Mangwato tribe
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The Bamangwato (more correctly BagammaNgwato, and also referred to as the BaNgwato or Ngwato) is one of the eight "principal"
Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...
chieftaincies of
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 ...
. They ruled over a majority
Bakalanga The Kalanga or Bakalanga are a southern Bantu ethnic group mainly inhabiting Matebeleland in Zimbabwe, northeastern Botswana and Limpopo Province in South Africa. They are historically related to the Nambya, Karanga, Bapedi and Venda. Curre ...
population (the largest ethnic group in Central District), with minorities including the
Basarwa The San peoples (also Saan), or Bushmen, are members of various Khoe, Tuu, or Kxʼa-speaking indigenous hunter-gatherer cultures that are the first cultures of Southern Africa, and whose territories span Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Zambia, ...
, Birwa and Tswapong. The modern Bamangwato formed in the Central District, with its main town and capital (after 1902) at Serowe. The paramount chief, a hereditary position, occupies one of the fifteen places in
Ntlo ya Dikgosi The ''Ntlo ya Dikgosi'' ( Tswana for "House of Chiefs") in Botswana is an advisory body to the country's parliament.Bakwena people, but members in the Bamangwato kingdom came from many sources, as was the case with all of the major 19th-century African kingdoms.
Sir Seretse Khama Sir Seretse Goitsebeng Maphiri Khama, GCB, KBE (1 July 1921 – 13 July 1980) was a Motswana politician who served as the first President of Botswana, a post he held from 1966 to his death in 1980. Born into an influential royal fam ...
's paternal forebears, the chiefs of the Bamangwato, had built several prior capitals including
Shoshong Shoshong is a town in Botswana, formerly the chief settlement of the eastern Bamangwato. Physical location Shoshong is located just north of the Tropic of Capricorn at , in the Central District of Botswana, about west of Mahalapye. The town is ...
and Phalatswe, also known as Old Palapye (Before the advent of colonial administration and fixed infrastructure, it was common for a town to move when the local environment degraded). Khama and the Protectorate administration created the modern borders of the Central District in Botswana. The Sengwato language caused excitement in linguistic circles in 1998 when it was realized that it contained a unique f-s sound."African dialect uses unexpected sound"
(31 Oct 1998) ''Science News'', Retrieved 3 Jan 2006
Seretse Khama, Botswana's first president, was the ''Kgosi'' (king/chief) of the Bamangwato, and his son, Botswana's fourth President
Ian Khama Seretse Khama Ian Khama (born 27 February 1953) is a Botswana politician and former military officer who was the fourth President of the Republic of Botswana from 1 April 2008 to 1 April 2018. After serving as Commander of the Botswana Defence ...
, is the tribe's de facto paramount chief.


See also

*
Rulers of Bangwato (bamaNgwato) A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long ...
*
Tswana Tswana may refer to: * Tswana people, the Bantu speaking people in Botswana, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and other Southern Africa regions * Tswana language, the language spoken by the (Ba)Tswana people * Bophuthatswana, the former ba ...


References


External links


Botswana History Pages
By Neil Parsons of the University of Botswana
Ethnologue
Languages of Botswana Ethnic groups in Botswana {{Africa-ethno-group-stub