Annual report on the Bechuanaland Protectorate / Commonwealth Relations Office.

  • Great Britain. Office of Commonwealth Relations
Date:
[1950]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual report on the Bechuanaland Protectorate / Commonwealth Relations Office. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PART II i CHAPTER ONE POPULATION iThe population of the Protectorate as shown by the 1946 census is 2,200 Europeans, 290,000 Africans and 1,700 Coloureds. There are also about 100 Asiatics. There has been no appreciable change during the last jfour years but taken over the last ten years there has been an increase .of about 5 per cent. The distribution of the population is very uneven. Most of the people ilive in the eastern and north-western parts of the Territory. The southern, jcentral and western parts consist of the Kalahari desert. About one-half |of the population lives in villages of 1,000 or more inhabitants, though ;many of these people spend the greater part of their time at outlying jcattle posts. i \ ] ( ) I I CHAPTER H * OCCUPATIONS, WAGES AND LABOUR CONDITIONS Some five per cent of the population are away working on the Rand mines or other industries in the Union of South Africa. Of the remainder, nine-tenths are engaged in stock raising which for centuries has been the main, almost the sole, pursuit of the Bechuana tribes. A small number of Africans are employed as herds and drovers on European cattle ranches but the great majority are themselves the owners of cattle which are cared for on a family or tribal basis. Native law and custom make it the duty of every male member of the tribe present to do his part in the tending of the family livestock. There is consequently very little pay¬ ment for services. Government employs about 1,500 Africans spread over all departments. They are mostly unskilled or semi-skilled though the propo tion engaged on skilled or specialized work such as clerks, aolicemen, medical orderlies and nurses, artisans, and educationalists, continues to increase.
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