Who the Bahurutshe are
Wikipedia describes the Bahurutshe as one of the principal Tswana tribes. Their cultural capital was Kaditshwene (also written Gaditshweni, and Kurreechane by the missionary John Campbell), a settlement about 25 km north-east of Zeerust in North West Province, in the Tshwenyane hills of the Marico. The Wikipedia article on Kaditshwene says nothing about the tribe’s origin, totem or seniority, and we have not found those in the sources we could read.
Kaditshwene
Archaeologists estimate that Kaditshwene was founded in the late 1400s, on the site of iron and copper ore deposits, and it was a centre of manufacturing and trade. When Campbell reached it in 1820 he recorded a population of 20,000, which the article says exceeded that of Cape Town at the time. The name is thought to come from a Tswana expression about an incredible number of baboons. That is a reading of the place name, not a statement of the tribe’s totem.
The twin capital
A study by J.C.A. Boeyens of the University of South Africa combines oral history, place names, documents, survey and mapping. It draws on oral information collected by the state ethnologist Paul-Lenert Breutz in the 1950s. It finds that the Hurutshe at times lived in a “twin” capital in the Marico, Tswenyane and Kaditshwene. Two Hurutshe chiefdoms joined toward the end of the eighteenth century to form a larger capital complex. Because of regional insecurity the Bahurutshe booMenwe moved their capital from Mmakgame to Kaditshwene Hill, close to the capital of the Bahurutshe booMokgatlha, which lay at the foot of Tswenyane Mountain. The study names pressure from the Rolong, Ngwaketse, western Kwena, Lete and Bakgatla ba Mmanaana. The Kaditshwene ruins have been confirmed archaeologically, but the Tswenyane site has not yet been found. We have read only the abstract of this study.
Destruction in the 1820s
According to Wikipedia, in 1821, during the Mfecane, the Batlokwa under the warrior queen MaNthatisi sacked Kaditshwene. Around 1823 Sebetwane and the Bafokeng attacked again, and the survivors fled west to seek sanctuary among the Bakwena and other Tswana tribes. Today the site is crumbling stone walls, foundations, ash middens and the remains of metal-working, and it was declared a National Heritage Site in 2011. The Bahurutshe also appear elsewhere in this archive: the Bangwaketse king Moleta is recorded as fighting them on behalf of their leader Tirwe, and the Bataung are said to have separated from them around 1640.
Izithakazelo (direto) and totem
We have not found a published text of the Bahurutshe praises or a confirmed totem (seboko), so we are not printing either. If you belong to the Bahurutshe and recite them, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Kaditshwene (cites Boeyens, “In search of Kaditshwene”, South African Archaeological Bulletin, 2000, and Boeyens, “The Late Iron Age sequence in the Marico and early Tswana history”, 2003)
- J.C.A. Boeyens, “A tale of two Tswana towns” (South African Humanities, 2016): abstract
Do you belong to the Bahurutshe? Tell us your praises, your totem and what elders say about the tribe’s history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.