Family Histories of the Cape and Bechuanaland: A Review Article

The writing of family history comes with multiple problems, not least of which is how to tell the stories of the most notable members of a family without erasing the lives of its subordinate and less visible members. After discussing the notion of ‘critical family history’, this article reviews recent histories of two families from the Cape and one whose members were split by the border between the Cape and the Protectorate of Bechuanaland. The first is of the Moltenos, who figured so prominently in South Africa’s politics in the late nineteenth and the first half of the twentieth century. The second is of the Bam family, whose founder was rewarded with a farm for working alongside the Cape colonial administration and which subsequently produced two prominent leaders of the struggle for liberation. The third presents the Molemas, who influenced how the British ruled Bechuanaland, who participated in the formation of the African National Congress, and one of whom became prominent in its leadership in the early 1950s. The three books are held together by the notion of Cape Liberalism, notably the progressive nature of its ideals even as these came under assault following the formation of the Union of South Africa.