"A peaceful country": Refugees, masculinities and anti-radical national identity in early postcolonial Botswana

Phuthego Phuthego Molosiwa,Maitseo M.M Bolaane

doi:10.17159/2309-8392/2021/v66n2a3

Abstract

Here, we tell the story of early postcolonial Botswana's struggles to refine its citizenship model in the midst of a hostile political environment between the 1960s and 1980s. While being one of the "most peaceful" countries in the region at the time, and in order to stem the tide of militant immigrants, the majority of whom were men, Botswana opted to narrow its citizenship model. Many refugees and exiles were denied citizenship because their "radical masculinities" appeared to present a threat to the existing peace in the country. The article deals with the important question of how Botswana's historically rooted, patriarchal gender regime influenced the country's refashioning of its citizenship model against the backdrop of the influx of exiles and refugees of wars of independence. We draw largely from existing scholarship on Botswana's role in the liberation struggle. In addition, the extant refugees archive, letters to the editor of the Kutlwano magazine, Seretse Khama's speeches and the Botswana Citizenship Act of 1982/1984 provide primary accounts of how the government and the public attempted to develop and achieve a peaceful, anti-radical national identity during this tumultuous period.

Highlights

Botswana gained independence from British colonial rule in 1966
One of the few independent countries in the region at the time, and perhaps the most stable and peaceful politically, Botswana became a sanctuary for the tens of thousands of African refugees and exiles who fled political persecution in Southern Rhodesia, South West Africa, Angola, Mozambique and South Africa
In this article we propose that even recent efforts towards assessing the role that Botswana played in the region’s liberation struggle are not comprehensive because, in the main, they regard the country merely as a conduit through which

Summary

Introduction

Botswana gained independence from British colonial rule in 1966. By 1970 this impoverished former colonial backwater found itself having to negotiate the threat to its peace and stability posed by the surrounding white settler minority regimes of Southern Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe), South West Africa (Namibia), and most especially by South Africa which bordered Botswana from east to west. There were several reasons for this, and these must be seen in a regional and global southern African context of Botswana as a frontline state against white minority, lethally anti-Communist regimes, at the height of the Cold War. Seretse Khama’s government was deeply concerned that even non-militant, anti-apartheid activists such as Patrick van Rensburg, the founder of Swaneng Hill School in Serowe and the Brigades Movement in Botswana, were “security risks” who made Botswana more vulnerable both to South African Defence Force (SADF) and Rhodesian Selous Scout incursions and economic policies that could cripple Botswana if those countries placed embargoes on trade with Botswana.. Mokopakgosi, “The University in Botswana and the Liberation Struggle”, p 41

Anxieties about refugees and radical politics

Conclusion