This thesis examines the political and ideological struggles within Tswana chiefdoms in the Rustenburg district of the Western Transvaal in the period 1920 - 1940. This period was characterized by a spate of struggles against tribal chiefs which took on similar forms in most of the chiefdoms of the district. These challenges to chiefly political authority reflected a variety of underlying material interests which were rooted in the process of class formation resulting from the development of capitalist relations of production within the wider society. Despite the variations in material conditions in the different chiefdoms of the district, the forms of political and ideological resistance were very similar. The thesis examines the extent of the influences of Christian missions and national political organizations in these localized struggles, and also explores the relationship between chiefs, Native Affairs Department officials and the rural African population in the context of developing segregationist ideology during the inter-war period.