Kgosi Sechele (also known as Setshele) was the rule of the baKwêna (Koena or Kwena) in the period 1829-1892.

Credit: Gustav Theodor Fritsch
During this time he led his people in the Battle of Dimawe in 1852 against the Boers. The Boers had established themselves on the borders of the Greater Tswana lands in the then Transvaal region as a result of the Great Trek. The battle turned into a stalemate with Sechele having the upper hand as the Batswana successfully defended Dimawe Hill. Boer General Scholtz wrote, “By nightfall, and with the enemy still holding a rocky hill of caves, I was obliged to withdraw my men and return to the laager.”
In February 1853 an armistice was agreed, with subsequent reconciliation leading to Sechele’s 1860 visit to the Potchefstroom home of the ZAR President Pretorius, where they reportedly toasted the new year together. The boundary at the time of the armistice still remains Botswana’s eastern border with South Africa. Although Sechele is celebrated by the Tswana, the Koena in fact historically form part of the Tswana-Sotho people of South Africa, as well as Lesotho, Botswana, Zimbabwe and Swaziland.
Sechele I is credited as laying the first foundation towards Botswana’s independence.