Mankopane in the sources
Mankopane was chief of the Langa Ndebele from about 1836 until his death on 30 May 1877. He was the grandson of Mapela, through Mapela’s son Masekamisa, and his praise name was Kgabagare.
What the sources say
Succession. Jackson says Mankopane was too young to succeed when Mapela’s heirs died, so Maleya, a son of Mapela by a minor wife, became chief; Mankopane ousted him as soon as his initiation was over. A complaint brought to Louis Trichardt by members of the Langa ruling family on 10 March 1837, which Jackson reads as an objection to Mankopane’s succession, dates it to about 1835 or 1836 (about p. 11).
1854 and its aftermath. In late September 1854 twenty-eight Voortrekkers were killed: fourteen by the Kekana of Mokopane, and fourteen at Fothane by the Langa, among them Hermanus Potgieter, a younger brother of Andries Hendrik Potgieter, and his family. Jackson says Langa and Kekana appear to have acted on a pre-arranged plan because the white settlers’ influx threatened their sovereignty, and that stories of the cause, such as a shot calf or a snake, are legendary. Langa spokesmen deny later tales that Potgieter was skinned (about pp. 14 to 16). After the siege of the Kekana in the Makapan cave, a commando attacked Mankopane’s stronghold at Magagamatala on 14 April 1858; Jackson says about 800 Langa died, many falling from the cliffs. The Langa call it the War of Nterekane, or of Maruputlane (see Lamola) (about pp. 17 to 18).
Thutlwane, the Mission and Kruger. Mankopane then settled on Thutlwane Hill. He asked several missions for a missionary, mainly, Jackson thinks, to have a go-between with the white settlers, and the Berlin Mission founded stations at Thutlwane and Malokong in 1867. In June 1868 Paul Kruger attacked Thutlwane with 500 men but withdrew without taking the top of the mountain; Mankopane claimed victory, and a peace in July 1869 required no indemnity (about pp. 19 to 24). He died on 30 May 1877 and was buried in his cattle-kraal on Thutlwane. His son Masebe succeeded him.
Cautions
The 1854 events are told here from Jackson’s account, which draws on settler records as well as Langa and Kekana spokesmen; the Kekana side and the casualty figures are discussed on our Mokopane page. Jackson was a government ethnologist, and his fieldwork at Mapela took about 100 days between 1962 and 1967; he says the opinions are his own. His present tense describes 1968. We read the book through machine OCR of a typed transcription, so names and numbers may contain errors, and page numbers are approximate.
Izithakazelo and totem
The book records the totem and praise poem of this ward where given above, but we are not printing them in full. If you belong to the Mankopane and recite your own izithakazelo or direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- A. O. Jackson, The Ndebele of Langa, Ethnological Publications No. 54 (Department of Co-operation and Development, Pretoria); typed transcription by Joyce Lee Kunz Peck, 2024, read by us through machine OCR
- Mandy Esterhuysen, The Silences around the Makapan Cave Siege of 1854, The Heritage Portal (6 April 2022)
See also Langa, Kekana and Ndzundza.
Do you belong to the Mankopane? 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.