Sebele I

Sebele I
A sepia portrait of Sebele I
Portrait of Sebele in his twenties taken by German anthropologist Gustav Fritsch at Ntsweng (nowadays, Old Molepolole) in 1865.[1]
BornCirca 1841
Bechuanaland Protectorate (nowadays, Botswana)
DiedJanuary 1911 (aged 70–71)
Bechuanaland Protectorate (nowadays, Botswana)[2]
TitleKgosi of the Kwena
Term1892 – 1911[3]
PredecessorSechele I[3]
SuccessorSechele II[3]

Sebele I was a chief (kgosi) of the Kwena —a major Tswana tribe (morafe) in modern-day Botswana— who ruled from 1892 until his death in 1911.[4] During his lifetime, he resisted the 1885 Bechuanaland Protectorate[5] as well as the control of his domains by Cecil Rhodes' British South African Company, which was administering, by a royal charter signed in October 1889, his homeland in the Bechuanaland Protectorate and other regions of Central Africa.[6]

With support from Christian missionaries, Sebele traveled to Britain in 1895 along with Bathoen I and Khama III to argue against the latest attempts to incorporate the protectorate into the Cape Colony. They managed to secure support from Queen Victoria in exchange for an eastern strip of territory.[7] Between 1908 and 1909 he also resisted the incorporation of Bechuanaland into the Union of South Africa.[6]

  1. ^ Dietrich, Keith; Bank, Andrew, eds. (2008). An Eloquent Picture Gallery: The South African Portrait Photographs of Gustav Theodor Fritsch, 1863-1865 (PDF). Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media. p. 98. ISBN 978-1-77009-641-7. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  2. ^ Plaatje, Solomon T. (September 1976). "Reminiscences of Sebele, the Paramount Bechuana". English in Africa. 3 (2). Institute for the Study of English in Africa, Rhodes University: 23–25. JSTOR 40238358.
  3. ^ a b c Lipschutz, Mark R. (1989). Dictionary of African Historical Biography. Berkeley, CA, USA: University of California Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780520066113.
  4. ^ Parsons, Neil (1998). King Khama, Emperor Joe, and the Great White Queen: Victorian Britain Through African Eyes. Chicago, USA: University of Chicago Press. pp. 37–42. ISBN 9780226647456. sebele botswana 1892.
  5. ^ "Sechele’s tribe proved by no means unanimous in welcoming the Protectorate. Sebele, the eldest son of the chief, protested against their country being taken from them without their consent." (T.E. Malebeswa (2020): Tribal Territories Act, indirect rule, chiefs and subjects)
  6. ^ a b Schmitt, Deborah (2005). "Botswana (Bechuanaland Protectorate) Colonial Period". In Shillington, Kevin (ed.). Encyclopedia of African History, Volume 1. Florence, KY, USA: CRC Press. pp. 285–288. ISBN 9781579582456. Retrieved 21 March 2013.
  7. ^ Cyr, Ruth N.; Alward, Edgar C. (2001). Twentieth Century Africa. Bloomington, Indiana, USA: iUniverse. pp. 43–44. ISBN 9781475920802. Retrieved 21 March 2013.