Policing the Protectorate: The Role and Development of the Police in Colonial Botswana, 1885-1975

Abstract

This thesis traces the development of policing in Bechuanaland (Colonial Botswana) starting from 1885 when the British declared a protectorate over the territory. In order to show the impact of colonialism on policing in post-independence Botswana, the thesis goes as far as 1975, exactly 9 years after the country gained its independence from Britain. In a mostly chronological style, the thesis shows the transition of the colonial police force through various names and designations influenced by the wider politics of the Southern African region. Using the frontier and metropolitan theories found in the historiography of the North American West, the study shows that the Bechuanaland Protectorate was a frontier of Southern Africa and was also influenced by the metropolitan forces of Mafikeng, Cape Town and ultimately Britain. Policing in the formative years of the Bechuanaland Protectorate was, therefore, influenced by both frontier and metropolitan forces. This study also reveals the changes in the nature of policing throughout Bechuanaland’s 81-year period of colonization. While many African colonies began to transform their police forces from para-military to professional law enforcement organizations during the inter-war period, the Bechuanaland administration held back given the financial constraints and the influence of the neighbouring Union of South Africa. After the end of World War II, however, policing in Bechuanaland began to change within the context of the post-war reforms in British colonial Africa. While the earlier occupational force in Bechuanaland represented a para-military organization capable of crushing any possible rebellions in the territory, the post-World War II period saw the police force begin to move away from coercive and militaristic policing to a more civil and consensual style. Interestingly, however, as the thesis shows, the decolonization period brought with it political challenges to colonial authority, and as a result, the Bechuanaland administration, just like other colonies, was forced to re-militarize its police force to combat political unrest while preparing the territory for independence.