I read the lengthy article, ‘Settlement History of Bukalanga: Past and Present’, by Abel A. Mabuse and wish to make many corrections to what he wrote.
The Matebele is a nation not a tribe or it can be said that it is a collection of tribes. These tribes include Amazulu, Amakhumalo, Abasotho, Tonga, Amakalanga and Amavenda.
Baperi, Barolong of Mosojane, Matshiloje and Mosojane are not our part but fall under tribe of Bamangwato. For these tribes of Barolong if they want to be chiefs they should go and contest with Kgosi Lotlaamoreng II of Barolong or else find their way to Mafikeng to contest for chieftaincy.
As for Baperi/Bapedi, they should go to Serowe to contest with Kgosi Ian Khama and Kgosi Sediegeng Kgamane or else they go back to Petersburg to contest for chieftaincy.
As for Bakhurutse, Zambia will be their best place to claim their chieftaincy.
As Chief of Amandebele of Botswana, Nhlanhla Simon I don’t have time with sub tribes of Bamangwato who claim to be chiefs in my territory. If Bangwato are the ones who are sending them to come and disturb peace in my territory they will both land themselves in trouble. We don’t fear Bangwato and their sub tribes but we do respect them and if they continue to disrespect us the Tribe of Amandebele of Botswana we will then go against them.
Respecting someone does not mean fearing them or giving them platform for them to surprise or harass you. There is one problem with these Tswana speaking tribes as they have misconception in their mind because this country is Botswana and they think it is only for tswana speaking tribes only. Therefore they think they have authority over other tribes, primarily Bangwato.
If they are interested in us, the tribe of Amandebele of Botswana assimilating them into our tribe they should come in a formal way, without making false pretences. We have many tribes under Amandebele and they can choose which tribe they want to be assimilated into. If I was to ask them a question that: “Which King/ Chief assimilated them into Kalanga and in which year?”
And they can’t give me an answer. In their history they only speak of Bangwato and Tshekedi Khama. We are Amandebele of Botswana not Bamangwato and so there is no way Bamangwato can have influence on us, the tribe of Amandebele of Botswana.
In addition to that, I Chief of Amandebele of Botswana, Nhlanhla Simon, I am sovereign Chief and I don’t take orders from Bamangwato chiefs, Ian Khama and Sediegeng Kgamane. Ian Kgama is the President of Republic of Botswana not my Chief. Amandebele of Botswana is a sovereign tribe and is independent from other tribes. Trying to colonize this tribe and its Chief is declaration of war on its own.
The Rozwi Empire
The present day Rozvi descendents are Shona speaking; these are the “VayeraMoyo’s” those who share the Moyo totem. Indeed this is the distinguishing feature of all the Rozvi people, they all share the same totem, namely, the Moyo totem. It is indeed true that one cannot claim to be Rozvi and not have the Moyo totem and vice versa. That is to say no one can claim to have the Moyo totem and not be Rozvi.
The Ndebele under the leadership of Dingiswayo (a general in Mzilikazi’s army who temporally took over leadership when Mzilikazi died) came to the area where the Karangas lived and then under the leadership of Lobengula, the son and successor of Mzilikazi the great leader of the Ndebeles, managed to subdue most of the Shona living in the now Matebeleland area of present day Zimbabwe.
The conquered peoples were forced to assume new names and a new culture as part of their assimilation into the Ndebele nation. The Karangas, became the Kalangas, which is mainly karanga with ndebele overtures, for example, in the ndebele alphabet “r” is replaced by “l” so Karanga became Kalanga.
In fact, some of the Mfecane generals were defeated by the Rozvi. Nxaba in particular was defeated and the death of the Rozvi king under Zwangendaba could have been an assassination rather than defeat of the Rozvi.
Another general to be defeated was Kgari whose AmaNgwato tribe was completely defeated and obliterated by the Rozvi under NeTjasike. Even with the coming of the Ndebele, the Rozvi were not defeated and under the guidance of Tohwetjipi, the Rozvi continued to fight against the Khumalo. Only the statesmanship of Lobengula brought peace and therefore Ndebele is a Nation not a tribe. It is a nation of many people including the Khumalo and the Rozwi who are still in Matabeleland at this time – the Majority.
The Moroka and Matsiloje people
The village of Moroka was named after Samuel Moroka. Moroka was derived from Samuel Moroka surname. The Moroka people are Barolong from Basuthuland, present day Lesotho. They came to Tati district, which is called North East District, Botswana around year 1897. They promised to go back to Transvaal in South Africa when things got better and things are better in South Africa and they do not want to go back
Mosojane people
That said, the bulk of Balilima/Barolong were tillers of the soil, as they still are today. Their totem became “iron”, in so far as they did not eat anything sheared by a hoe. This ensured that infected foodstuffs from the fields/gardens were dumped right at the field and were not fed to the population of Po. They are also called Batshiping and they are a tribe within Barolong.
You will discover nothing at Po, if you look with your eyes and not your soul. Interestingly, the Bahumbe/Diggers at the top of Po, unlike most other Balilima/Barolong, also had this prohibition – they did not, and still do not, eat what has been sheared by a hoe. The Bahumbe’s specific totem though, is the bird “tjibelu” (African hoopoe). Birds permeate the culture of Bahumbe. They call themselves PhouThema (Black Ostritch).
In Shona or Kalanga there is no totem of tshipi (metal) or Bahumbe unless some is faking to belong to those tribes.
