KGARI
- 1 Min Read
Kgari (?-c1826), son of Chief Kgama I, assumed the chieftainship over the Ngwato (Bomangwato) of what is now Botswana in about 1817. This was during a troubled period when the country was in the throes of turmoil occasioned by the difaquane, the backwash occasioned by the wars of Shaka, the greatest of Zulu conquerors.
Kgari shifted his main settlement first to Serowe, where he was attacked by the Fokeng people, and then to the Kutswe Hills, where the Fokeng attacked him again. Reinforced by a group of Kwena, the Ngwato moved yet further north into the land of Kalaka (in what is now Zimbabwe), and then into the country of the Shona, where the Ngwato raiders were defeated and Kgari was killed in battle in about 1826.
Kgari’s memory has been honored by his people as that of a kindly, wise and courageous man. He was succeeded subsequently by Khama (Kgama) II, a son of Kgari’s second wife, Bobjwale.
L. H. GANN
Arabic
English
French
Portuguese
Spanish
Swahili