With the colonial land grab for Africa of the late 19th century, some African chiefs sought a protectorate relationship with a colonial power to keep the others at bay and better serve his tribe. The most successful of these was the Bechuanaland Protectorate that became modern Botswana. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.
Todays stamp with a simple profile of Queen Victoria may not seem to emphasize the Britain was allowing the Chief Khama III to rule while they were merely the protector. In fact the chief was nowhere on any of the stamps of the Protectorate. Lets face it though, a postal service was mainly to do with colonial not local business. When you realize then that the protectorate was run from outside the land area of Bechuanaland, it is easier to see how the arrangement could be unobtrusive to the Tswana people.
Todays stamp is issue A1, a one Penny stamp issued by the Bechuanaland Protectorate in 1888. It was part of a 5 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $20. If the 1 in the 1 penny overprint was misprinted short, the stamp’s value would rise to $475.
The Tswana people occupied thinly the area between German South West Africa, now Namibia, and Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. The tribe was facing intrusions from Boers, British Rhodesians, and African Zulu and Matabele tribesman. The new young chief Khama III had been converted to Christianity by Scottish missionaries. Many of the leaders of the tribe had also converted. The tribe was becoming better off by organizing wildlife hunting and viewing expeditions. He also banned the importation of alcohol into his territory. With the area dealing with the kind of Pioneer columns that conquered Matabeleland see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/06/28/southern-rhodesia-1943-remembering-the-pioneers-that-conquered-matabeleland/ , the missionaries took Chief Khama’s case to Queen Victoria. A military expedition mapped and claimed territory on behalf of Chief Khama. The protection guarantee left Khama’s own warrior regiments available for civilian development and fairly uniquely they were often called up for civilian projects. Tswana people to the south were initially separately governed as a crown colony of Britain but later incorporated into South Africa. In the 1980s it was again made semi independent as the black homeland Baphuthatswana, see https://the-philatelist.com/2019/02/20/bophuthatswana-1985-the-tswana-people-get-industrious-in-the-bop/ , but this did not last.
The Protectorate status saw the Chief’s sons and grandsons educated in Great Britain. This became very controversial when the future would be chief Seretse decided to marry a white woman named Ruth Williams he met during his studies. Some among the tribe thought that his position meant it was not up to him who he married. There were also sons of Khama by later wives who had ambitions of being Chief themselves. Instead Seretse did not claim the chiefdom after he married Ruth but instead competed as a politician and ended up the first President of independent Botswana with Ruth as his First Lady. Their mixed raced son Ian later served as Botswana President from 2008 till 2018. Now in retirement from that job, some wonder if he might claim the Chiefdom of the Tswana.
Bechuanaland got full independence in 1966 and took the name Botswana. The administration moved in country to the new capital Gabarone. It is one of the most prosperous countries in sub Sahara Africa with much stability of government.
Well my drink is empty and I am left thinking about the stamp we did recently where the British Empire remembered fondly the Pioneer Columns that conquered Matabeleland while here the same British Empire celebrates preventing the Pioneer Columns from taking Botswana around the same time. Somewhat contradictory perhaps but celebrating Empire is what Commonwealth stamp issues are all about. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.