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Who We Are
OUR HISTORY AT A GLANCE
TELLING THEIR STORY
The Royal Bafokeng people are only now beginning to tell their full story. Only part of it is becoming better known: the accidental discovery on its land of the world's largest deposits of platinum group metals, and how the Royal Bafokeng Nation has wisely invested its mining royalties for the benefit of the community. Beyond that, the dramatic history of the Royal Bafokeng Nation and its extraordinary heritage is little known.
Now, several initiatives are underway to bring to life this rich heritage. Not surprisingly, they are closely linked with the development of a new business: tourism, more specifically, the growing business of cultural and heritage tourism.
Aside from their own heritage, the Bafokeng have two distinct advantages in their bid to grow tourism. The first is that their land is close to two world class destinations. The Sun City and Lost City gaming and golf resort, and Pilanesberg National Park attract large numbers of South African and foreign tourists to the area. By developing their own complementary attractions, the Bafokeng hope to add value to the experience of these tourists and to entice them to spend time in their area.
The second is that the staging of provincial, national and even international events at the Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace attracts other visitors. However, they do not stay over in the Bafokeng area for the duration of events because of a lack of accommodation.
Development of lodges and bed and breakfast establishments is therefore becoming important as the Bafokeng strive to develop a local tourism industry.
For its part, the Local Economic Development Department, formerly Royal Bafokeng Economic Board (RBEB) is already sending young people for training in the hospitality industry in the hope that many of them will return and play a role in developing tourism in the Bafokeng area. LEDD also envisages the establishment of a cultural village to bring to life Bafokeng customs and traditions.
Meanwhile, a group of young people, with encouragement from the Royal Bafokeng Administration's youth development department, is already pioneering the development of a heritage trail covering key historical landmarks in the area.
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TIMELINE
The land of the Bafokeng has been a Nation since 1140. Kgosi (King) Sekete III, who ruled in the early 1700s, was the first in the line of kings of which the current Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi is the 15th direct descendant. Sekete III was followed by kings Diale, Ramorwa, Sekete 1V, and Thethe. Then came arguably the most influential king in Bafokeng history: Kgosi August Mokgatle (previous page), who reigned from 1834 to 1891. Pooling community resources, he started buying land the Bafokeng had occupied for centuries. Mokgatle died 33 years before the world's richest deposits of platinum group metals were discovered under Bafokeng land, enabling his people to lease their mineral rights and eventually to claim royalties which have been invested to establish a competent administration and civil service, and their own infrastructure.
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THE TOTEMIC TRADITION
The Crocodile is the logo of the Royal Bafokeng Nation. The posture of the crocodile denotes movement towards water, which the Bafokeng people believe to be a sign of contentment. This results in a common expression used in meetings: a e wele mo metsing (idiomatically translated as "let there be peace"). The crocodile is the genealogical totem of the Sotho-Tswana peoples, who include the Bafokeng. The crocodile is depicted by other Sotho-tswana groups with its mouth open. The Bafokeng have always depicted their crocodile with its mouth shut.
There is no historical explanation for this, but Bafokeng people enjoy the reason given in recent times by a member of the royal family who said, "we have always kept our mouths shut".
How the crocodile became the totem of the Sotho-Tswana, and Bafokeng people is also obscure. Whatever the reason, as a menacing presence in their rivers, the crocodile loomed large in early Bafokeng life.
PARTNERS
The family of a bride-to-be can be sure of one thing in their preparations for her big wedding day: they will never be alone. The entire community pitches up to help with anything and everything, from bread and beer making to preparing a variety of vegetable dishes and salads, and slaughtering a cow or two.
And it doesn't end there. Most of them also attend the wedding feast and festivities. There appears to be no such thing as a small wedding in the Bafokeng community.
As in most African societies, marriage formalities begin on the day when family members of the groom-to-be visit the family of his chosen one. The visit sets in motion complex negotiations and often tough bargaining to establish the amount of bogadi, the age-old African custom by which the bridegroom's family makes a payment in cattle, or cash in more modern times, to the bride's family.
Numerous factors come into play during tense negotiations, which are usually conducted in an arm's length way by uncles or other close relatives. For example, the standing or stature of the woman could determine a higher price. The payment should be used for the benefit of the couple, perhaps to assist the bride to set up home, or to pay for the wedding.
Marriages are usually solemnised in church, but a custom practised immediately before or after the ceremony is equally important. This is known as ...go laya,- which, loosely translated, means "to give the law". This amounts to a heart-to-heart exchange involving the bride and groom and their families.
The bride's family sets out in a subtle and diplomatic manner how they expect the young couple to conduct themselves in their marriage, and pledge their support in times of conflict.
The nature of the exchange has become more direct in recent times and especially since South Africa's transition to democracy and its new government's strong emphasis on women's rights. This often emboldens parents of the bride diplomatically to dispel traditional notions that men control relationships and that the modern husband is expected to show more respect to his wife.
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MEET THE BAFOKENG
HOME
The Bafokeng have painstakingly acquired land piece by piece over 150 years, so it is not surprising that their homes reflect the history of the area and their changing economic circumstances. Homes range from the most humble to the most modern, with anything and everything in between.
