Mackenzie, John

John Mackenzie, (born Aug. 30, 1835, Knockando, Moray County, Scot.—died March 23, 1899, Kimberley, Cape Colony [now in South Africa]), British missionary who was a constant champion of the rights of Africans in Southern Africa and a proponent of British intervention to curtail the spread of Boer influence, especially over the lands of the Tswana (“Bechuana” in older variant orthography) peoples.

Colonial Southern Africa, 1884–1905

Mackenzie, a member of the London Missionary Society (now Council for World Mission), went to Southern Africa in 1858 and began his missionary work at Kuruman (now in South Africa) and continued in the Tswana territories known as Bechuanaland. Troubled by the growing encroachments on Tswana territories by Boers from the Transvaal republic to the east, he was active from 1867 in attempts to have Britain declare a protectorate over Tswana territories, claiming that the British would safeguard African rights from Boer racism. In 1884 a protectorate was declared over the southern Tswana territories, known as British Bechuanaland (now in northern South Africa), with Mackenzie as its deputy commissioner. He lost this job to Cecil Rhodes in 1885 but remained in politics, retaining a great deal of influence. Later that year he participated in the Warren Expedition, which resulted in the Tswana lands north of British Bechuanaland being declared the Bechuanaland Protectorate (now Botswana). In 1889 he retired to resume his missionary activities.