Mma-Besi

Mma-Besi or Mabisa (1846 – 1889) was the mohumagadi (queen or queen mother) of the BaNgwato of the Bechuanaland Protectorate, now Botswana, and the first wife of king Khama III.[1][2]. She was also known as Elisabeta Gobitsamang Khama.

Mma-Besi
mohumagadi (queen or queen mother) of the BaNgwato of the Bechuanaland Protectorate,
BornMma-Besi
c. 1846

Personal Life

She was baptized Elizabeta in 1862, taking the name in honour of Elizabeth Moffat, daughter of Robert Moffat.[2][3] She was married that same year in what was the first Christian marriage held in Shoshong.[2] Her first child, a daughter, was called Besi, and so she became Mma-Besi due to a tradition of taking the name "mother of" one's firstborn.[2] Her one son who lived, Sekgoma, became king when Khama III died in 1923 but died himself soon after.[2] She herself died at the age of 44, probably of malaria due to Khama III moving the capital to the Tswapong Hills, an unhealthy place.[4]

References
  1. Kathleen Sheldon (4 March 2016). Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-1-4422-6293-5.
  2. Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.; Professor Emmanuel Akyeampong; Mr. Steven J. Niven (2 February 2012). Dictionary of African Biography. OUP USA. pp. 232–. ISBN 978-0-19-538207-5.
  3. Fred Morton; Jeff Ramsay; Part Themba Mgadla (23 April 2008). Historical Dictionary of Botswana. Scarecrow Press. pp. 379–. ISBN 978-0-8108-6404-7.
  4. Gates; Akyeampong; Niven (2 February 2012). Dictionary of African Biography. pp. 233–.
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