Mothapo in the sources
Mothapo is a name Wikipedia’s Northern Sotho article lists with Mphahlele and Maake under Bakgaga, and a Mothapo Traditional Council exists in Limpopo. We found no published history of the Mothapo.
What the sources say
The list. Wikipedia’s Northern Sotho language article gives “Bakgaga (Mphahlele, Maake, Mothapo)” as one of the Pedi groups; it gives no further information, and Wikipedia’s list of Sotho-Tswana clans has no entry for Mothapo. See our Bakgaga and Mphahlele pages.
A court case. A 2022 Pretoria News and Business Report headline reports that a group calling itself the Bakgoma ba Mothapo Council sought DNA tests in a dispute over the acting head of the Mothapo Traditional Council, before the Polokwane High Court. We could not open the article and have not read it, so we do not repeat anything from it and take no side; we do not know the outcome.
Cautions
This is a name we know only from a list and from the headline of one news report of a dispute. We searched Letsoala’s and J. Mamabolo’s Mamabolo histories, Mphelo’s Mphahlele history, Hofmeyr, Stayt, Wessmann, Junod, Jackson, Nemudzivhadi, Kirkaldy, Mulaudzi and web sources, and found nothing else under Mothapo. Absence from these only means they are silent. The Van Warmelo Collection has Northern Sotho histories of other peoples but we found none for the Mothapo; the Letsoala, Mamabolo and Mphelo manuscripts above are its nearest.
Izithakazelo (direto) and totem
If you belong to the Mothapo and can tell us where the family came from, its direto and its totem, we will record it, credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Northern Sotho language (its list of Highveld-Sotho / Pedi dialects and groups, which has no inline citations)
- Wikipedia: List of Sotho-Tswana clans (it states that it cites no sources)
- M. Mphelo, “Mphahlêlê history and mantlwana game” (Northern Sotho, 1942; 10-page manuscript, 6-page transcript), Van Warmelo Collection, University of Pretoria; open access (read by machine OCR)
Do you belong to the Mothapo? Tell us your direto and what elders say about the family’s history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.