The Kalahari Killings

by Jonathan Laverick

  BECHUANALAND, 1943

  The sun was low in the sky, aided by the dust in the air in painting the whole environment a delicate pink. Several impala edged their way towards the watering hole as the heat of the day started at last to dissipate. Bang! One of the antelope tottered and fell. Twai Twai Molele’s family would eat well that night.

  The use of rifles for hunting had largely replaced the traditional methods for many of the Bushmen who had been in contact with either the Tswana tribes or with travelling Europeans. Only those deep in the Kalahari Desert still relied exclusively on the knowledge of plants and animal behaviour for hunting. The first missionaries and European hunters had been both fascinated and impressed by the skill of these strange little people and left detailed accounts. The most memorable descriptions recalled endurance hunting.

  Also known as persistence hunting, this involves a group of hunters tracking and chasing down prey over a number of hours during the hottest part of the day. While not quick enough to catch many large animals in Botswana, a human can develop enough endurance to overcome this handicap. By repeatedly forcing an animal to run and then tracking it down before it has time to recover properly, it can be exhausted to the point where it can run no more. The Bushmen are aided by the fact the humans can sweat much more than their prey and so can keep cooler, and of course they can carry water with them. A kudu hunt might last eight hours from initially finding the antelope to finally despatching it with a thankful prayer and a spear. Temperatures during these hunts could easily exceed 40°C.

  The alternative to a marathon in scorching temperatures was to use poisoned arrows. The San of the central Kalahari were already famous for their hunting technique, using skilful and silent tracking to get in such a position to launch an arrow tipped with a venom powerful enough to bring down the largest animal. Because of the exceptionally light nature of the bows and arrows used, the initial injury was almost always insufficient to be fatal so the choice of an effective poison was important.

  In the western Kalahari, the milky sap from Euphorbia viros, a cactus-like tree also known as the Gifboom, was used. In the northern part of the desert, including the Nata region, Diamphidia Nigroornata was used. This beetle, which bears a passing resemblance to a ladybird, lays its eggs on Commiphora plants. The larvae then feast on the leaves before burying themselves in a cocoon a few millimetres below the sandy surface where it will wait, for several years if necessary, for the perfect conditions to emerge.

  The San would collect these larvae and either squeeze them directly onto their arrows, not at the tips – to avoid accidents – or make a paste using plant juices and other ingredients such as scorpions’ tails and spiders, and apply this to the arrow shaft. Despite these careful preparations, this poison could take several hours to bring down a beast, even days in the case of a giraffe. This meant that the tracking skills were again needed, for an injured animal might still walk tens of kilometres.

  Whichever method was used for a particular hunt, care had to be taken by the hunting party as the bush held many dangers. Snakes were an ever present threat, but would largely mind their own business. However, larger animals might have taken a close interest in the hunt and it was not unknown for a pride of lions or a pack of hyenas to make off with the kill, leaving a hungry, tired and helpless hunting party empty-handed.

  Twai Twai Molele was well aware of the many different poisons that could be used to tip arrows, for he was an experienced herbalist. He was what the missionaries would call a witch doctor, using the term out of both ignorance and as a way to deter their converts from visiting such people.

  The Tyua group to which he belonged shared many of their beliefs with the Khoisan to whom they were related. The world had been made by a god that was responsible for the creation of the earth, the plants, the animals and the weather. This god had both male and female forms. Originally all creatures could talk, but when man sinned animals were turned into men and men to animals, losing the ability to speak. The belief of this close relationship between men and animals led to the longstanding tradition of only killing animals when necessary, otherwise their god would be angry, and food and rain would dry up. As well as this creator god, a ‘trickster’ god existed to try and undo the good work of the creator. This trickster lived among people and controlled their lives, bringing joy and sadness, health and sickness. People would ask the creator god for good health and rain, but would turn to the trickster when they were in trouble. Medicine men such as Twai Twai would provide a conduit to these gods.

