The contribution of the missionaries to the development of Setswana as a written language

Abstract

The Christian missionaries of different missionary societies made a tremendous contribution to education in South Africa. Their arrival in South Africa was aimed particularly at spreading the Word of God. They therefore set about to achieve this through introduction of formal education among the Batswana people. They started by building mission schools, translating scriptural and non-scriptural books as well as writing readers for elementary classes. The extent of the contribution of these missionaries to the development of Setswana as a written language has, however, not been adequately assessed. The aim of this article is therefore to fill the gap by evaluating their contribution. This paper confines itself to the contribution of the missionaries only, as other contributions will require another article.