Married, male Bafokeng and unmarried women over the age of 45 are entitled to stands on which they can build their homes. Land remains the property of the Royal Bafokeng Nation, but occupants do not pay rent and rates. They pay only a small nominal fee that covers the cost of erecting corner posts marking the perimetres of each stand, and, of course, the cost of water and electricity they consume.
New suburbs are neatly laid out, but older areas established before the days of modern town planning have often developed in a haphazard fashion.
Creating more orderly development in these old villages is a major challenge being faced by the Royal Bafokeng Administration.
Tin dwellings, known as Mokhukhu, are erected on many residential stands as temporary shelter while people save money to build modern homes, especially in newer suburbs of Phokeng. Mokhukhu are usually erected at the back of stands, enabling families- eventually to build on the rest of the property. The Mokhukhu later becomes a useful outhouse on the property.
A SENSE OF VALUE
Hugely indebted to ancestors whose foresight and perseverance have helped to forge their identity as an increasingly self-sufficient community, the Bafokeng Bakwena are keen to nurture appreciation of their tradition and culture as a source of strength for the future.
As in communities elsewhere in the world, Bafokeng traditions and culture are exposed to the pressures and attractions of modernity, leaving elders to lament that too many of their young people are being lured away; that they are losing their moral values and their sense of responsibility towards the community.
Concerned that core values are being diluted and even forgotten, elders want to encourage what they describe as a greater feeling of- "patriotism", not in the narrow, nationalistic sense, but rather as a nurturing of values that should be passed on from one generation to the next.
For their part, young people often feel that their elders lack trust in them; that many traditions are no longer relevant; that they are too often excluded from community affairs and decision making. Acknowledging the need to encourage a greater sense of belonging among young people, the Royal Bafokeng Administration has established a dedicated youth development office.
This forms part of a much bigger initiative: the establishment of an Arts Council as an umbrella body that will promote arts and culture throughout the Bafokeng Nation.
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One of its most ambitious projects is the establishment of a multi-purpose Youth Development Centre where young people can feel free to gather and practise the widest range of activities; to develop, perhaps, their own appreciation and interpretation of their people's traditions and culture.
Having a young king in the person of Kgosi Leruo is giving impetus to these initiatives. "The overriding and founding principle of this community is that our land and assets are held in the interests of our children," he said recently. "We must leave them with the ability to take themselves forward."
Indeed, Kgosi Leruo is encouraging elders to welcome young people into consultative and decision making forums such as the makgotla (village council).
The Royal Bafokeng Administration is already supporting a number of youth performing arts groups which have emerged is recent times, such as the Bafokeng Arts Theatre, which focuses on drama and traditional dance, and the Bafokeng House of Production where young people stage educational plays re-enacting Bafokeng history.
Another recent development is an annual five-day Winter Youth Camp based in the historic Tshufi Mountain overlooking Phokeng. The camp includes a hiking trail taking in Bafokeng historical sites, studies in Bafokeng tradition and culture, appreciation of the environment, and courses in life skills.
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National Heritage Day (September 25) is marked by a particularly significant event. Young people venture out on a 300 kilometre trip to the city of Kimberley to commemorate events in the 1860s when the visionary Kgosi Mokgatle sent young men to work at the newly discovered diamond fields and to repatriate their earnings to enable the Bafokeng to start buying their own land.
The commemoration recalls an important tradition that many Bafokeng hope to rekindle, especially among younger people. This involves mephato, or regiments, that were formed among people of the same age group to undertake some form of service to the Kgosi, as happened when young men went to work on the diamond fields. The evolution of mephato is set out in a recent study by university researchers Lorin Fries and Holiness Thebyane who assessed possibilities of reviving the tradition in modern day Bafokeng society. Until the late 19th century, mephato were formed when men and women had earned their rite of passage to adulthood after attending traditional initiation schools.
Each regiment, consisting of people who had attended a particular initiation school at the same time, was led by a member of the royal family.
On graduation, initiates would approach the Kgosi who would name their regiment. Regiment leaders acted as a liaison between the mephato and the Kgosi, enabling him to summon regiments for military service or perhaps to protect livestock or to perform some form of letsema (unpaid community service).
With the arrival among the Bafokeng in the 1860s of Lutheran missionaries, traditional initiation schools were gradually replaced by Christian confirmation schools.
Following successful completion of bible school, members of the graduating class would go to the Kgosi's house where they would be assigned work that "earned" their mophato (sing.)
Projects included the building of a former royal house behind the Civic Centre and, more recently, the clearing of land for construction of the Legato which contains the current royal house built in 1972.
The tradition has passed away in recent times, though elderly members of established regiments still meet as mephato and socialise or support each other in marriages and funerals. However, the recently enthroned Kgosi Leruo has signified the royal house's enthusiasm for reviving the tradition by naming his own mephato.
Attitudes towards the revival of mephato are mixed. Elderly Bafokeng who were involved in regiments recall their experience with great pride. Middle-aged and young Bafokeng are aware of the social functions of mephato, conceding the value of the support system that age-based regiments provided and emphasising the importance of peer groups for socialising and discussion of personal and family problems.
