ABSTRACT
The Native inhabitants of the Bechuanaland Protectorate are divided politically into units that will he spoken of are as “tribes”. Before the establishment of the Protectorate in 1885, the tribe could be defined for all practical purposes as a group of people managing their own affairs under the leadership of a chief who was independent of any higher authority. The chiefs of the largest tribes, and several others of minor importance, are almost all of Tswana stock, that is, they belong by origin to what may be termed the Tswana cluster of the Sotho group of Bantu-speaking peoples. The chiefs of the remaining tribes, all of which are relatively small and politically insignificant, are of diverse origins; most of them are also Bantu , but a few are either Hottentots or “Basters”. The population figures, which are taken from the 1946 census returns, cannot be regarded as more than approximate.
