(Serowe, Bechuanaland Protectorate,17th April 1961)
In the affairs of men evolution and progress are essential and adoption to changing conditions is necessary to ensure survival. English government has, in the course of history, changed from rule by King or Queen, assisted by a few great lords, to be representatives of the people.
The Queen is still a central figure in the English Government, all government is carried on in her name, and laws passed by Parliament only become effective when they have received her “Royal Assent”.
The Queen takes no part in political strife, but represents Britain and her Empire, whatever the politics of her government may be. She has the Privy Council chosen by herself, which acts as a Court of Appeal from law courts of her dominions across the seas. She can, within limits set by Parliament, issue Orders-in-Council which have the force of law.
National aspirations everywhere are awake and ask for higher participation in their own affairs, and for this reason the British Government has allowed the Legislative and Executive Councils to be established in Bechuanaland Protectorate, and these will eventually lead to parliamentary status.
The people of the Bechuanaland Protectorate have as a background the benefit of the experience gained at the Advisory Councils behind them, feel they can be trusted with such a form of government as other African territories have done.
They feel that today government by Civil Service alone unaided by a democratic body such as a Legislative Council is out of date. The people require a body of stand that feels itself bound to represent the wishes of the people to Government, and the wishes of Government to the people, and this in accordance with the true unfettered principles of the British Peoples at home and abroad.
But some there are, who may imagine that the alleged charge from the present system of tribal government to democratic government, the rule by the hereditary Chiefs will cease, but it is not so. This trend of thought comes from the group that has, in the past, clamoured for immediate radical changes in the system of tribal government, advocating at time for the abolition of hereditary chieftainship and of certain institutions, which are still held in sacred respect by the masses.
This amounts to forcing the masses to attain at a bound a very advanced and cultured society. I am glad to record that in the Bamangwato territory the proposed change has been publicly canvassed, and that the people now seem to understand it than they did before.
Today, in this modern world with its conceptions of democratic government, good may come out of evolution, if such evolution is carried out on sane principles. I think I am right in saying that today in the Bechuanaland Protectorate only an insignificant minority have any political awareness at all. It is, therefore, very important that cautious steps be taken when changes are made in the present system of tribal government, for spasmodic revolutions would only lead to greater chaos. It is, therefore, essential that the “new order”, for the established order tends, from the inevitable rigidity due to long experience and not to antiquity, to become hardened against the intrusion of novelty.
But when a stage is reached when an appreciable number of enlightened people who can grasp the principles of politics and socio-economic development, the demand for the change will be gradual, and will automatically come from the tribes themselves without opposition from any element.
In a developing tribal society new factors have to be taken into consideration because of the growing needs of the people, the obvious requirements being of the growing needs of the people. This selection should not only be of hereditary Chiefs and Headmen, but also of the people who are versed in the problems of socio-economic development of their country and who have genuine interest in the development of their people.
The structure of African society from which the Bechuanaland Protectorate is emerging is different from anything that is visualised by Government. The new developments are linked with some extent with the past history of the Bechuana people who had the traditional faculty of legislating even before they came into contact with the Europeans. What we call “the new order” is merely to modernise the functions of tribal legislation to a statutory legislation.
Chapter 2.
Democracy; “Government of the people, for the people, and by the people.
The future government of the Bechuanaland Protectorate will strive to follow that of the British Government in the United Kingdom as other African territories have done. That system of government shall be taught to the people of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, that control by the people is the essence of democratic government, and also that the people themselves are the Government. They will be led gradually to attain parliamentary statue.
In the time of King George III the members of Parliament formed themselves into two main groups ÔÇô the Tories and the Whigs. The Tories were mainly “the King’s friends”, while most of the Whigs were reformers who wanted to change the way of electing the House of Commons, so that it would really represent the wishes of the people.
The rule of the Tories was oppressive and restricted the people’s liberty. On the other hand the Whigs were popular because some of them spoke for greater freedom and for real representation of the people in Parliament.
In Queen Victoria’s time these changed names and became Conservatives and Liberals. After 1900 a third party ÔÇô the Labour Party was formed. As Parliament come to representative the people, so it concerned itself more with well-being of the people and with the provision of various social services.
The British Parliament is set as a pattern for the Bechuanaland Protectorate, and it is composed of two houses, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. Members of either House form the Government.
The House of Lords is not elected; its members are peers by birth or royal creation. Not all the peers take part in the proceedings of the House of Lords. On the other hand, the House of Commons is composed of elected members. If one of its members dies or gives up his seat, by-election is held in his district to fill the vacancy. Today the members of the British Parliament come from the House of Commons, and these form the Government.
The recognized procedure is that the Government carries on for a specified period, after which a new Government is elected. The members of Parliament are divided into parties, the Government Party and the Opposition Parties. The leading member of Government Party is the Prime Minister, and leading member of the largest Party opposed to the Government in the House of Commons is called the Leader of the Opposition.
When the time comes for a new Government to be formed, a general election is held. The Government Party contests for leadership in the government with the Opposition Parties. The Party, which gains the majority of votes at a general election, becomes the Party in power, in other words the Government.
The Queen selects the Prime Minister from the Party that wins the general election. The Prime Minister recommends to the Queen who should be appointed to each of the other positions in the Government. It is thus that “Her Majesty’s Government” is in sympathy with the feelings of the people throughout the country, because her Ministers have been chosen from the majority in the House of Commons.
The Government consists of a number of Secretaries of State or Ministers, each of whom is responsible for some branch of the country’s affairs. There is thus a Chancellor of the Exchequer responsible for finance, Secretaries of State for Commonwealth relations, for colonies, for War, for Home Affairs etc., etc. There are also Ministers for Education, for Health, for Transport etc., and a First Lord of the Admiralty.
