Cost Paths
Map showing least cost paths
The map indicates, in orange, paths that may have been taken when walking from one settlement to another with cattle.
Map showing range of paths
Map showing Kwena and Ngwaketse paths of migration
These are the Least Cost Paths generated for the Bangwaketse and the Bakwena, which is a group from which the Bangwketse broke away from. These two groups have their own territory in which the settlements were situated. As seen here, multiple paths are created from each settlement in each territory.
Generally, to move from one place to another, one prefers a path that allows for easy navigation, more so when walking with cattle. Cattle need to graze land as they move from one place to another, therefore, open land is what is preferred for walking with cattle.
As seen on the cattle cost path map, the routes that are in orange are along a flat area with minimum variability in the terrain. This is also an area that may have been covered in grass or shrubs, which provides grazing land for cattle as they move.
In trying to find how the Bangwaketse moved across their area from settlement to settlement, the length of the paths are also considered in order to find the range of movement. The map on the right shows that the range of these paths is between 144,000 m to 184,000 m (14.4 km to 18.4 km).
It could also be assumed that the travel distance with cattle may be much longer than other kinds of travel, i.e., travelling as a group of people, since people can navigate areas that have manageable terrain variability.
In the movement from one capital to another, or even settlements, another consideration was the territories of other Tswana groups which were living around the Bangwaketse.
Cattle were a valued possession and so cattle raids were made in order to obtain cattle. These raids occured between capitals, and this meant having to traverse another Tswana group's territory.
Therefore, in identifying the routes that were taken, what is also considered is the crossing of paths from different territories. From the generated paths, if there is a path that crossed another territory, it would be disregarded as this is unlikely a path that was to be taken as they moved.
The final routes that will be identified from this will be routes generated from assumptions, yet identified with reason based on literature available about the movement of the Bangwaktse and the other Tswana groups around them.