Black Landlords, their Tenants, and the Natives Land Act of 1913

Abstract

This article uses an important family archive ? that of the Molemas, educated and influential Barolong notables ? as a key source in analysing the relations between black landlords and their tenants in the Molopo Reserve. Silas Molema was one of the most influential Barolong chiefs, whose territories spanned ?British Bechuanaland? (incorporated into the Cape in 1895) and the Bechuanaland Protectorate. The Molopo Reserve had negotiated a status guaranteeing a substantial level of autonomy at the time of incorporation. Molema, like other members of the Barolong nobility, included white settlers among his tenants; and the family papers contain a wealth of detail about leasing arrangements and social relations between the parties. In 1903 the Divisional Council of Mafeking imposed a Dog Tax on residents of the Molopo Reserve, a measure contested in court by the Barolong chieftaincy. The case concerned the imposition of the tax but, more broadly, the powers of the Cape/Union government...