  Dance played an important part in these dealings with the gods and spirits. Around a campfire in the cold evening air, to the accompaniment of staccato clapping, songs that could tell of healing, happiness or fighting evil spirits would be sung while the men danced. Often these dances would go on for hours with their participants entering a trance-like state where people would be imbued with animal spirits, allowing communication with the gods. Occasionally dances would go on throughout the night, leaving those involved in a state of exhaustion. In the silence of the bush, the sounds of such a gathering could easily travel 20 miles. A darker side to this spiritualism was the belief that certain body parts could bring power to their new owners. Ritual murder was certainly common in the north-east of Botswana, with male genitals believed to bring especially good luck. In the 1960s a case in Tsamaya, a tiny village on the Bulawayo railway line between Francistown and the Rhodesian border, led to the discovery of more than twenty victims. The unlucky men, for the majority of the killed were male, were often poisoned by a group of women before being dispatched. Their private parts would then be buried in fields to ensure a good crop for that season. This ‘coven’ had apparently acted under the orders of a local headman and the murders had been carried out over a number of decades.

  Twai Twai Molele had been born in the last decade of the previous century near the Rhodesian border, further upstream along the Nata River. The Tyua group that he belonged to was unusual in that they had a significant number of Bantu ancestors, as shown by modern blood and DNA testing. Yet their Shua language was undoubtedly part of the San ‘click’ family of speech and they were definitely considered ‘Bushmen’. This term would have been applied partly because of their semi-nomadic lifestyle, combining settled life during the wet season with hunting over a wide area as food literally dried up during the late dry season from July to October.

  The Nata River runs in a south-westerly direction through sandy soil that supports the usual low acacia bush with occasional taller trees in areas that retain moisture. The sand is sometimes several hundred metres thick and from the air it is almost possible to pick out the gentle dunes that exist underneath the scrub. For most of the year the river is dry, but once the rains arrive in October flash floods can fill it to spilling point, turning the surrounding sand and dust into a series of muddy puddles and tributaries. Like the more famous Okavango, the Nata River empties not into the sea, but instead into a large inland delta.

  Originally this fed Lake Makgadikgadi, a huge inland sea, but when this dried up several thousand years ago it left more than 6,000 square miles of barren salt plains. To give an idea of scale, these salt pans have a total area roughly double that of North Yorkshire, the largest British county. The Nata River supplies a shallow lake around its mouth that fills only a fraction of the Makgadikgadi to a depth of inches rather than feet. This provides a home to thousands of flamingos as well as many other bird types. During the rainy season, the new grass that springs up around the pans attracts herbivores such as zebra and wildebeest from farther afield, along with their predators. During the early part of the twentieth century giraffe were common in the Nata area, but elephants had already been hunted to such an extent that they sought refuge northwards, towards the forests that lined the Chobe River.

  Massive and ancient baobab trees provided useful landmarks in this otherwise featureless landscape. The nineteenth-century artist Thomas Baines painted a group of seven of these mighty trees in
the pans during one of his expeditions in the region. Today these are known as Baines’ Baobabs and are thought to be 4,000 years old. Another famous home to baobabs is Kubu Island, a rocky outpost in the middle of the dry flats of the Makgaikgadi. One of these trees in the Nata region served as an unofficial post office with messages left on its bark, while a hollow baobab in Kasane was used as a prison, complete with a solid lockable door.

