Chronicle
Dinwao leha e le dipolelo kaga dico tsa seCwana
Not translated into English
Alfred John Wookey · 1913
Synopsis
A collection in Setswana of histories and traditions of the Batswana, assembled by a missionary for the use of pupils. It traces the origins of the main Tswana groups and their lines of chiefs, describes their customs and gathers the histories of various groups of the region; it contains in particular a short account by the Bakwena chief Sebele I, added to the book after his death.
Context
Published in 1913 at Vryburg by the South African district committee of the missionary society, the book was reissued in 1921 by the Tiger Kloof institution, under the parallel title History of the Bechuana, and went into a sixth edition in 1938. It was the main history textbook of colonial Bechuanaland. Jeff Ramsay counts it among the only two indigenous accounts of the Bakwena royal line written around 1910, along with an unpublished manuscript by Kgabo Tebele.
Who it is for
For reading the historical traditions of the Batswana as they were taught in the schools of Bechuanaland.
Prizes and reception
Lily Mafela notes in 2010 that these textbooks silenced the history of minorities and bolstered the power of the large Tswana groups.
Sources for this page 7
The pages consulted to check this page.