African Kingdoms

Bamangwato (Tswana Clan State) (Africa)

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The pre-history of Africa contains a far longer period of human habitation than any other area on Earth, thanks to it being the cradle of humankind's evolution. South Africa consists of a series of undulating plateaus which cover much of the region and extend northwards into Central Africa's Angola. The Kalahari desert forms a central depression in the Southern African plateau, while scrubland and grasslands cover much of the region's remainder.

Indigenous natives belong to one of two language families: Khoisan or Bantu. The former were first to be established, having inhabited the region for millennia. They were displaced in many areas by Bantu speakers who were largely responsible for spreading the African Neolithic and who now dominate large areas of Central Africa and southwards of that.

Regional archaeological and historical enquiry has been extremely uneven, with Namibia being the least-intensively studied while South Africa is at the opposite end of that scale. Establishing a coherent historical framework of events is an often controversial process with little universal agreement.

The Bamangwato were (and are) a Tswana group of Bantu-speakers who were located in South Africa by the nineteenth century. Bamangwato (more correctly, bamaNgwato or Ngwato) was one of the eight principal tribes of what during the colonial period became British-administered Bechuanaland, today's Botswana.

They settled in eastern-central Bechuanaland during the period between 1830-1880, along the north-western border with Transvaal which was the home of a number of Nguni tribes which included the Zulu. As part of a British protectorate in the late nineteenth century, Khama III formed the borders of what is now Botswana's 'Central District'.

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(Information by Peter Kessler and the John De Cleene Archive, from Urban Africa; Histories in the Making (Africa's Urban Past), David M Anderson & Richard Rathbone (Eds), from Africana: The Encyclopaedia of the African and African American Experience, Anthony Appiah & Henry Louis Gates (Oxford University Press, 2005), from The New Atlas of African History, G S P Freeman-Grenville (Rex Collins, London, 1991), from Times Atlas of World History (Maplewood, 1979), and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and History World, and Botswana (Rulers.org).)

1780

The baKwêna (Bakwena or Bakoena) as a large admixed Sotho-Tswana clan in South Africa have been in the region since about the late sixteenth century. Divisions gradually occur so that, in the late eighteenth century, Mathiba a Moleta leads his own group as the founder of the related bamaNgwato.

Their initial settlement is in the Transvaal alongside a host of related groups but fairly quickly they are (or already have been) edged northwards into today's Botswana.

Modern kwaZulu-Natal, the Zulu nation homeland, is a beautiful natural space, and one which is increasingly welcoming visitors from abroad

1780 - 1795

Earliest-known kgôsi of bamaNgwato.

1795 - 1817

Son.

1817 - 1828

Son.

1828 - 1833

Acting kgôsi.

1833 - 1835

Son of Kgari. Died.

1835 - 1857

Half-brother. Stepped down upon the return of Matsheng.

1857 - 1859

Son of Kgari II. Deposed.

1859 - 1866

Restored to power by force of arms.

1866 - 1872

Restored to power.

1872 - 1873

Son of Sekgoma. Restored his father.

1873 - 1875

Restored to power for a second time. Overthrown.

1875 - 1923

Restored. Became paramount chief of the Tswana tribes.

1884

Those Boers who had fought for Dinuzulu claim the land in Zulu territory which they had been promised, but expanding their claims to such an extent that half the kingdom would be lost to them. The British authorities step in and grant them land in northern Zululand. On 5 August 1884 the Boers declare a republic, but this is absorbed into Transvaal in 1888.

The initial small trickle of Boer settlers into the Transvaal soon turned into a flood which the native states were virtually powerless to prevent

1885

Kgama (Khama) III consolidates the Tswana tribes with Britain's help. These include the baKgatla, baKwêna, baNgwaketse, bamaNgwato, baRôlông, baTawana, and baTlôkwa, although elements of some have remained in Transvaal to be dominated by the Zulu. The bamaLete are the only non-Tswana tribe to be incorporated.

As the leading native instigator of this union, Kgama becomes chief of the protectorate of Bechuanaland, either in 1884 or 1885 (sources differ). The Bechuana name is the colonial version of the modern 'Tswana' name.

1923 - 1925

Son. Acceded aged 54 but died quickly.

1925 - 1926

Chairman of the regency council.

1926 - 1950

Son. Born 1921. Replaced in 1950. Later Botswana president.

1926 - 1933

Uncle and regent (brother of Sekgoma II).

1933

Acting regent.

1933 - 1949

Returned as regent.

1950

Having endured a regency since his technical accession in 1926 at the age of five, Sêrêtsê a Sekgoma a Kgama has completed his studies in the United Kingdom during the 1940s.

Seretse Khama, first president of the republic of Botswana which gained independence from the British empire in 1966 after having been the protectorate of Bechuanaland since 1885

He has not been recognised by the British colonial authorities so, in 1950, he is officially replaced by an 'African authority' in the individual form of Keabôka Kgame. Sêrêtsê does not renounce his claim until 1956 even though Britain exiles him from Bechuanaland in 1951.

1950 - 1952

African authority.

1952 - 1964

African authority.

1964 - 1969

Tribal authority. Became kgôsi in 1969.

1966

Botswana gains its independence from Britain on 30 September 1966, ending the protectorate of Bechuanaland. The new country's constitution stipulates that Prime Minister Sêrêtsê a Sekgoma a Kgama of Bechuanaland becomes its first president, ten days after being promoted within the 'Order of the British Empire' as a 'Knight Commander' or KBE.

Seretse Khama signed the oath of office in front of newly-independent Botswana's parliament to become the country's first president

1969 - 1974

Kgôsi. Former tribal authority.

1974 - 1979

Tribal authority.

1979 - 2024

Son of Sêrêtsê. Kgôsi. Later Botswana president & Kgama IV.

1979

Ian a Sêrêtsê enjoys a leading position within Botswana as the son of the modern nation's first president, Sêrêtsê a Sekgoma a Kgama. He himself serves as the country's president between 2008-2018 after having served as vice-president between 1998-2008. As such, it is necessary for his relatives to stand in for him as bamaNgwato administrative authorities.

1979 - 2022

Regent for Ian a Sêrêtsê.

2022 - 2024

Regent for Ian a Sêrêtsê.

2024 - On

Ian a Sêrêtsê / Ian Khama.

2025

Ian a Sêrêtsê, formerly known as Ian Khama and now Kgama (or Khama) IV, is sworn in on 20 January 2025 as a member of the Ntlo ya Dikgosi, the advisory body of hereditary chiefs which serves to advise Botswana's parliament.

As a former Botswana president, Ian Khama left the country in 2021 stating that he feared for his life, but he returned in 2024 to take up his position as kgosikgolo of baNgwato under the name Khama IV