ABSTRACT
As a result of the various processes described, every Tswana tribe to-day has a population of mixed origins. Consequently, by investigating the histories of the various wards in each tribe people can obtain more information than the census returns provide about the different stocks from which the members of the tribe have been drawn. Sometimes, the discrepancy is due to an obvious reliance upon totemism as a guide to ethnic origins. It may be taken as a general rule that any ward-head whose totem differs from that of the chief is of alien stock. In almost every tribe there are various people who are either not at all or else very inadequately represented in the ward system, in that their hereditary leaders are not recognised as independent ward-heads, but fall under the immediate authority of some one belonging to a different stock.