People in their 20s note the importance of solidarity and support in mephato, though most believe that this role has been filled by formal community formations such as makgotla (village meetings).
Groups who support the revival of mephato believe this will contribute to greater social solidarity, help to meet community development needs through voluntary service, improve communication and, of course, preserve an important tradition. The main reservation about revival of mephato in one or other form is letsema, or unpaid work. This is a sentiment that is perhaps not uncommon in modernising societies, though many Bafokeng acknowledge its importance.
The Bafokeng, it seems, are generally positive about reviving mephato in a more modern format rather than in its original form as a regiment dedicated to the Kgosi.
The Bafokeng are more ambivalent about letsema, believing that its purpose in modern society must be reviewed and clearly defined, and that its implementation should benefit the broader community. With encouragement from their young Kgosi, the Bafokeng face the challenge to reconcile the old and the new.
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SENIORS
Enriching the lives of senior citizens is an important part of the work of the Royal Bafokeng Administration's community development department in which the Queen Mother plays a leadership role.
Old age homes, let alone retirement villages with specialised facilities, are few and far between in African communities where the elderly are looked after by their families. Though treated with varying degrees of respect, they tend to live out their twilight years in loneliness, with the family being away for much of the day and often pre-occupied by its own affairs.
The formation of so-called luncheon clubs is one way to rekindle their lives; to get them up and going. The aim is to establish these clubs in all 29 villages that make up the Royal Bafokeng Nation. The clubs are informal gatherings in which people can interact, practice handicrafts, make music, and do fitness exercises.
Another development, which the Royal Bafokeng Administration hopes to extend, is the establishment of a vegetable garden in one village.
This serves an imaginative dual purpose. It is tended by elderly people who obtain additional nourishment from their crops but also receive therapeutic and physical benefits. However, the facility is also used as a feeding scheme for orphans and other vulnerable children.
FAITH
Numerous churches serve communities in the Royal Bafokeng Nation today, and though their existence is comparatively recent, at least one of them has had a decisive impact on the fortunes of the people.
The Bafokeng deliberated at great length before admitting missionaries into their community, and when Kgosi August Mokgatle finally relented in the early 1860s his decision led to the formation of an extraordinary partnership that proved to be a turning point in his people's history.
His move opened the way for the establishment in May 1866 of the Lutheran Hermannsburg Mission in Phokeng led by the Rev Christoph Penzhorn, accompanied by his wife, Johanna, and baby son, Ernst, who was to continue the good works of his father.
Their arrival coincided with another decision Kgosi Mok-gatle had taken. With white settlers increasingly taking over Bafokeng territory and turning his people into their servants, Kgosi Mokgatle had concluded that in order to survive, his community would have to formally buy the land they had occupied for centuries.
However, the South African Republic established by the settlers had prohibited black people from owning land. Thus, Kgosi Mokgatle turned to the missionaries.
Using Bafokeng cattle and money earned by young Mofokeng on the recently discovered diamond fields in Kimberley, the missionaries acquired land on behalf of the community, and held it in trust for them.
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The Lutherans continue to serve Bafokeng communities, and the service portrayed in these photographs was held in the first church they established.
LEARNING
With education having always been the "number one" priority, in the words of Kgosi Leruo Molotlegi, the Royal Bafokeng Administration (RBA) has established in the 29 villages under its jurisdiction no fewer than 50 schools with current enrolment of some 18 000 pupils.
Built by RBA which also maintains the schools and supplies them with electricity and water, the institutions are run by the provincial education department which provides educators and support staff.
However, there is a notable exception: the Lebone II Independent School. Established by former Kgosi Mollwane Lebone Boikanyo Molotlegi in 1997, Lebone II is entirely run and maintained by the Bafokeng, and its pupils write the same examination as that set for other independent, or private, schools in South Africa. With 22 pupils in the class of 2004, 20 passed their final year examinations, with two obtaining symbols entitling them to enter university. Plans to turn Lebone II into a world-class school of excellence are advanced, says Kgosi Leruo.
RBA has built and continues to maintain 35 primary schools, eight intermediate schools, and six high schools. One of the high schools will be converted into a technical school, providing pupils with skills increasingly demanded by South Africa's rapidly growing economy. The Bafokeng are now planning the establishment of more technical schools.
The community has also "adopted" five schools in neighbouring Rustenburg. The majority of pupils are from the Bafokeng area, and their schools participate in Bafokeng school projects and compete for the "best school" trophy.
In addition, RBA provides bursaries for young people who wish to continue their studies, and its bursary committee maintains close contact with them. The committee meets with the students and their parents once a year in Phokeng to assess their progress and to identify problems. The high cost of text and reference books was recently identified as a major problem, and RBA is now considering including in bursary awards the cost of books.
The committee also visits students at their universities and colleges. A recent round of visits established, for example, that some students were living off-campus. It was felt that this was distracting some students and could lead to ill-discipline. As a result, students are now being encouraged to live on-campus.
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