‘What has Ghana Got That We Haven't?’ Party Politics and Anti-Colonialism in Botswana, 1960–66: A Response to James Kirby

ABSTRACT

This short piece is a response to James Kirby’s article entitled ‘“What has Ghana Got That We Haven't?” Party Politics and Anti-Colonialism in Botswana, 1960–66’. Contrary to Kirby, who is oblivious of the political economy of colonialism, and how this reality informed the decolonisation processes, we argue that the transfer of power in the Bechuanaland Protectorate was designed to preserve British economic interests under the pro-British Bechuanaland Democratic Party. The British were very uncomfortable with the radical Bechuanaland Peoples Party, whore rhetoric threatened core British interests, hence their preference and support for the Democratic Party.

KEYWORDS:

• Bechuanaland Protectorate
• Democratic Party
• Peoples Party
• Britain
• decolonisation

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Kirby, “What has Ghana Got That We Haven’t?.”

2 Among others, the BPP demanded immediate independence of Bechuanaland, the Africanisation of the civil service, nationalisation of the land, and the abolition of chieftainship. In addition, the party demanded an immediate expulsion of all white settlers from the protectorate. and encouraged people to boycott businesses owned by white people. See Fawcus and Tilbury, Botswana, 86; Sillery, Botswana, 156; Mogalakwe, “How Britain Underdeveloped Bechuanaland Protectorate,” 84.

3 Colclough and McCarthy, The Political Economy of Botswana; Peters, “Struggles over Water,” 33.

4 Lotshwao, “The Paradox of Botswana’s Democracy,” 77.

5 Colclough and McCarthy, The Political Economy of Botswana, 30; Peters, “Struggles over Water,” 25; Mafela, “Colonial Initiatives and African Response,” 78.

6 Hubbard, “Botswana’s Beef Cattle Exports,” 47.

7 Ibid., 47; Morrell, “Farmers, Randlords and South African State,” 513.

8 Hubbard, “Botswana’s Beef Cattle Exports,” 50; Darkoh and Mbaiwa, “Globalisation and the Livestock Industry in Botswana,” 115–6.

9 Darkoh and Mbaiwa, “Globalisation and the Livestock Industry in Botswana,” 152.

10 Darwin, “British Decolonization Since 1945,” 187, 197.

11 Colclough and McCarthy, The Political Economy of Botswana, 123.

12 Parson, Botswana; Parson, “Botswana in the Southern African Periphery”; Parson, “Cattle, Class and the State in Rural Botswana.”

13 Among others, see Parsons, King Khama, Emperor Joe and Great White Queen, 23; Stephens, Fuelling the Empire, 158–9.

14 Picard, The Politics of Development in Botswana, 111.

15 Ibid.

16 Schapera, Migrant Labour and Tribal Life, 36.

17 Quoted in Ramsay, “The Establishment and Consolidation of the Bechuanaland Protectorate,” 80.

18 Parson, Botswana, 27.

19 Darwin, Britain and Decolonisation, 168.

20 Ibid., 19.

21 Flint, “Planned Decolonization and its Failure in British Africa,” 391.

22 Gossett, The Civil Service in Botswana, 248.

23 Picard, The Politics of Development in Botswana, 138.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., 139.

26 Ibid., 140–1.

27 Ibid., 140.

28 Ibid., 140–1.

29 Mogalakwe, State-Labour Relations in Botswana, 13–14.

30 Ibid; Lotshwao, “The Paradox of Botswana’s Democracy,” 75–6.

31 See for instance Morapedi, “The Settler Enclaves of Southern Africa,” 568.

32 du Toit, State Building and Democracy in Southern Africa, 27.

33 Among others, see Wylie, A Little God; Mogalakwe, “How Britain Underdeveloped Bechuanaland Protectorate”; Morapedi, “The Settler Enclaves of Southern Africa.”

34 Nengwekhulu, “Some Findings on the Origins of Political Parties in Botswana,” 64.

35 Quoted in Parson, Henderson and Tlou, Seretse Khama, 190.

36 Nengwekhulu, “Some Findings,” 64; Gulbrandsen, The State and the Social, 95; Selolwane, “Monopoly Politikos,” 71.

37 Colclough and McCarthy, The Political Economy of Botswana, 41.