The Kalahari Killings

by Jonathan Laverick

  Over time the details of the case became more muddled in the collective memory. The missing Oxford became a Tiger Moth, a Harvard, or even a Dakota. The Bushmen remained a constant part of the story and while the giraffe hunting was often mentioned, the motive for the killing became more imaginative as the story became little more than a game of Chinese whispers. One version had the Bushmen believing that the pilots were government spies that had been sent to ensure that the Basarwa received punishment for their various crimes. Another told that the Bushmen had never seen an aeroplane before and that they believed the pilots to be gods and that by eating the white men they would receive their heavenly powers.

  ’A STRIKING EXAMPLE OF BRITISH JUSTICE’

  The press reaction to the verdict was one of surprise, but on the whole the coverage was fair and balanced. The main exception was the New Rhodesian which expressed outrage at the outcome of the trial, perhaps pandering to the racial ideas that its readers held. This, combined with police fears about retribution towards the prosecution witnesses, meant that there was considerable pressure on the Bechuanaland authorities to be seen to be doing something.

  Forsyth-Thompson, the Resident Commissioner, took immediate legal advice, ironically from Kelly, the second defence advocate. Forsyth had received information from the police in Francistown that Twai Twai’s brother, Letsami, had threatened revenge on those who had given evidence in the case and Forsyth was desperately trying to come up with some way to delay the return of Twai Twai and Tammai to Nata. His initial plan was to have the pair charged with not paying Hut Tax, but, as many other Basarwa did not pay either, a conviction was by no means certain. However, given the evidence submitted by both sides in the trial, it seemed that a charge of illegal hunting would be incontestable. Kelly considered that this would be legal, but that charging someone with a minor crime connected with a major one that they had been acquitted of was ‘very bad form’.

  Twai Twai and Tammai were therefore arrested in Francistown on their way back to Nata, charged and sentenced to three months hard labour. Ellenberger, the District Commissioner who had sat in the trial, confirmed this in a letter to Forsyth-Thompson on 18 October 1944. He also mentioned that their guns had been confiscated and he also revealed his unrelated concerns that the rains had not arrived yet.

  A week before this letter had been sent, Forsyth-Thompson had called an emergency meeting with Tshekedi Khama to discuss possible solutions to the matter. Even before the trial, the Resident Commissioner had considered the idea of relocating the Bushmen. This was first suggested to the DC at Kasane, in the far north, close to Victoria Falls, who claimed they would ‘be very difficult’ to control and that he had enough problems with crime and marijuana smoking among his own natives. Present at the meeting were the Resident Commissioner, his deputy, Captain Potts, and Mackenzie on the British side, while on the native side there were Chief Khama, three of the chief’s headmen, and Seitshiro Moshweu. Mackenzie and Moshweu had both sat as officials during the case.

  Tshilwane, one of the Bangwato headmen, opened the meeting by telling of the threats Twai Twai’s brother had been making. He then said what he thought of the Basarwa. ‘They are difficult to control; animals are easier. Animals go in herds, Masarwa live in small groups. They never live in a community together.’ He was in favour of relocating the Basarwa and putting them under Bangwato control. If this worked, it would be a lesson to others. He claimed that they had tried with Twai Twai before, giving him cattle which he had tended for a while before leaving the cows in a kraal and reverting to hunting. The headman finished by saying that travellers were scared to go through the lands near Twai Twai and that the whole Molele family should be collected.

  Moshweu, who had been the native assessor in the trial, then told of investigating Twai Twai’s father after the death of a trader. This was in 1896, but it was two years before the victim’s bones were found. He said the Molele family were constantly in trouble, but that it had always proved impossible to collect evidence against them.

  The next two headmen both said that the Basarwa were too wild to control and that they would murder anybody that tried. Forsyth-Thompson disagreed, saying it was possible for them to learn new customs and to be controlled. He backed his argument up by pointing out that some Basarwa were already domesticated, earning a living by growing crops.

