Motsamai Mpho

Motsamai Keyecwe Mpho (Known as "Motsamai Keyecwe Mpho")

Anti-Apartheid Treason Trialist, Co-Founder of BPP and BIP, Longtime Parliamentarian for Okavango

Born 1921-02-03

Maun, Ngamiland, Botswana

Passed Away 2012-11-28 Palapye, Botswana

Lifespan 91 years old

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"Freedom without economic dignity and ethnic equality is merely a changed flag in the wind."

Archival Overview

Pioneering Bayei freedom fighter and anti-apartheid leader charged alongside Nelson Mandela in the 1956 South African Treason Trial, founder of the Botswana Independence Party (BIP).

Biographical Record

Motsamai Keyecwe Mpho was born on February 3, 2021, in Maun, Ngamiland, of Bayei heritage. Working in the gold mines of the Witwatersrand, Mpho joined the African National Congress (ANC) in Johannesburg, rising to executive leadership. In 1956, he was arrested and tried for high treason alongside Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo in the infamous Treason Trial.

Deported back to Bechuanaland in 1960, Mpho co-founded the Botswana People's Party (BPP) and later established the Botswana Independence Party (BIP). Representing the Okavango constituency in the National Assembly from 1969 to 1979, he was an unyielding champion of minority ethnic rights, environmental conservation of the Okavango Delta, and democratic socialism.

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Final Resting Place

Perpetual Memorial

Palapye Municipal Cemetery
Palapye, Botswana

                         GPS: -22.5500, 27.1300                    

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