When the non-resident colonial Resident Commissioner started solemnising marriages in Bechuanaland, on appointed days he would board a north-bound passenger train in Mahikeng, South Africa on Wednesday afternoon. Either that night or early in the morning, the train would deliver the Resident Commissioner to any major village where he would spend a good part of the day performing an odd ritual in a society slowly acculturating into a western identity. That evening, he would board the train again as it returned from Bulawayo and arrive in Mahikeng on Friday morning.
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