THE NGWATO OF BECHUANALAND PROTECTORATE 67
has the power to pass over an unsuitable heir or suspend an incompetent or otherwise unsatisfactory chief, provides machinery whereby the tribe can depose a chief, makes conspiracy against the chief a statutory offence, and establishes a formal Tribal Council to assist him in the execution of his duties. The Native Tribunals Proclamation (No. 75 of 1934) removes from the jurisdiction of the tribal courts all cases in which the accused is charged with treason, sedition, murder or attempted murder, culpable homicide, rape or attempted rape, assault or intent to do grievous bodily harm, conspiracy against the chief, and a variety of statutory offences. All other cases, both civil and criminal, in which Natives only are concerned, can still be tried by the tribal courts according to Tswana law and custom. But, in place of the many grades of court in the tribal system, the Proclamation recognizes only three whose decisions are legally binding. These are styled Junior and Senior Native Tribunals and the Chief's Tribunal respectively. From the last there is an appeal to the District Commissioner's Court and thence, under certain conditions, to the Special Court of the Protectorate. The Proclamation further defines the constitution of each tribunal, laying down that it shall have a limited membership appointed by specified tribal authorities, provides for the keeping, in all cases tried, of written records open to inspection by the District Commissioner, severely curtails the forms of punishment that may be imposed, and lays down various rules to govern procedure.
These Proclamations, first drafted in 1930, had been frequently and fully discussed by the Administration with the chiefs and their tribes. The necessity for them had become more and more evident. As the old chiefs died, they were succeeded by young men educated for the most part in schools outside the Protectorate, and so cut off from adequate first-hand experience of tribal government and jurisdiction. Instances multiplied of drunkenness and irresponsibility, neglect of duty, misappropriation of hut-tax and other tribal moneys, and of serious internal disputes, all calling for stronger Administrative control; while increasing educational, veterinary, and agricultural development made it still more desirable to define clearly the relations between the Administration and the tribes. Tshekedi opposed the Proclamations from the beginning, and even after their promulgation did not put them into force. Finally, in December, 1935, he and Bathoen, Chief of