Microsoft Word - PhD Thesis Final.pdf - University of Limpopo ...

establishing the South African Republic (ZAR/Transvaal), and in the
process, the identities, especially social and political, of the affected
communities were completely changed 213 . New form of governance came to
impact on all who live within what was regarded as a Boer state. The
Makgabeng communities were expected to submit under the new Boer
state. Their new political identity was that they were then the subjects of the
ZAR. This is what is theoretically referred to as imposed identity, 214 in
contrast to organically evolved identity.
The annexation of the Transvaal by the British in 1877 overtook the shaping
of that state by the Boers. The British administration brought changes which
were also felt in the nothernmost colony of the Transvaal which included the
Makgabeng area. The Boers reclaimed control of the Transvaal in 1881 and
with the administrative system which was improved by the British, they
continued to consolidate their power. One of their main aims in that regard
was to dismantle the independence of Black polities and subjugate them.
Whereas the Boers and the British were mostly responsible for dismantling
and creating new identities in the Transvaal, including the Makgabeng area,
by imposing their dominant ways of life and values, it was the missionaries
who were responsible in shaping the religious, medical, educational and
social ways of life of those communities. The Berlin missionaries, and to a
213 Ibid, p. 75.
214 J. Muller et al, Challenges of Globalisation, p. 116.
129