Tim Cohen wrote (Point of Order, March 27) that there is a "need to explain why three of SA’s neighbours asked to become colonial protectorates of the British crown". Before there is another media commotion, let us remind ourselves as briefly a possible: King Moeshoeshoe petitioned for Britain to proclaim a protectorate over the then Basutoland to prevent the Orange Free State Boer Republic continuing to conquer it and sequestrate its farmers’ lands to white settlers, as had already happened in the Conquered Territory. The Tswana chiefs lobbied for a direct British protectorate to prevent their pasturage being seized by Rhodes’ British South Africa Company and donated to settlers from "the Pioneer Column’. So the "Bechuanaland Protectorate" was excluded from "Southern Rhodesia". The Swazi king was not given the opportunity to manoeuvre. The Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek had proclaimed its protectorate over his kingdom. As a result of war between Britain and the republic, the British E...
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