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This book describes the career of an English aristocrat, Christopher Bethell, who arrives in southern Africa in 1878 as the classic "remittance" man, despatched to the colonies to avoid a scandal at home. Bethell, an intelligence officer and later, a border agent, is the protagonist who facilitated the acquisition of arms for Montshiwa's Ratshidi-Barolong to resist the depredations of freebooters, mercenaries based mostly in the Transvaal. In his alliance with Kgosi Montshiwa Tawana, Bethell identifies with Kgosi Montshiwa's struggle to maintain political independence and economic security. The alliance was further cemented by Bethell's marriage to a Morolong woman Tepo Boapile - an unusual occurrence in nineteenth century southern Africa. Surrounded by aggressive freebooters from across their eastern border with the Transvaal and the ambiguous forces of colonial advancement from the Cape colony and Britain, Montshiwa and Bethell form an unlikely but enduring relationship aimed at safeguarding Rolong interests. As the Bechuanaland Wars of the early to mid-1880s intensify in brutality Montshiwa and his Chief of Staff, Christopher Bethell are forced to desperate measures to defend the Rolong and avoid outright dispossession. Bethell's demise is the trigger for firm British imperial intervention, the securing of the Road to the North and events that will determine the fate of Africans in south and central Africa. The book is a reminder that, in the author's words, "past relations between South Africa's different races were characterised as much by collusion and collaboration as they were by hostility, friction and dissent."

Bibliography: pages 284-297. ; The Hurutshe are a Tswana-speaking chiefdom who lived in the vicinity of the Marico (Madikwe) river on the South African Highveld and emerged as an identifiable community with a distinct political structure about 350 years ago. They enjoyed periods of political and economic dominance in the mid-to late seventeenth century and again in the late eighteenth century. Following the economic and political disruptions attendant upon European commercial activities and the growth of more centralised and powerful African states in South Africa, they were propelled from their homeland in 1822-23. They returned only in 1848 to face the difficulties of Trekker overlordship. After a decade of political and economic pressures the general patterns of precolonial life were restored in their new reserve. A re-integrated Hurutshe social order provided the basis for agricultural innovation and expansion. The encroaching colonial order and the merchant and industrial economy inexorably drew them in to closer relations with these systems, and into direct involvement in the contest between Boer and Britain for control of the South African hinterland. Consequently the nature of reserve life changed as men, women and chiefs extended or took up new occupations and activities which cut across or restructured previous social, political and economic relationships. After the South African War new challenges and opportunities presented themselves as a consequence of the qualitatively different nature of British colonial rule and the increased economic scope afforded to rural African producers. Thus a combination of factors - a favourable environment, a cohesive society and the lack of competitive white agriculture - provided the basis for economic stability and even accumulation among certain categories of Hurutshe producers until well into the twentieth century. Hurutshe society was not untouched however, for subsequent events near the middle of the century were to reveal the depth of social distinctions and antagonisms that undoubtedly had their roots in the earlier years of their history.

"Land, Chiefs, Mining, explores aspects of the experience of the Batswana in the thornveld and bushveld regions of the North-West Province, shedding light on defining issues, moments and individuals in this lesser known region of South Africa. Some of the focuses are: an important Tswana kgosi (chief), Moiloa 11 of the Bahurutshe ; responses to and participation in the South African War and its aftermath, 1899-1907; land acquisition ; economic and political conditions in the reserves ; resistance to Mangope's Bophuthatswana; the impact of game parks and the Sun City resort; rural resistance and the liberation struggle; and African reaction to the platinum mining revolution."--Publisher: http://witspress.co.za/catalogue/land-chiefs-mining