Mma-Besi

Mma-Besi or Mabisa (1846 – 1889) was a 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,
Born	Mma-Besi c. 1846

Personal life

She was baptized as Elisabeta 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 the 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.

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.