  Tshekedi was the next to speak, and he did so in a much more measured way than his fellow tribesmen. He started by describing the Twai Twai family tree in detail. Twai Twai’s father had had at least two wives, and the children from the first marriage had been well behaved. Indeed, one of them had worked for the British South African Police, tracking down fugitives who had fled Rhodesia to take refuge in the Bechuanaland Protectorate. From the second marriage it was clear that Twai Twai was the black sheep, having been accused of being involved in the death of a husband to a woman he wanted to marry himself. Yet one of Twai Twai’s many sons, Chimi, had approached Khama to herd his cattle and Tshekedi said he had done this well, with his branch of the family causing no trouble. This could not be said of Tammai and Twai Twai, who abandoned their cattle every time they went hunting.

  The chief then made some suggestions as to the way forward. He doubted that the Basarwa could be collected peacefully, given the previous animosity between his people and the Bushmen. Tshekedi was also against the idea of constant police patrols, as he thought this would further alienate the Basarwa from authority. Instead, he suggested that the government set up cattle posts and allow the Basarwa to gravitate towards them. This would provide employment and introduce the Bushmen to civilisation. Khama thought that a ban on hunting would not be enforceable, although forbidding the hunting of giraffe might be. However, he thought the murder of the airmen justified the disarmament of the Bushmen in general.

  While he thought the relocation of the Basarwa was impractical, Tshekedi said that he favoured moving the Molele family to his reserve where they could be observed and kept away from trouble.

  The Resident Commissioner was obviously pleased with this response as it matched Forsyth-Thompson’s own plans. He closed the meeting by agreeing a four-step plan. First, the Molele family would be removed to a cattle post near Serowe, the capital of the Bangwato reserve. Second, the government would establish two or three cattle posts or farms to the north of Nata. Third, all the Basarwa in the region would be disarmed, and, finally, a permanent police post at Nata would be established.

  Forsyth-Thompson lost little time in forwarding these plans to the High Commissioner in South Africa. In this letter he mentioned the allegations of previous murders and the fact that the not guilty verdict had raised Twai Twai’s reputation as a witchdoctor, as many now thought he was immune from punishment. The only change to the four earlier points was that the new cattle posts were now to be known as ‘Livestock Improvement Centres’ and were to be of a more educational nature.

  After receiving this information, Huggard, who should have been the judge at the trial but who was still standing in for the High Commissioner in Pretoria, forwarded to London his own proposal for collective punishment of the Basarwa in the form of a punitive raid. Along with this idea, Huggard also forwarded all the local press clippings on the case.

  It was the beginning of November by the time a copy of this missive reached Forsyth-Thompson in Mafeking and he reacted with some alarm to the idea of any kind of raid. He wrote back to Huggard stating that opening a police post in Nata was sufficient in combination with the banishment of the Molele family, who were at the root of most of the problems. He included a draft removal order with the letter. He said that his plan to remove any unregistered weapons from the Bushmen would be implemented over two years as not to cause hardship and that his ultimate aim was to have the Basarwa tilling the land. In addition, the budget of £300 per annum for the police station in Nata was included, along with more detail of how the post would operate. The plan was to have five policemen, including a European NCO, two messengers and
several camels. The camels were to be brought from the police breeding station that had been set up in Tsabong in the south as they were felt to be better suited than horses to the harsh conditions at Nata. WNLA were offering temporary accommodation so the post could open quickly.

  London then offered their view, with the Dominions Office also alarmed by the suggestion of any sort of raid against the Bushmen. They also expressed concern about the disarmament of the Basarwa, on the grounds that they could face increased danger from wild animals. In no uncertain terms, they let Huggard know that the verdict in the trial should be considered ‘a striking example of British justice and it would be a pity to spoil the good effect by any action that might be represented as resembling, though in a very minor degree, Nazi methods of dealing with subject peoples’. The communication’s last offering was that the Dominions Office trusted the newly arrived permanent High Commissioner, Sir Evelyn Baring, would be able to deal with the matter satisfactorily.

