After their modern polities (merafhe) took shape in the eighteenth century, Tswana leaders used male age-sets (mephato, sing. mophato) to play an increasingly active role in public affairs. Led by senior members of the political hierarchy, mephato were committed for life to carry out military and other duties. In c.1750 the Makabe Tlokwa and Kgafela Kgatla of the P...

Standard interpretations of inherited leadership (bogosi) among the varied Tswana-speaking peoples, undertaken in the mid colonial era by Isaac Schapera, and followed by more recent scholars, have been preoccupied with the constitutional restrictions and obligations of this office and its rules of succession. This framework has served also as a generic characterisa...

Kalahari and Transvaal Tswana practised a mixed economy of herding, agriculture, and hunting for meat (and for skins). While faunal remains reflect higher percentage of domestic stock than of wild animals, such proportions alone do not reflect hunting's importance. Hunters probably slaughtered animals in the veld and dried the meat in strips for transport home with...