  Up until the time of Twai Twai’s birth, the Tyua had been independent under leaders such as Kgaraxumae who had fought for at least a generation against the encroaching Bangwato under Khama III. Trade with neighbouring people was brisk, including with the Bangwato, although some Tyua would hang around cattle posts seeking odd jobs in return for payment. However, by the mid-1890s, Khama’s men had effectively enslaved the Tyua and they were relegated to menial tasks like many of the other San people before them. The Molele family were not easy to control, however. In 1898 a group of migrant Zambian workers were making their way home when they disappeared. Although their remains were not found for some time and little proof of their supposed murder was gathered, it was considered common knowledge in the region that the Molele family had been involved in the robbing and subsequent killing of the unfortunate travellers. It must be remembered, however, that this was naturally dangerous territory to walk through even if well armed. Indeed, it was still common practice during Twai Twai’s childhood for many Tyua to sleep in the trees, lions being considered such a deadly threat, especially at night. It is, however, interesting to note that when anthropologist Richard Lee lived with the !Kung bushmen of the western Kalahari during the 1960s, he did some research into murder rates among these supposedly peaceful people. He had chosen the !Kung because they had had probably the least interaction with external peoples and lived a traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyle. In contrast to the romantic ‘living in perfect harmony’ image promoted by writers such as Laurens van der Post, he discovered that murder was about three times more prevalent than in the United States. Infanticide was also frequent, especially in the case of twins which were considered evil.

  Since hunted to the point of extinction, Twai Twai would have been aware of the dangers posed by rhinoceroses, especially those with young. (Joanna Poweska)

  A collection of baobabs at Kubu Island in the middle of the Makgadikgadi Pans. These mighty trees have been used as landmarks, a post office and even a prison. (Joanna Poweska)

  Twai Twai grew into an impressive young man, tall even by European standards, and he would have stood out as a powerful example of manhood among the traditionally short Bushmen; evidently his Bantu bloodline was strong. If his appearance alone was not sufficient to attract women and intimidate competitors, then his growing knowledge of medicine and spiritualism gave him an extra edge.

  Twai Twai certainly seems to have had a powerful influence over the opposite sex. He took several wives and had children with other women too. It was rumoured that one of his conquests came at the cost of her husband’s life, but again local gossip never translated into proof or an arrest. The complicated family tree that emerged from his various liaisons was perhaps not unique. Certainly, polygamy was still common and the idea of an extended family group was culturally accepted. His growing notoriety and strong personality did put him in direct conflict with Khama’s district overseer, who went by the name of Oitsile. The overseer’s job was to ensure that Khama’s interests in the Nata area were well served, seeing that fields were tended and cattle herded. The Molele family were supposed to look after many heads of cattle for Khama. These cows would spend the days wandering freely through the bush only with the protection of a herd-boy, despite the threat from lions. Tensions between the two men had gradually built up before Oitsile was accused of murdering Twai Twai’s pregnant teenage daughter. Oitsile was lucky to escape a lynching, while Twai Twai was forced to leave his village and he was driven to live as something of a Robin Hood figure in the bush.

  For sixteen years Twai Twai lived as a bandit, building a growing reputation for strength, something many put down to witchcraft – a rumour that he did nothing to restrain. Eventually a compromise was reached with Tshekedi Khama and Twai Twai was encouraged to settle in Nekate, a tiny village a few miles outside of Nata. Here he promised to look after a new batch of cattle, Tshekedi clearly hoping that this would keep him out of trouble. This worked to a limited extent, with Twai Twai settling down with his latest wife and daughter, Rekisang.

  This period of calm did not last long as Twai Twai developed a reputation for not taking good care of the cattle under his charge. One reason for this was that as food ran short, with the final April rains fading in the memory, Twai Twai would organise illegal hunting parties. These would consist of perhaps five to ten men from his extended family along with a handful of young girls and women. They would disappear into the wild for maybe a month, leaving the fields and cattle unattended, and seek out meat from the large variety of animals that still roamed the bush in the Crown lands to the north of Nata. These animals included a wide range of antelope ranging from small duiker to the impressive kudu, as well as still larger creatures such as giraffe. Once a kill was made the animal would be butchered and some meat would be cooked and eaten while the remainder would be dried in the sun as ‘biltong’. This easy method of preservation produces a chewy but tasty snack that will last many weeks. Unlike their predecessors, kills on these hunting trips were made with guns. These often antiquated weapons had arrived in the area through trade with early white hunters, when the tracking skills of the Bushmen were greatly appreciated. Several groups of Bushmen had used these new weapons to hunt elephant, contributing greatly both to the ivory trade and to the decimation of these huge animals. As the Bangwato gained influence and control of the area, many guns were confiscated and those Tyua who wanted to keep theirs knew to hide them well. Twai Twai was the proud owner of an ancient muzzle-loading rifle, that, while perhaps long past use in conflict, was still a very effective weapon against game.

