ABSTRACT
The recapitulation of the events which led up to the British Protectorate in Bechuanaland may seem unnecessary, and even wearisome, but it must always be borne in mind that the Royal Charter of the British South Africa Company was the crystallised result of a flux of movements and counter-movements. The Boer intrigues in Bechuanaland had behind them the shadow of a far more dangerous threat, namely, the aspiration of Germany to become the paramount Power in South Africa. Properly to comprehend the series of movements which extended British influence up to the confines of Matabele-land, it is necessary to hark back to the early ’seventies. The disaffection of the local Griquas found native sympathisers over the border; several white traders in Southern Bechuanaland were murdered, and some of the tribes, under the leadership of one Luka, son of Jantje, took up arms, and identified themselves with the cause of the Griqualand rebels.
