Mma-Besi or Mabisa (1846 – 1889) was a mohumagadi (queen or queen mother) of the

BaNgwato The Bamangwato (more correctly BagammaNgwato, and also referred to as the BaNgwato or Ngwato) is one of the eight "principal" Tswana chieftaincies of Botswana. The modern Bamangwato formed in the Central Serowe, Palapye & Mahalapye District, wi ...

of the

Bechuanaland Protectorate The Bechuanaland Protectorate () was a British protectorate, protectorate established on 31 March 1885 in Southern Africa by the United Kingdom. It became the Botswana, Republic of Botswana on 30 September 1966. History Scottish missionary ...

, now

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

, and the first wife of king

Khama III Khama III (c. 1837 – 21 February, 1923), referred to by missionaries as Khama the Good also called Khama the Great, was the '' Kgosi'' (meaning king) of the Bangwato people. Ancestry and Youth Malope, a chief of the Bakwena, led his people fr ...

. She was also known as Elisabeta Gobitsamang Khama.

Personal life

She was baptized as Elisabeta in 1862, taking the name in honour of Elizabeth Moffat, daughter of Robert Moffat. She was married that same year in what was the first Christian marriage held in

Shoshong Shoshong is a town in Botswana, formerly the chief settlement of the eastern Bamangwato. Physical location Shoshong is located just north of the Tropic of Capricorn at , in the Central District of Botswana, about west of Mahalapye. The town is ...

. 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. Her one son who lived, Sekgoma, became king when Khama III died in 1923 but died himself soon after. She herself died at the age of 44, probably of

malaria Malaria is a Mosquito-borne disease, mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects vertebrates and ''Anopheles'' mosquitoes. Human malaria causes Signs and symptoms, symptoms that typically include fever, Fatigue (medical), fatigue, vomitin ...

due to Khama III moving the capital to the

Tswapong Hills The Tswapong Hills are a mountain range in the Central District, Botswana. They rise to an elevation of 300 to 400 m above the hardveld of the almost 900 m high surrounding plateau. Geologically, these flat-topped hills are similar to the Waterb ...

References

{{Reflist 1846 births 1889 deaths