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therefore very reluctant – if not unwilling – to comply with the Boers laws,
such as the payment of taxes. This resulted in tensions between the Boers
and those communities who did not comply with their demands.
As a result of the tensions brought by the above problems, the communities
around the Makgabeng area began to openly resist Boer authority. In
response to this resistance, the Boers applied force in which they used the
Portuguese and the Buys surrogates, as well as their Black allies to crush
any form of resistance. Around the Makgabeng area, the notable Black
allies of the Boers were the chiefs, Kibi and Matlala. These two became
natural Boer allies as they were at logger-heads with the powerful chief,
Malebogo, for various reasons. In these conflicts the Boers had apparent
advantages over Black communities because of their massive possession of
guns, ammunition, horses and wagons. As a result, although most of the
Makgabeng communities put brave resistance against the advancing Boer
settlers’ authority, they later succumbed. Although Boers used their strength
and tactics to subjugate the communities in the Makgabeng area, it took
them the whole of the 19 th century before they could totally take control of
the area. They only succeeded to defeat the Bahananwa of Malebogo in a
fierce battle in 1894 250 .
250 Interview, Mofotoloko Mashilo, Ga Monyebodi village, 4 May 2004.
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