  This led to a flurry of telegrams over the next few days between Forsyth-Thompson in Mafeking, the newly arrived Baring in Pretoria, and the Dominions Office in London. The outcome of these was that Forsyth-Thompson’s four-point plan was given the go ahead. However, the Secretary of State in London wanted to ensure that the plan did not give the appearance of ‘letting loose’ Tshekedi’s people on the Basarwa, especially given the Bangwato’s historical treatment of Bushmen as ‘serfs’.

  In the meantime, Forsyth-Thompson had prepared extended notes on the case that he added to the transcript of the court proceedings. These were forwarded to Pretoria, London and also to the RAF in Rhodesia. In this four-page essay, the Resident Commissioner disagreed with the reasoning of the judge that the Crown witnesses had committed perjury. He admitted there was some doubt in the case, but was of the opinion that the discrepancies in the testimony of the key witnesses were nothing more than you would expect from ‘primitive people, testifying to what they had observed and heard a year previously’. Forsyth-Thompson claimed that the prosecution had spread its net too wide and, with hindsight, it would have been better just to charge Twai Twai and Tammai. All the women had given statements implicating the two men in the murder, but these statements could only be used against themselves and not as evidence against Twai Twai or Tammai. If these witnesses, and possibly Keree, had been used as prosecution witnesses, a conviction of the ringleaders would have been much more likely.

  By the end of November, the notice banning ownership of ammunition and guns by Basarwa on Crown lands had been proclaimed. In a typical piece of civil service pedantry, there was a long discussion over whether muzzle loaders qualified as guns, but eventually common sense prevailed and they were. Despite his plans going ahead, Forsyth-Thompson still felt under pressure. The main source of this was The New Rhodesian, a right-wing newspaper in favour of whites-only rule, that was blaming the acquittal of the Bushmen on weak governance of Bechuanaland. The Resident Commissioner asked Baring for permission to inform the press of what action the government was proposing, but the High Commissioner refused, saying that it would be better to offer a press release after the plans had borne fruit.

  On 21 December the District Commissioner at Francistown travelled to Nata with Tshekedi Khama to explain these plans to the Basarwa. With him travelled Preston-Whyte as Captain Langley was ill. The next day they spoke with a group of seventy Bushmen where the Commissioner told the congregation what was going to happen and about the new police post. Those present on the banishment list were served with their notices and told arrangements would be made for transport the following day. There was a noticeable lack of comment or remonstration at this. The day after this meeting saw a lorry containing a handful of Bushmen arrive in Francistown, where the District Commissioner oversaw the release of Twai Twai and Tammai. After informing them of their disarmament and banishment they were placed in a second truck and, accompanied by the DC and Tshekedi, the small convoy set off for Serowe. On the way, the Commissioner’s truck broke down, but Tshekedi fared even worse as his truck ended up on its side. Reinforcements came in the form of a WNLA vehicle, a lorry hired from the local Joubert family, and a commandeered Tsetse fly truck.

  Dambe’s (misspelled here) banishment order. (Botswana National Archives)

  The new year saw the resettled Basarwa living off bags of grain in Shashane, just outside Tshekedi’s capital. Tshekedi had promised to organise compensation for the cattle the family group had left behind in Nata. However, trouble was never far away from the Molele family and three weeks into 1945 news reached Mafeking that Letsami, Twai Twai’s brother, had murdered his estranged wife. Letsami apparently claimed that, following Twai Twai’s acquittal, he was safe from prosecution.

  By the end of March there were thirty-two Basarwa living in Shashane. They were still waiting for their livestock or compensation from Tshekedi, who was promising that he had the matter under control. In the meantime he was supplying bags of grain for the Bushmen to eat. Despite these problems, it was considered that they had settled well and had caused no further concerns. The police post at Nata was up and running, with camel patrols into the bush underway. Several Martini Henry rifles had been handed in, along with many muzzle loaders, and these were to be auctioned off or destroyed in Francistown. However, the disarming of the Basarwa was still continuing on a gradual basis. Letsami had been arrested and charged with his wife’s murder. All of this news, along with mention of how helpful and cooperative Tshekedi had been throughout, was forwarded to London. London sent back an acknowledgement that they now considered the file closed.

