The name
Mokoena is a Sotho spelling of the clan name that appears as Koena or Bakoena in Lesotho and Kwena or Bakwena in the Tswana and Northern Sotho languages. Our planning list called it “Sotho spelling of Bakwena”. Wikipedia’s article on the Kwena clan does not use the form Mokoena, and mentions the Bakoena only in a Lesotho ethnic-group list, so we have taken the identification from the planning list and from the wider usage, and have not found a source that confirms it for every Mokoena family. Wikipedia says kwena is the Sotho, Tswana and Sepedi word for crocodile and is the clan’s totem (seboko), citing the Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. See our Bakwena page for the Tswana and Northern Sotho side of the clan.
Origins as Wikipedia gives them
The article says the earliest ancestor, also named Kwena, was a grandson of Masilo I, king of the Bahurutse, around 1360, that he settled at Tebang (now Heidelberg, Gauteng) according to Eldredge (2015), that around 1500 the clan spread from the Vaal region towards the Kalahari, and that around 1580 it settled at Ntsoanatsatsi, the mythical origin land of the Sotho-Tswana, with the Bafokeng. It lists early leaders (Kwena, Phokotsea, Kgabo I, Tebele) with dates it marks as uncertain. The article is a stub; its genealogy includes a “Doc Mokoteli” entry that does not fit the pattern of the others, and spells Tsoloane in more than one way.
The Basotho line
For the Basotho, the article lists the succession Napo, Motebang, Molemo, Tsoloane le Tsolo, Monaheng, Motloang, Peete, Mokhachane and finally Moshoeshoe I, and says the line continues into the royal family of Lesotho. Wikipedia’s article on Moshoeshoe I says his father Mokhachane was a minor chief of the Bamokoteli, a sub-clan of the Bakoena, that the Bamokoteli numbered at most about 4,000 and paid tribute to the Bakoena, and that his mother Kholu was a daughter of the Bafokeng chief Ntsukunyane. The Kwena article’s second branch is the Batswana line, in which Kgabo II is said to have crossed the Madikwe (Marico) and founded a tribe on Bakgatla land, from which the Ngwato and Ngwaketse split; see our Bangwato and Bangwaketse pages for those peoples.
Mokoena as a surname
Mokoena is also a very common surname; we have not found a source on how surname-holders relate to the clan or to the royal house, and we do not claim a family link for anyone bearing the name. Wikipedia also gives “Mokoena” as a name among the descendants of Masemola in its Ga Masemola article (see Masemola), which we cannot connect to this clan.
What we have not read
We have not read the Historical Dictionary of Lesotho, Eldredge’s Kingdoms and Chiefdoms of Southeastern Africa, Schapera’s 1980 notes on the early history of the Kwena, Ramsay (1996) or the Botswana dictionaries the article cites. We found no Basotho-authored history of the Koena clan, no praise text and no list of Koena houses.
Izithakazelo (direto, lithoko) and totem
The only totem we have is the crocodile, from Wikipedia. We are printing no praise text. If you are Mokoena or Koena and recite your lithoko, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Kwena clan (stub; cites Rosenberg and Weisfelder 2013, Eldredge 2015, Schapera 1980 and others)
- Wikipedia: Moshoeshoe I
Are you Mokoena or Koena? Tell us your praises and what elders say about the history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.