I suspect that the young man pretending to be Kalanga by the name of Abel A. Mabuse is from this tribe Barolong who claim to be Bakalanga. May I tell Abel A. Mabuse that we don’t have chiefs in the Rozwi empire ( Kalanga/Karanga) with a totem of Bavumbe (Metal) but as Moyo. Therefore, Abel A. Mabuse is not from Rozwi or Ndebele Empire.
It becomes very fun and embarrassing for him to be claiming to be from Rozwi Empire while he does not have a Moyo totem.
Baka Sebina settled in an area present day Sebina in 1942 and are Barolong and this tribe in the one to which Abel A. Mabuse originates from. The young man claims to be head of Archaeological Research Laboratory at Botswana National Museum. If indeed he is an Archaeological Researcher but fails to investigate about himself and his tribe that they are Barolong not Bakalanga, what curse has fallen within the Botswana National Museum? That means his investigations/research capabilities are questionable and are substandard.
If indeed the government of Botswana has invested in such a substandard archaeologist, it has made a great loss both economically and socially.
I fear that as Head of Archaeological Research Laboratory, Mabuse has been misleading his juniors, hence misleading the entire country.
Baperi (Bapepdi)
They call themselves “Baperi”, a corruption of the word Bapedi. They left the Transvaal under Chief Tjilalu (Kelalu) of Ramapulane and wandered via Johannesburg, Mafeking and Mogonono in Kweneng to the Tswapong hills where they stayed and planted crops.
Kgosi Alphonse Nsala told Mmegi that the Baperi settled in Tutume after they split from Bangwato who had migrated from Shoshong to Palapye and Serowe. He said that while his people were in Shoshong, they worked as vassals of Bangwato in the fields, cattle-posts and homes.
“Baperi stayed in Shoshong with Bangwato for almost two decades. Therefore, when this migration happened, the Bangwato moved the tribe of Baperi to what was then called Tjilagwane, which is now called Selolwane Ward in Tutume,” he explained.
They settled in Tutume in around year 1902.
Kgosi Nsala said Selolwane has expanded significantly to produce eight wards including Maijane.
“When Baperi separated from Bangwato, they were under the chieftainship of TjilagwaneTjilalu who helped the people of Tjilagwane to settle where they are today. Tjilalu had two more siblings, Nshabalume/Nswazwi and Masunga, but the two did not settle in the same area as him,” he explained.
In year 1907, Masunga crossed into Tati District/North East and settled in an area present day called Masunga Village.
In year 1910, Nshabalume/Nswazi also crossed Shashe River and settled in area of present day Nswazi village. They also faked the birth place of Nswazi. In case where Nswazi was born in Bechuanaland, his place of birth could be Shoshong. According to my investigations and analysis, if Nshabalume was born in Bechuanaland, his place of birth could be Shoshong not as alleged by so-called Dr Boga Manatsha Thura Manatsha and Abel A. Mabuse.
Dr Boga Manatsha Thura Manatsha fails to find current information which is easy to search. How can he be trusted with finding past information? For example, the man told Mmegi newspaper on 15 -02-2013 and Duma Fm on 16-02-2013 that kgosi for Siviya Village is Jackals hence kgosi for Siviya village is Kgosi Louis Siviya and for Jackals 1 is Kgosi Tapson Jackalas and for Jackalase 2 is Kgosi John Jackalas.
That alone makes me worry about the academic credentials of Dr Boga Manatsha Thura Manatsha.
Just imagine, if the man is a lecturer that means all along he has been and still is disseminating wrong and corrupted information to students, hence social and economic loss to the nation.
Bakhurutse
The Bakhurutse are a tribe that was named after the surname of Rauwe Khurutse. The tribe of Barotse under Rauwe Khurutse came to Tati District around year 1905 and were based in Selepeng, the area of present day Tsamaya. Barotse in most cases are under Bamangwato tribe like those in Chadibe North and Chadibe South. Those Barotse came in to Bechuanaland around 1905. Therefore there is great suspicion that these people were deployed by Tshekedi Khama of Bangwato in 1905 as he was also interested in Tati District (North East District Botswana) becoming his territory.
Conclusion
There is no way any of these tribes can be chiefs in the North East without having Moyo, Nxumalo or Khumalo totem. This is because the Moyo, Nxumalo and Khumalo are the ones in control of Matebeleland and then North East Botswana is Matebeleland. In the Rozwi Empire, we don’t have Batshiping/Bavumbe, Khupe (hare), Bakhurutse and Barolong as chiefs. Again, the five tribes who want to claim the land arrived late while the land was leased to Tati Company and the Bechuanaland Protectorate government rented on their behalf the land from that Tati Company
All these tribes claimed to be Bakalanga because they knew the history of the Land under North East and they thought all Bakalanga died under Ndebele attacks. In fact, the Kalanga were integrated in Amandebele. These are people with totem of Moyo, Nyathi, Ndlovu, Ncube, Dube, Mpofu, Ngwenya, Sibanda and many others. Also, all these tribes settled in the North East District Botswana after 1897. That’s when Tati Company leased the Land to them.
Remember that according to Tati Concession, Tati Company was not allowed to allow squatters or sell the land.
Reference: http://books.google.co.bw/books?id=K9hZHdtKsOUC&pg=PA167&lpg=PA167&dq=history+of+moroka+village,+botswana&source=bl&ots=djtpMIQGE4&sig=HfwoQLXIaqPqSiPbTFKkj8pMuwA&hl=en&sa=X&ei=JCQmUeu3NaPM0QWF9oGoAg&ved=0CGsQ6AEwCQ#v=onepage&q=history%20of%20moroka%20village%2C%20botswana&f=false
http://forums.gov.bw/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=515#p1480
