Sebele I

{{Short description|King (kgosi) of the Tswana Kwena tribe (r. 1892–1911)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Sebele I

| image = Sebele I by Fritsch 1865.jpg

| alt = A sepia portrait of Sebele I

| caption = Portrait of Sebele in his twenties taken by German anthropologist Gustav Fritsch at Ntsweng (nowadays, Old Molepolole) in 1865.{{cite book|title=An Eloquent Picture Gallery: The South African Portrait Photographs of Gustav Theodor Fritsch, 1863-1865|year=2008|publisher=Jacana Media|location=Auckland Park, South Africa|isbn=978-1-77009-641-7|page=98|url=https://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.1/4969/GTF_EPG_JACANA.pdf?sequence=1|editor1-last=Dietrich|editor1-first=Keith|editor2-last=Bank|editor2-first=Andrew|accessdate=21 March 2013}}

| birth_name =

| birth_date = Circa 1841

| birth_place = Bechuanaland Protectorate (nowadays, Botswana)

| death_date = {{Death year and age|1911|1840|01}}

| death_place = Bechuanaland Protectorate (nowadays, Botswana){{cite journal|last=Plaatje|first=Solomon T.|title=Reminiscences of Sebele, the Paramount Bechuana|journal=English in Africa|date=September 1976|volume=3|issue=2|pages=23–25|publisher=Institute for the Study of English in Africa, Rhodes University|jstor=40238358}}

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| title = Kgosi of the Kwena

| term = 1892 – 1911{{cite book|last=Lipschutz|first=Mark R.|title=Dictionary of African Historical Biography|year=1989|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley, CA, USA|isbn=9780520066113|page=117|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QYoPkk04Yp4C&q=Sebele%20I&pg=PA117}}

| predecessor = Sechele I

| successor = Sechele II

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Sebele I was a chief (kgosi) of the Kwena —a major Tswana tribe (morafe) in modern-day Botswana— who ruled from 1892 until his death in 1911.{{cite book|last=Parsons|first=Neil|title=King Khama, Emperor Joe, and the Great White Queen: Victorian Britain Through African Eyes|year=1998|publisher=University of Chicago Press|location=Chicago, USA|isbn=9780226647456|pages=[https://archive.org/details/kingkhamaemperor0000pars/page/37 37]–42|url=https://archive.org/details/kingkhamaemperor0000pars|url-access=registration|quote=sebele botswana 1892.}} During his lifetime, he resisted the 1885 Bechuanaland Protectorate"Sechele’s tribe proved by no means unanimous in welcoming the Protectorate. Sebele, the eldest son of the chief, protested against their country being taken from them without their consent." (T.E. Malebeswa (2020): Tribal Territories Act, indirect rule, chiefs and subjects) as well as the control of his domains by Cecil Rhodes' British South African Company, which was administering, by a royal charter signed in October 1889, his homeland in the Bechuanaland Protectorate and other regions of Central Africa.{{cite book|last=Schmitt|first=Deborah|title=Encyclopedia of African History, Volume 1|year=2005|publisher=CRC Press|location=Florence, KY, USA|isbn=9781579582456|pages=285–288|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ftz_gtO-pngC&q=sebele%20%22Union%20of%20South%20Africa%22&pg=PA285|editor-last=Shillington|editor-first=Kevin|accessdate=21 March 2013|chapter=Botswana (Bechuanaland Protectorate) Colonial Period}}

With support from Christian missionaries, Sebele traveled to Britain in 1895 along with Bathoen I and Khama III to argue against the latest attempts to incorporate the protectorate into the Cape Colony. They managed to secure support from Queen Victoria in exchange for an eastern strip of territory.{{cite book|last1=Cyr|first1=Ruth N.|title=Twentieth Century Africa|year=2001|publisher=iUniverse|location=Bloomington, Indiana, USA|isbn=9781475920802|pages=43–44|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVF-NXbQj4UC&q=sebele%20%22Union%20of%20South%20Africa%22&pg=PA44|last2=Alward|first2=Edgar C.|accessdate=21 March 2013}} Between 1908 and 1909 he also resisted the incorporation of Bechuanaland into the Union of South Africa.