Who the Bapo ba Mogale are
A South African Heritage Resources Agency record for the Chief Mogale statue at Sterkfontein Heritage Lodge, Krugersdorp, describes Kgosi Mogale wa Mogale as a Sotho-Tswana chief of the BaPo ba Mogale, also called Bapo, abaMbo or BaKwena ba Mogale. It credits him with a reign of almost 50 years as a military leader and diplomat who ended local conflicts and secured a base for his people, and says he fought for “the restoration of ancestral land to his people”. It says Mogale City, the Magaliesberg, Magaliesburg town and the Magalies River are named after him, “Magalie” being described as a corruption of “Mogale”. The record has mistakes (it calls the monument a plaque near the “Hibiscus Coast Civic Centre” in KwaZulu-Natal, and gives two unveiling dates, 23 and 24 September 2004), so we use it for the description of Mogale only.
Territory and Mzilikazi
The Mogale City Local Municipality’s “History of Mogale” page, which cites no sources, calls them the Po chiefdom of the Batswana and says their land stretched from the Magaliesberg in the west to Northcliff Ridge in the east and from the Vaal River in the south-west to Hartbeespoort Dam in the north-west. It says Mogale, the young heir, is believed to have ruled over gold miners and traders whose trade reached as far north as Egypt, a claim we have not seen elsewhere and do not repeat as fact, and translates “Mogale” as “the brave one”. It says that in the late 1820s Mzilikazi’s warriors overwhelmed the Po, killed their chief and captured the young heir, whom the Po then rescued and took south of the Vaal; that Mzilikazi claimed a short-lived kingdom around the Magaliesberg, and that after the Voortrekkers drove him out the Po returned to their lands but were reduced to menial work. It says the first recorded use of “Mogale” as the district’s name was in 1841, when the chief held no power there. Parts of the page are garbled, so the order of events may be uncertain.
Where the sources differ
The SAHRIS record gives Mogale an almost 50-year reign, while the municipal page has him as the young heir in the late 1820s, and neither gives dates for his reign or death. We have not found a list of Bapo chiefs after Mogale, and we know nothing from these two sources about the present traditional leadership.
What we have not read
We have not read Breutz’s The Tribes of Rustenburg and Pilansberg Districts (1953), Schapera’s Tswana tribes histories, or any account by the Bapo themselves. We found no praise text or confirmed totem.
Izithakazelo (direto) and totem
We are printing no Bapo praises or totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Bapo ba Mogale and recite your direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- SAHRIS: Chief Mogale Statue, Sterkfontein Heritage Lodge (record created 2021)
- Mogale City Local Municipality: Explore our city, The History of Mogale
Do you belong to the Bapo ba Mogale? 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.