How to steal a 14000 hectares ranch - (Two)

 Mindful of the great extent to which the British Colonial administration seems to have gone to obscure the beacon positions of Hubona Nshakazhogwe’s ranch, I am constrained to describe in any detail, the actual position of Hubona Nshakazhogwe’s stolen ranch. 

Suffice it to say that the British referred to the ranch as Nshakazhogwe ranch.  Needless to say, that ranch is nowhere to be found on official Botswana Government maps. Instead a FAKE “Nshakazhogwe ranch” now appears, well to the north of what the British can surely identify as the correct position of the genuine Nshakazhogwe ranch.

The genuine Nshakazhogwe ranch lies between the two latitudes (20 degrees 48.996 minutes South) and (21 degrees 01.460 mintues South).

The FAKE “Nshakazhogwe ranch” has been drawn on the official Botswana Government’s  1: 1000 000 map, between the latitudes (20 degrees 42.162 minutes South) and (20 degrees 46.486 minutes South). Just like the stolen, genuine Nshakazhogwe ranch, the FAKE “Nshakazhogwe ranch” also lies on the right hand side of flow of the Shashi River!

Surely, the existence of this FAKE “Nshakazhogwe ranch”, far to the north of the genuine one that the British marked out for Hubona Nshakazhogwe in or around the year 1914, should raise a red flag. It should, at the very least signal to the British Government that the intention might have been to obfuscate, and obliterate, the genuine Nshakazhogwe ranch; which intention was implemented by the thieving BDP government.  

You see, the BDP government, through its Ngwato Land board, allocated Hubona’s ranch to squatters. But the theft of Hubona’s ranch had started almost as soon as the ranch was awarded by the Privy Council. The first actors were Chief Khama iii and his son Sekgoma. Father and son faked hostility to each other in order for Hubona Nshakazhogwe to agree to accommodate Sekgoma on his (Hubona’s) private land. Sekgoma went to live with Hubona. Some of Sekgoma’s children, including our first President Seretse Khama, were born on Hubona’s ranch. The whole fake “exile/banning” of Sekgoma from his father’s tribal capital Serowe, was carefully stage managed so as to leave no trace of Sekgoma’s residence on Hubona’s ranch.

After the death of both Chief Khama and his eldest son Sekgoma between 1923 and 1925, the younger son Tshekedi took over the reins as regent chief for infant Seretse who was only four years old. In 1932/1933 Tshekedi Khama flogged the young white Scotsman Josh Mackintosh, in open court/kgotla, resulting in his (Tshekedi’s) “overthrow”.  This suited Tshekedi just fine because he wanted access to the Tribal Territories Act (TTA) which was being drafted. Tshekedi Khama was a self-educated, uncertificated legal hawk who had a burning desire to obliterate Hubona’s ranch from the map. Following the flogging of the young white Scotsman, Tshekedi Khama was exiled to Francistown. Whether Tshekedi actually did gain access to the draft TTA we do not know, probably never will. What we do know is that the TTA that was subsequently passed in 1933 so obfuscated the boundary between Tshekedi’s Bangwato Reserve and the North East district that Hubona Nshakazhogwe’s ranch, which lay between the two, simpy disappeared! 

Two factors that seem to have further facilitated the “editing out” of Hubona Nshakazhogwe’s ranch, were:

1. The appointing of George Haskins in 1932/1933 to represent the European advisory council in Francistown.

2. The financial difficulties into which the British South Africa (BSA) mining company ran in 1933.

Since acquiring his ranch in or around 1914, Hubona Nshakazhogwe had been a commercial competitor to George Haskins. Hubona undercut Haskins margins when it came to farm produce. Haskins didn’t like it. 

Some kind of “deal” was entered into between the Protectorate Government and the British South Africa mining company on one hand, and Tshekedi Khama on the other, by which deal Tshekedi Khama would get back lands that the government had hived off as Crown lands in exchange for Tshekedi Khama granting the BSA mining rights in the Bamangwato Reserve. Note that neither Tshekedi Khama nor the Protectorate government had power to exchange Hubona’s land at this stage because his land was by now private property, awarded by the British Privy council. It is possible that Hubona Nshskazhogwe’s ranch was fraudulently “restored” to Tshekedi Khama’s Bangwato reserve at this stage. 

There are other tell-tale signs that the Tribal Territories Act of 1933 had Hubona Nshakazhogwe’s ranch edited out. The Hubona descendant who fed me all the above expose asked me not to reveal those tell-tale signs just yet.