  TALIFANG

  Talifang, one of the defence witnesses, was among those transported to Shashane, but for her the case was not completely over.

  She was married to the WNLA camp manager at Nonga and he was well respected by the camp management. His relentless pressuring of his boss whenever he visited Nata eventually led the District Manager of WNLA to write to the Resident Commissioner in Mafeking, pleading for her release.

  This request was considered by Forsyth-Thompson and, while it took some time, he acquiesced and Talifang returned to her beloved Mosweu. His decision may have been influenced by the good reports he had received on the progress of the relocated Basarwa. They were still under the stewardship of Tshekedi, but many were now living near Phikwe and had been helping Khama’s men hunt leopards over the winter.

  Talefang’s release coincided with the issue of the final banishment order, and by the middle of 1946, the Resident Commissioner’s office considered the matter closed.

  THE EDWARDS FAMILY

  Muriel, Gordon Edwards’ sister, had become suspicious when there was a break in Gordon’s correspondence. At first she had put this down to a simple problem with the post, as she knew her brother was very conscientious when it came to his family. On his last leave before going to Africa he had promised to bring back a doll for Muriel’s daughter, Rosalind. However, when she saw the story of the Francistown hearing in one of the national papers, she had her first clue as to what had happened to her brother.

  Her first attempt to confirm her suspicions by contacting the newspaper’s editor ended in failure when he told her that he could not release further details. She did not give up and while the paper could supply few further details, they did eventually confirm that Gordon was one of the pilots concerned. She then confronted her mother who admitted that it was true.

  Sarah Edwards was devastated by the loss of the son she was so devoted to, and, despite her strong personality, she found it impossible to cope with Gordon’s death. Her only solution was to obliterate all evidence of Gordon’s existence and to effectively write him out of history. She avoided talking about him and threw away anything that reminded her of him. To avoid discussion with neighbours the family was again upended, this time to Pontyclun. This led to Gordon’s name appearing on both villages’ war memorials, as well as on a commemorative plaque at Miskin Hall Cricket Club’s new pavilion.

  Gordon’s father di
d return to the region from Scotland – perhaps Gordon’s death had something to do with this. Despite not having gained a divorce from Sarah, Mr Edwards set up home in a neighbouring village with a lady, who he passed off as ‘Mrs Edwards’. He became involved in local politics and achieved reasonable success. Poignantly, one of his duties was to lay a wreath on Remembrance Sunday at the war memorial in Miskin that included his son’s name.

  Muriel was to bear the brunt of her mother’s pain, with Sarah Edwards making no secret of the fact that she wished that Gordon was still alive and that she would have been happier if Muriel had been the one that had been killed.

  Over time the two women became reconciled, even though they never became really close. Sarah did, however, help look after the growing Rosalind. Rosalind was usually a good child, but when she did misbehave she could certainly outrun the increasingly wide Sarah. Rosalind remembers attending a political meeting in the late 1940s where her grandfather and his new lady friend were introduced as ‘Mr and Mrs Edwards’. Rosalind stood up with childish innocence and informed the hall ‘that is not the real Mrs Edwards!’

  Sarah never had another relationship, with no man being able to live up to her image of Gordon. Nor mentally did she fully recover. As she grew older she moved in with her daughter before developing signs of dementia. The final straw for Muriel was when her mother locked several people in the local post office. Sarah Edwards died in a home for the elderly in the late 1970s, still mourning her son.

  ’THE TEN THOUSAND MEN’

  With the war over, the Batswana volunteers spread around a wide arc of the Mediterranean had looked forward to a speedy return to the empty spaces of Botswana. However, prisoners of war from the Far East were given priority in terms of shipping. This was understandable as there were around 70,000 British, Commonwealth and Dutch prisoners, many of whom had been in captivity for four years since the fall of Singapore. The Japanese had developed a horrific reputation for their treatment of their detainees. Beatings, torture, forced labour, starvation rations, along with poor medical treatment, had led to the death of more than a quarter of the European prisoners they had taken. The survivors were, in the vast majority of cases, in dire need of speedy evacuation and medical care.