  After falling out with Rekisang’s mother, by 1943 Twai Twai was living with his latest wife, Dambe, in the small village of Nata on the edge of the salt pans. Nata lay on the main road, if a dirt track deserved such a name, to the north. This was known as the Hunters Road and led to Kasane and the Zambian border, nearly 300 miles away. Just to the north of the village a branch of the road led west to the town of Maun at the mouth of the Okavango Delta. Just as today, Nata provided a rest stop for travellers. In addition, it was home to a Witwatersrand Native Labour Association (WNLA) camp. WNLA provided work in the South African gold mines and Nata’s position on the junction of two of the main tracks made it an ideal recruitment centre, as well as providing a break for labour hired in Zambia on their 800-mile journey south.

  As the coldest of the Kalahari winter nights passed, Twai Twai, now widely recognised as the local headman, once again set about organising a hunting trip. This would be made with his friend Tammai, who, though light-skinned and nowhere near as imposing physically as Twai Twai, owned a gun, and Keree, another large dark-skinned Tyua. They would take some of their children, both male and female, and make a camp out in the bush. From here the men would range on their sole horse and two donkeys to hunt.

  RHODESIA, 1943

  For the second time in his career Gordon was welcomed by the bright lights of Durban. Even though he had seen them before, on his journey to Egypt, they still held a fascination for him. Not only did Durban seem like a very exotic location for a boy from a Welsh mining village, but the war seemed a long way away and life in the port appeared to have been untouched by the conflict. It was hard to compare the hardships he had experienced in Russia with the thriving happy city in front of him.

  He had made some good friends on the sail down the east coast of Africa, many of them also prospective pilots bound for one of the many flying training schools that had mushroomed across southern Africa. After a very short stay at Clairewood Camp in Durban, Gordon was shepherded aboard a train that over t
he next two days made its way to Bulawayo. For those new to Africa this was a fascinating experience, partly due to the scenery and partly to the number of black faces – something new to many of the passengers. From the coast at Durban, the steam engine puffed its way upward through the Drakensburg Mountains and onwards to the goldfields of Johannesburg. From there it was a short trip to Mafeking and then it was a full day’s trip through the Bechuanaland Protectorate. For those still awake, the view from the windows made it clear that civilisation, as they knew it, was getting farther and farther away. Durban, Johannesburg and, to some extent, Mafeking had clearly been European settlements, but Bechuanaland was real Africa. Towns on the route might have one or two ‘real’ buildings, but the rest were just a sea of mud huts. And the towns were far apart, with hours of literally nothing but stunted acacia bush in between. Eventually, Gordon and his new friends, Harry Tait and Walter Adamson, chugged to a halt at Plumtree on the Southern Rhodesia border. They must have wondered how and why pilots from not only all over Britain, but from all over the Empire, were being sent to what seemed like the end of the world to be trained.

  The reasons could be traced back to the outbreak of war when the entire embryonic Southern Rhodesian Air Force (SRAF), comprising nine antiquated biplanes, had decamped for Kenya and the border with Italian Somaliland. ‘A’ and ‘B’ Flights were merged to form No. 1 Squadron SRAF. Back in Rhodesia, Bulawayo and Salisbury flying clubs were raided for instructors and aeroplanes for a new training school at Hillside, on the outskirts of the capital. Initially this was unable to cope with the demand and pilots were sent to Habbaniyah, near Baghdad, and later to become famous for its siege, to complete their advanced flying training.