Orthodoxy and counter-orthodoxy in the Bethanie anti-levy riot of 1940

Abstract

One of the central events in the history of the Bakwena-ba-Magopa community, (1) according to its members, is the civil strife of 1940, and especially the riot on Sunday night, the 21st of July 1940 in the village of Bethanie. People living in that village today frequently refer to the period as Bethanie's "civil war," a term which emphasizes that the dispute was profoundly inward-looking, local and devisive, as well as violent. Even today, when most of the leading actors in the drama are dead, the people of Bethanie are quite reluctant to talk openly about those events.