bechuanaland were incorporated into the Union of South Africa, the Tswana chiefs lost most of their remaining power, and the Tswana people were forced to pay taxes to the British Crown. They gradually turned to migrant labor, especially in the mines, for their livelihood.
The dawn of apartheid in the 1940s marked more changes for all Black South Africans. In 1953 the South African Government introduced homelands; the Tswana in South Africa were declared citizens of Bophutaswana homeland, under the leadership of Chief Lucas Mangope. In 1977 Bophutatswana was granted nominal independence by South Africa, but no other nation recognized it. The homeland consisted primarily of seven disconnected enclaves near, or adjacent to, the border between South Africa and Botswana. Efforts to consolidate the territory and its population continued throughout the 1980s, as successive small land areas outside Bophuthatswana were incorporated into the homeland. Its population of about 1.8 million in the late 1980s was estimated to be 70 percent Tswana peoples; the remainder were other Sotho peoples, as well as Xhosa, Zulu, and Shangaan. Another 1.5 million Tswana lived elsewhere in South Africa.
Bophuthatswana's residents were overwhelmingly poor, despite the area's rich mineral wealth. Wages in the homeland's industrial sector were lower than those in South Africa, and most workers traveled to jobs outside the homeland each day. The poverty of homeland residents was especially evident in comparison with the world's wealthy tourists who visited Sun City, a gambling resort in Bophuthatswana.
The non-Tswana portion of the homeland population was denied the right to vote in local elections in 1987, and violence ensued. Further unrest erupted in early 1988, when members of the Botswana Defence Force tried to oust the unpopular homeland president, Lucas Mangope. Escalating violence after that led to the imposition of states of emergency and government crackdowns against ANC supporters in Bophuthatswana, who were often involved in anti-Mangope demonstrations. Mangope was ousted just before the April 1994 elections, and the homeland was officially dismantled after the elections.