Introduction
  Professor    L.D. Ngcongco       officially retired in August 1995 after many years of
  continuous     service to the University     of Botswana.    Having joined the staff of the
  University of Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland in 1967, he is certainly one of the
  longest-serving      faculty members to retire from this university.       The University    of
  Botswana, compared to others in Western and Eastern Africa, is a relatively young
  institution and therefore not many of its serving academics have had the honour or
 privilege of serving to retirement age.
       Prof. Ngcongco has seen the institution grow from humble beginnings to its present
 position as a centre of learning in the SA DC region. He has been an active player in this
 process of growth. He was the first staff member to start the teaching of History on the
 small Gaborone campus in 1971 and has been head of department on and off for close to
 twenty years, and at different times Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Director of the
National Institute for Research, and acting Deputy Vice Chancellor, as well as a member
of various boards and committees which have shaped the development of the university.
      For these reasons it was considered that afestschrift to mark his retirement would be a
 fitting tribute to him for his service to the university. The following articles are offered in
that spirit. The papers which follow cover some of the areas of Leonard Ngcongco's
scholarly interests.
      Darkwah's paper discusses Ngcongco's contribution to the development and study of
history in Botswana. This is followed by an interview in which Ngcongco reminisces
about the development of the University of Botswana and the part he played in it. As
befits a publication        devoted to a historian, the chapters that follow are organized
chronologically by topic.
      The role of linguistics in historical reconstruction is the subject of the contribution by
Herman Batibo and others; the languages used as examples in that paper are Makua and
Sotho. Neil Parsons looks at foreign traders and travellers in Tswana lands before about
 1820. Bruce Bennett analyses the discourse between the missionary John Mackenzie and
Kgosi Sekgoma Kgari of the Bangwato. Henryk Zins revisits the issue of the international
background       to the creation of the Bechuanaland        Protectorate  in 1885. Christopher
Saunders' paper discusses Ngcongco's study on John Tengo Jabavu and the newspaper
which he edited, Imvo Zabantsundu. Themba Mgadla surveys the part played by wives of
the missionaries and other women in the development of education in Botswana to 1937.
Bojosi Otlhogile discusses the handling of criminal cases by the colonial courts and what
may be learnt from them about the development of colonial policy in Botswana. Isaac
Mazonde looks at the conflict of interest and of policy between Government and NGO's
in respect of the Basarwa at Xade.
      These papers are offered as an expression of appreciation          of the part played by
Leonard Ngcongco in the development of the historical studies in Botswana. It is our
hope that his retirement years will be happy and fruitful.
                                                                            Kofi Darkwah
                                                   3