Bakenberg in the sources
Bakenberg was a son of Masebe III and became the first chief of the northern Langa chiefdom after the 1890 partition. His name, Jackson says, is a corruption of Backeberg, the Hermannsburg missionary at Mosetlha to whom his father fled when he was out of favour with Mankopane.
What the sources say
Jackson says Masebe favoured Bakenberg for years while Hans, whose supporters said he ranked higher, lived in exile at Wallmansthal and Pretoria, and that the Transvaal government divided the Langa country within two months of Masebe’s death: Hans took the southern portion (Mapela) and Bakenberg the northern. Thutlwane Hill, Masebe’s capital, fell outside the demarcated location, so Bakenberg settled elsewhere in his portion (about pp. 39 to 41). He was initiated in 1887.
The brothers kept quarrelling. In 1899 their levies fought on the road from Potgietersrus to Villa Nora, and in 1900 each burnt the other’s villages, among them Rammu Hill and Notwane. They were summoned to Nylstroom and fined (about p. 42). The boundary was finally surveyed in 1898 and adjusted by agreement in 1893 (about p. 41). Most Langa clansmen, and most of the Mosoge lineage, stayed with Bakenberg.
Cautions
Jackson’s book is about the Mapela side, and says little about the later history of the Bakenberg chiefdom, so this page stops at the early 1900s. 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 Bakenberg and recite your own izithakazelo or direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
See also Langa, Kekana and Ndzundza.
Do you belong to the Bakenberg? 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.