The Botswana Society, Botswana
Fred is a retired professor of history, University of Botswana, who remains active as an Associate of the History Department and as Honorary Secretary of the NGO, The Botswana Society (est. 1968) which promotes Botswana’s heritage across the disciplines. American by nationality, he is a permanent resident of Botswana, where he lived since he joined the faculty of the University of Botswana and Swaziland in 1976. He has engaged in multi-disciplinary research with archaeologists and other specialists related to pre-colonial Tswana settlements in Botswana and South Africa, including the experimental digital project on African urbanism.
Fred’s scholarship has focused on the pre-colonial societies of the Kenya coast, southern Botswana and the South African Transvaal, with emphasis on slavery systems, ex-slave communities, pre-1800 Tswana societies, before, during the early 19th-century disruptions on the Highveld, and initiatives related to immigrant Boer encroachment. His study of the Bakgatla Kgafela highlights their creative adaption and expansion following the Boer intrusion and establishment of British control in present Botswana. He has also led efforts to connect Tswana communities in southern Botswana with the stonewall settlements created by their ancestors. His brief survey of the pre-colonial Tswana of South Africa was published in 2024 by The Botswana Society.
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