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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The BaKhurutshe Anglicans of Tonota religious persecution in the Bechuanaland Protectorate
Authors:Bennett, Bruce S.
Bolaane, Maitseo M.M.ISNI
Year:2010
Periodical:International Journal of African Historical Studies (ISSN 0361-7882)
Volume:43
Issue:2
Pages:319-340
Language:English
Geographic term:Botswana
Subjects:colonial policy
indirect rule
freedom of religion
traditional rulers
Ngwato polity
Anglican Church
About person:Tshekedi Khama (1905-1959)ISNI
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/25741432
Abstract:The case of the BaKhurutshe of Tonota is a curious episode in the interwar history of the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana), in which it was alleged that Tshekedi Khama, regent of the BaNgwato from 1925 to 1949, persecuted a small group of people for practising Anglicanism, thus violating the official monopoly of the London Missionary Society (LMS). Although the colonial administration's response ostensibly started strongly with support for religious freedom, it did not maintain this stance. This paper presents an analysis of the trajectory of British policy, and sets it in the context of the subtle relationship between religion and power in the Protectorate. It demonstrates the administration's slide from initial insistence on religious freedom to a determination in somewhat bad faith that the issue was not 'really' religious, but rather a case of 'disobedience'. Tshekedi could not be forced to give the BaKhurutshe religious freedom without compromising his authority, on which the government depended for the running of his reserve. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract]
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