These Secretaries and Ministers are under the Prime Minister. Each Secretary of State or Minister can answer in Parliament for what his department does, and can explain to Parliament any new laws relating to the work of his department.
Although each member of the Government is responsible for his branch of the country’s affairs, he cannot do all the necessary work by himself. He has to have officials to help him, and these officials are called “Civil Servants”.
Chapter 3.
Pattern: “For precept must be upon precept and line must be upon line”
A law must be promulgated governing the qualifications for enrolment on the voters’ rolls. In England both men and women of twenty-one years and over, with certain limitations, are entitled to registration as voters. Any man or woman who has the right to vote can apply for parliamentary elections.
Anyone who wished to be a parliamentary candidate must deposit a certain sum of money. This arrangement prevents men or women becoming parliamentary candidates for frivolous reasons, or knowing that very few people support them.
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If the candidate secures a certain percentage prescribed by law of the votes received by the successful candidate, he can get his money back, but should he get less than the prescribed percentage, he forfeits his deposit.
Before an election takes place the candidate and his supporters go about their district or constituency and address meetings, explaining to the people the candidate’s policy and asking for support.
On Election Day the people gather at their polling stations to vote. In the Bamangwato country there are four Divisional Kgotlas, Maaloso, Maaloso-a-Ngwana, Basimane and Ditima-Modimo, and the headquarters of these Divisional Kgotla are in Serowe.
Every clan in the Bamangwato country belongs to one of these Kgotlas. The polling stations in Serowe are these Divisional Kgotlas, and in the districts the polling stations are the Kgotla of the Subordinate African Authorities, and “All goes well like a marriage bell”.
Recording a vote by secret ballot is the method used in all democratic countries. It prevents voters bribed by the would-be candidate who can neither intimidate or threaten them.
An ordinary person- not a Member of Parliament ÔÇô can get his question asked in Parliament. The procedure is for such a man to get to his members of Parliament or write to him, and ask him to ask the question. If in the opinion of his Member of Parliament the question is a sensible one, it will be asked.
To my mind Question Time is a very important parliamentary procedure, for apart form eliciting information, it is an opportunity for drawing attention to anything that may be going wrong and to spur on Ministers to action. It is great opportunity for discreetly criticizing the Government by asking questions, and this for the welfare of the people.
Chapter 4
Freedom of Expression; ÔÇô Man’s inalienable right
Man is endowed with a number of rights ÔÇô those conditions of social life by which we seek or strive to be our best selves ÔÇô but these are so constantly being assailed that they must be constantly asserted and defended, and the more freely man can express himself the more adequate are the safeguards of his rights. Therefore man must be allowed to scrutinize the motive as well as the character of the acts of his government, for they may not be right merely by reason of the authority from which they emanate. This is freedom of expression.
If ours is a democratic government ÔÇô as indeed it is ÔÇô and we are citizens thereof, we are at liberty to express ourselves even if our ideas are at variance with established ideas, for established institutions are historic ideas the utility of which dies with the occasion of the circumstances which gave them birth.
Constructive and intelligent criticism promotes the diffusion of healthy and independent thought and maximizes the richness and productivity of social effort by leading to the abolition of those institutions which have outlived their usefulness and have become gross and undesirable. Freedom of expression is one of the principal tenets upon which a democratic polity is founded.
A democratic government has certain claims upon its citizens, and if the claim is built upon its ethics and not upon its strengths, such government guarantees such citizens their right to express themselves according to their own convictions, and the degree to which their government allows them this right is the surest index to its hold upon their allegiance.
To act otherwise is to adopt a course of action, which has always been associated with tyranny and slavery, and the unfortunate citizens are driven to some dark corner where they can express themselves in secret grumblings, plots, and conspiracies. The test of all good governments is the production of free personalities.
It is our duty, therefore, as citizens of a democratic government, to think and to contribute our instructed judgment to the public good. If we cannot give expression to our thoughts as our judgment teaches us, we soon cease to think, cease to be real citizens of a democratic government, our minds rust into obsolescence, and we become automatons or mere humble tools.
Chapter 5
Happy days; Go forward in faith, Bechuanaland
A Member of Parliament in the House of Commons has recently urged the British Government to embark on a new policy for the High Commission Territories which “would challenge the whole philosophy of apartheid”, and that he wanted to see the Protectorates made models of racial equality. To this racial equality should add social equality.
“Social equality” requires definition, for around this term has grown up a number of misconceptions born of emotion and fear. Popularly, social equality conveys the suggestion of miscegenation, and the threat that Europeans will be compelled to have meals with the African people in their homes, to have Africans in their social clubs or let their daughters go to dances with African young men. This, to my mind, is a misconception of the term, as I understand it to mean.
My own interpretation of social equality is that black and white should meet as social equals in the same occupation with mutual respect, and that where public services are made available from public funds, such services must be given equally to both groups. Social intercourse in a society in which there is equal opportunity for all does not involve derogation from racial dignity and mutual respect, and group solidarity and common heritage.
Hand in hand with social equality goes political equality, which boils down to common citizenship. It was this belief in political equality that under Queen Victoria’s protection Khama of the Bamangwato and, if my memory serves me well, Gaseitsiwe of the Bangwaketse, each individually and in his own country, told Sir Charles Warren that they were “Englishmen”.
For military, economic and political purposes the African is classed as a “black Frenchman” in French African territories. Instances are not wanting where in Africa a very high position of High Commissioner and awards of K.C.M.G. were given to Africans who deserved such recognition in the far north. Let Bechuanaland not feel blue for at the moment she is but a rough diamond, but happy days are ahead.
Let Bechuanaland go forward in faith, and in a hundred years to come (or even less) she will take her place in any civilized and cultured society anywhere in the world.
