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especially after initiation 530 . These leaders not only ensured control over the
initiates by sending them to far away work places, they also hoped to make
maximum profit out of the new labour process. They mainly hoped to
acquire guns for hunting and defence 531 . Other European commodities were
also going to be acquired through the young men’s involvement in the
migrant labour.
These leaders in the Makgabeng-Hanawa vicinity attached too much value
to the acquisition of firearms and they tried all methods possible to get them.
This was because competition for resources such as land was intensifying,
especially as a result of the appearance of Europeans in that area. Security
and defence were of higher priority at that time, hence those leaders were
determined to arm their polities. They even dispatched young men as far as
the Cape Colony in order to bring back those much sought after
commodities. In this way migrancy of workers from the northern end of the
Transvaal spread as far as the southern tip of the Cape. This was noted by
Sonntag when he met Kgoši Ratšhatšha on Tuesday 21 March 1893.
Sonntag then wrote in his diary:
When the railways were discussed, the chief was reminded
of the time when his people had to travel on foot far into
the Cape Colony and work for three months and longer to
530 T. J. Makhura, The Bagananwa Polity …, p. 121.
531 Ibid, p. 121.
305