THE NGWATO OF BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE 57
much less than the territory it claimed when the Protectorate was established in 1885. Its population, returned in 1936 as 101,481, is by no means homogeneous. Only one-fifth belongs to the nuclear community, comprising the ruling dynasty and other descendants of the people who founded the tribe by separating early in the eighteenth century from the Kwena.1 The remainder are bafaladi (foreigners, 'refugees'), who became subject to the Ngwato chiefs at various times through conquest in war, voluntary submission, flight from an invading enemy, or secession from some other tribe. Most of them retain sufficient corporate life to be regarded as separate communities or groups of communities within the tribe. Some, like the Kaa, Phaleng, Pedi, Tswapong, Kwena, Seleka, Khurutshe, Birwa, and Kgalagadi, are themselves of Tswana origin, or come from the closely allied Northern Sotho cluster. Others are linguistically and culturally distinct. The Kalaka (who actually outnumber the Ngwato proper), Talaote, and Nabya belong to the Shona group of Southern Rhodesia, and the Rotse,Kuba,andSubiatothe peoples of north-western Rhodesia; the Herero are refugees from South-West Africa, and the Sarwa are Bushmen with a large admixture of Bantu blood and culture. Practically all the Ngwato proper, members of the dominant community, are concentrated round the chief in the capital town of Serowe (pop., 25,ooo).2 Serowe also contains many groups of foreigners. But the great majority of these are scattered over the rest of the reserve, people of the same stock tending to inhabit the same localities. They live in some 170 villages, ranging in size from small settlements, of less than 100 people each, to such relatively large centres as Shoshong, Mmadinare, Bobonong, and Tonota, with populations of 2,000 or more. For administrative purposes, the villages some distance away from Serowe were gradually grouped by Kgama and his successors into districts, based partly upon geographical convenience and partly upon ethnic considerations.3 The district of Shoshong is inhabited
1 The Kwena (living in a reserve immediately south of the Ngwato) are generally regarded as the parent stock from which the Ngwaketse, Ngwato, and Tawana are derived.
2 Built in 1902. Before that the tribal head-quarters was located at Palapye, built in 1889, and before that at Shoshong.
3 The districts already existed, in the sense that people of the same stock inhabited the same part of the tribal territory; but Kgama gave them concrete form by appointing men specially to administer tlv* outlying parts of the Reserve for him (see below, p. 61).