The name
South African Tourism’s article on the Bakone Malapa Open-Air Museum, near Polokwane, calls the Bakone a sub-group of the Northern Sotho (it later says Basotho, without reconciling the two). It says Bakone is a Northern Sotho clan name taken from Bakone ba Matlala a Thaba, who lived in that area in the 17th century. Our earlier listing described the Bakone only as “absorbed into the Marota empire”; we have not found a source for that and are not repeating it.
Totem
The same article gives the Bakone totem as the scaly-feathered finch, a tiny savannah bird. It is a tourism page and does not cite a source for the totem, so please treat it as unconfirmed until an elder or a heritage source confirms it.
Bakone Malapa
The museum is a reconstructed cultural village, built in the style of about 250 years ago and run by local Basotho, according to the article. The page also says there is Stone Age evidence in the area and that Ndebele and Shangaan people lived there; these statements are about the area, not the Bakone clan.
What we have not found
We have not found a published history of the Bakone chiefdoms, their relation to the Matlala and other “Kone” groups of Sekhukhuneland and Limpopo, or their place in the Pedi polity, and the Wikipedia article on Northern Sotho that lists the high-veld groups does not explain them. If you belong to a Bakone community, we would like to record its history.
Izithakazelo (direto)
We have not found a published text of the Bakone praises, so we are not printing one. If you recite them, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
Do you belong to the Bakone? Tell us your praises, your totem and what elders say about the history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.