Provision of Local Services by Tribal Administrations in Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1900–1966

This paper demonstrates how the tribal administrations in Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana), despite severe logistical, financial and personnel constraints, played a significant role in the provision of the much needed local services from as early as 1900. In some East and West African colonies this began only in the 1950s after the Second World War and towards independence. Moreover, the tribal administrations in Bechuanaland were able to do this in spite of constrains of inefficiency and conservatism of some Chiefs, and the ill-treatment of the subject tribes. Therefore, it is argued that the tribal administration in Bechuanaland had a developmental thrust which may explain the uniqueness of post-colonial Botswana, which took a completely different route to that of other Sub-Saharan African countries in terms of service delivery.