Alexander Colin Campbell (16 April 1932 – 24 November 2012) was an archaeologist and museum curator in

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label= Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalaha ...

. He was Emeritus Director of Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks and National Monuments.

Life

Campbell was born in Cheltenham,

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. He entered the

British South Africa Police The British South Africa Police (BSAP) was, for most of its existence, the police force of Rhodesia (renamed Zimbabwe in 1980). It was formed as a paramilitary force of mounted infantrymen in 1889 by Cecil Rhodes' British South Africa Company, fro ...

in the British colony of

Southern Rhodesia Southern Rhodesia was a landlocked self-governing British Crown colony in southern Africa, established in 1923 and consisting of British South Africa Company (BSAC) territories lying south of the Zambezi River. The region was informally kno ...

in 1951. Transferring to the agricultural department as a

tsetse fly Tsetse ( , or ) (sometimes spelled tzetze; also known as tik-tik flies), are large, biting flies that inhabit much of tropical Africa. Tsetse flies include all the species in the genus ''Glossina'', which are placed in their own family, Glos ...

officer in 1954, he entered

Rhodes University Rhodes University is a public research university located in Makhanda (Grahamstown) in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. It is one of four universities in the province. Established in 1904, Rhodes University is the province's oldest ...

in 1959, graduating in SiNdebele and Social Anthropology. Becoming a district officer in the

Bechuanaland Protectorate The Bechuanaland Protectorate () was a protectorate established on 31 March 1885, by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland (later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland) in Southern Africa. It became the Republi ...

in 1962, Campbell ran the country's first house-to-house census in 1963–4. After

independence Independence is a condition of a person, nation, country, or state in which residents and population, or some portion thereof, exercise self-government, and usually sovereignty, over its territory. The opposite of independence is the statu ...

he became senior warden of Botswana's Department of Wildlife and National Parks. He founded and was later director of Botswana's National Museum and Art Gallery. A founder-member of the Botswana Society in 1969, he chaired the editorial board of its journal, ''Botswana Notes and Records'', for 30 years. In the 1970s Campbell worked to overturn the previous consensus that Botswana had little Stone Age activity. Campbell lived on a farm near

Gaborone Gaborone ( , , ) is the capital and largest city of Botswana with a population of 246,325 based on the 2022 census, about 10% of the total population of Botswana. Its agglomeration is home to 421,907 inhabitants at the 2011 census. Gaboron ...

with his wife Judy Campbell, who also wrote on historical topics with him.Sheridan Griswold, review of ''Botswana Notes and Records'' volume 38
Mmegi Online
8 May 2008 He died, aged 80, in Gaborone.

Works

* (with

Thomas Tlou Thomas Tlou (1 June 1932 – 28 June 2010) was a Botswana academic and historian, and former representative of Botswana at the United Nations. Tlou was born in Gwanda in the then Southern Rhodesia in 1932. Tlou studied at Luther College from 1 ...

) ''History of Botswana'', 1984 * ''The nature of Botswana : a guide to conservation and development'', 1990 * (with David Coulson) ''African rock art : paintings and engravings on stone'', 2001 * (ed. with Larry Robbins and Michael Taylor) ''Tsodilo hills : copper bracelet of the Kalahari'', 2008

References

1932 births 2012 deaths British archaeologists British curators British South Africa Police officers Bechuanaland Protectorate people Naturalized citizens of Botswana British emigrants to Southern Rhodesia Immigrants to Botswana Botswana people of English descent People from Gaborone People from Cheltenham Rhodes University alumni Botswana curators Botswana archaeologists White Botswana people {{Botswana-bio-stub