Following the death of Khama, and shortly afterwards of Segkoma II, Tshekedi Khama, (Khama’s son from a late second marriage) stepped in as regent until the four-year-old Seretse should come of age.
Where Khama was a visionary and politician, Tshekedi was full of pragmatic common sense and his rule, from 1926 to 1959, is marked by educational advances and self-help projects. When he first became leader there was only a primary school in Serowe. Then Tshekedi used his own money to send the young people of the village to South Africa for further education. From there they came home to teach in the village school. Later a secondary school and subsequently a college were built, using the voluntary labour of what were known as the age regiments (see page 35). Also known as the mephato, these were groups of young men of about the same age, usually formed from those who had graduated from the tribal initiation ceremony (known as bogwera) at the same time. They could be called upon to carry out services for the good of the community, ranging from routine community tasks to helping out with emergencies.
Moeng College of higher education is exciting for the principles on which it was founded, which gave equal weight to traditional knowledge and craft skills alongside academic instruction. As an experiment in social relations the houses built for the teaching staff were the equivalent of houses for white government officials. It was the only college in southern Africa at the time where houses for white and black teachers were equal and where they lived together in the same hostel.