Of Botswana’s Administrative Centres and their Movements: Vryburg, Mahikeng and Gaborone, 1885-1966

Part Themba Mgadla

Abstract With Botswana celebrating a milestone 50th anniversary of Independence in 2016 a lot of activities took place in the country’s capital Gaborone –the unique History of which this paper refl ects on. This paper uses primary and secondary sources to make an enquiry into the reasons why it was thought prudent by the colonial Botswana (Bechuanaland Protectorate) administration to have an administrative base of the territory outside its boundaries. It also argues that the establishment of the administrative centre of Botswana outside its boundaries was motivated by factors of expediency, top among which were economic and infrastructural while those that later motivated the movement to inside the territory encompassed both economic and political reasons. The paper further argues that the latter factor particularly, linked with the fervor of the rise of African nationalism and its emphasis on equality for all and condemnation of racism and colonialism of which Botswana was part, became instrumental in the movement of the administrative centre from the then Union of South Africa into Botswana in the mid-1960s. The secession of South Africa from the Commonwealth in 1961 to become a republic with a legally racialist ticket added impetus to the movement from Mahikeng into the territory. The agitation of the African leadership together with that of the minority European settlers in Botswana also contributed to the movement of the headquarters to its present location. The paper fi nally examines the nine locations earmarked for the headquarters of the country and why Gaborone, the present capital of Botswana, was considered the most appropriate at the time.

Introduction 
Quite often the seat of administration of the Bechuanaland Protectorate in Mahikeng, South Africa, is referred to as the capital instead of an administrative centre. In addition to the defi nitions of a capital below, a brief history is necessary in order to understand why the seat of the administration of the Bechuanaland Protectorate was outside its boundaries. There is need to defi ne, albeit briefl y, the terms administrative centre and capital town or city in relation to the seat or headquarters of colonial Botswana. It is important from the outset to defi ne these terms because there is a general misconception as to whether Vryburg and Mahikeng were capital towns in the true sense or just administrative centres of the Bechuanaland Protectorate. In that way the readership will be able to understand and appreciate whether colonial Botswana had administrative centers or capital towns outside its boundaries.
read more at http://journals.ub.bw/index.php/bnr/article/view/851/480