Identifying the institution of chiefship as the focal point of critical discourse on continuity and social change in colonial and postcolonial Botswana, this book offers extensive analysis of the values and aspirations of a rapidly changing, twentieth-century country. Underscoring the central role of chiefship structures in Botswana's historical state formation, the book also analyses the transformation of the institution in three major areas of Botswana's history, including imperialism, decolonisation and the nation state project of the postcolonial period.