Contract and Neighbourly Exchange among the Birwa of Botswana

Schapera’s accounts of the Tswana provide one of the few instances of contract to be found in the “customary” law of African societies in colonial times. Not only were contracts a means used, even between closely related people, for making certain kinds of transactions, but also the Tswana courts were prepared to enforce executory contracts. In this paper I intend to discuss the significance of contracts among the Birwa of independent Botswana, in particular the way in which contracts are used to regulate certain kinds of productive exchanges between co-operating neighbours.