Barolong Chiefdom

Origins

The Barolong are among the oldest Tswana groups, settled in the southern Kalahari margins and the Molopo valley. Under the 18th-century ruler Tau they became a powerful chiefdom, but after his death they split into branches, chief among them the Ratlou, Tshidi, Seleka and Rapulana.

Rule and society

Chiefs ruled large towns through ward headmen and the kgotla assembly, with cattle herding and cereal farming as the economy. During the wars of the 1820s the Seleka under Moroka moved to Thaba Nchu, where they aided the Voortrekkers in 1836. Methodist missionaries had a strong influence. The Tshidi under Montshiwa settled at Mafikeng and resisted Boer encroachment.

Decline and legacy

Conflict with the Boer statelets of Stellaland and Goshen led Britain to intervene, and in 1885 Barolong lands were divided between British Bechuanaland and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. Mafikeng later became famous for its siege in the Second Boer War.