The rise of the north-western Tswana kingdoms: on the dynamics of interaction between internal relations and external forces

Abstract

AbstractWhile southern African polities are often considered as essentially fissionary in nature, this article gives emphasis to the equally important fusionary processes. Examining the rise of the north-western kingdoms, it is focused upon the accumulation of material and symbolic capital in the royal centres. Particular attention is paid to how the rulers exploited this capital in their efforts to amalgamate the power structures surrounding their offices. The accumulation of the royal capital is related to the kingdoms' interaction with the larger world, and it is argued that the rise of the north-western Tswana kingdoms—located on the edge of the Kalahari—might profitably be seen as localised culminations of regional processes, propelled by regional and global forces. Thus the present historical approach helps to demonstrate how these kingdoms gained strength by translating ever newer types of external forces into the constructive underpinnings of a central authority: the initial conquest and incorporation of local groups gave these polities demographic strength. By virtue of virgin pastures, copper production and the natural resources of the Kalahari the centre grew in wealth and strength, attracting foreign groups and incorporating them politically through clientisation. These regional economic and ecological processes underpinned the growth of royal pastoral wealth and diversified the composition of the population, allowing the king to use particular cultural institutions to strengthen his internal control and military capacity. In particular, through several decades of military success from the later eighteenth century onwards, the resources and authority commanded by the king were institutionalised through a politico-administrative ward system.It is argued that the progressive strength of these polities involved two types of dialectical transformation: first, a socio-political dialectic at work in the interaction between internal relations and external forces, by which the king translated cattle and people into political controls; and, secondly, the reproduction and strengthening of the symbolic capital vested in the royal ancestorhood, upon which the king's legitimacy rested, was effected by the transformation of any successful ruler from being king to becoming a royal ancestor. Although the transformative operations of the rulers are thus emphasised, their successful agency in translating external forces into royal capital is attributed primarily not to their personal capacity but to the advantageous structural conditions under which they operated as the historical con-text evolved.