Single Women’s Exodus from Botswana

Cockerton, Camilla May

doi:10.1007/978-981-13-2589-2_3

Camilla May Cockerton²

91 Accesses

Abstract

The post-1920 period witnessed significant changes in the migration of Tswana women from the Bechuanaland Protectorate to South Africa, in particular the emergence of new categories of the female migrant—the divorced, deserted, widowed, childless, and “single woman” migrant. Throughout Southern Africa, indigenous women were making step-by-step migrations with the Witwatersrand as their final destination. One of the major spatial features of post-1920 women’s migrancy was the fact that the migrants increasingly came from all parts of the Protectorate. After increasing steadily through the 1920s, the volume of Tswana female migration escalated dramatically in the early 1930s, a trend which continued for the next two decades. This chapter explores the volume, demography, source areas, and spatial patterning of female migrancy.

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Notes

1.
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2.
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3.
Interview with Elizabeth Pule, More, 13 May 1993.
4.
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5.
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6.
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7.
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8.
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9.
Schapera, Migrant Labour, 64.
10.
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11.
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12.
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13.
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14.
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15.
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16.
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18.
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19.
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20.
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21.
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22.
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23.
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24.
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25.
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26.
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27.
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28.
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29.
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30.
Interview with Motlatsi Anna Mokgalo, Morwa, 12 May 1993. Many informants mentioned Kgatleng, along with Kweneng and Serowe as regions from which many women left.
31.
BL, CSD 514, Bechuanaland Protectorate Government, Census 1946, xiii; BNA, S87/5, Census 1946, Mochudi; BNA, S87/5, Chief Census Officer to Mochudi District Commissioner, 28 June 1946; BNA, S534/10, Kgatleng District Annual Report, 1949.
32.
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33.
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34.
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35.
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36.
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37.
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38.
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39.
BNA, S. 69/7, Nettelton, Resident Magistrate, Serowe, to the Government Secretary, Mafeking, 20 September 1929. British officials confirmed that “the only ones” who leave in search of employment are “the poorer or servile sections of the Tribe.”
40.
Morton, Interview Notes, 36, interview with Mrs. Leah Moagi, 22 December 1981.
41.
Interview with Mokuduba Rantlhang, Kanye, 12 June 1992.
42.
Interview with Moipone Molefe, Bokaa, 23 March 1993.
43.
Interview with Mmamilo Sentsho, Morwa, 12 May 1993.
44.
Interview with Naomi Madube, Bokaa, 6 June 1993.
45.
Interview with Elizabeth Pule, Morwa, 13 May 1993.
46.
Massey, “The Development of a Labor Reserve,” 15, quoting South African Chamber of Mines, Annual Report, 1969, 69.
47.
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48.
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49.
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50.
Gay, “Basotho Women Migrants,” 23.
51.
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52.
Schapera, Migrant Labour, 66, Table XXXI.
53.
GD, 04 HA 1991 SOU, Union of South Africa, Population Census, 8th May 1951, Table 27 “Natives: Birthplaces by Ages—Union, 1951.”
54.
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55.
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56.
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57.
Crush, Struggle for Swazi Labour, chaps. 5, 7, 9; Lowe, “Social Change and Ideological Struggle,” 18.

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Independent Researcher, Wellington, New Zealand
Camilla May Cockerton

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Cockerton, C.M. (2019). Single Women’s Exodus from Botswana. In: Contested Migration. Palgrave Pivot, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2589-2_3

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-2589-2_3
Published: 29 November 2018
Publisher Name: Palgrave Pivot, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-13-2588-5
Online ISBN: 978-981-13-2589-2
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