Bakgaga in the sources
Bakgaga is a name Wikipedia’s Northern Sotho article lists with Mphahlele, Maake and Mothapo as one of the Pedi groups; the sources that name them use it for more than one community in Limpopo, and none gives a history of the name.
What the sources say
The lists. Wikipedia’s Northern Sotho language article lists, among the Highveld-Sotho / Pedi dialects and groups, “Bakgaga (Mphahlele, Maake, Mothapo)”. Wikipedia’s List of Sotho-Tswana clans, which says it cites no sources, gives “Bakgaga/Bakone” with the language Sesotho sa Lebowa, in Limpopo, with the crocodile and the duiker as totems.
Mphahlele. Wikipedia’s article on Lebowakgomo says the land of that township was donated to the former Lebowa government by Chief Mmutle Mphahlele “of the Bakgaga ba gaMphahlele”, whose palace is at Seleteng village; the 2001 census lists “Bakgaga Ba Mphahlele” as a main place in the Lepele-Nkumpi municipality with a population of 71,646. A 2024 Sunday World report speaks of the “Bakgaga ba Mphahlele traditional community” (see Mphahlele).
Maake. Wikipedia’s Lenyenye article calls the township near Tzaneen the home of the Bakgaga and says the main dialect there is “Sekgaga sa ga Maake”; it says no more about the Maake.
An older account of Mphahlele. M. Mphelo’s short Northern Sotho history of the Mphahlele people, written in 1942 for Van Warmelo, derives the name Mphahlele from the saying go iphahlela, “to choose for oneself”: as we read it, when a contest over chieftainship broke out at the place the people then lived, Mphahlele said he was a man who chooses for himself and would look on, and left. It goes on to say that he came to Sekhukhune with his followers, that the two peoples agreed to intermarry, and that Mphahlele later moved to Molapong. The place named at the start is unreadable in our scan, and the rest is only partly clear. It does not use the name Bakgaga.
Cautions
We found no source that explains the name Bakgaga, how Mphahlele, Maake and Mothapo are related, or when the Bakgaga came to their present country. The totems given by Wikipedia are from an uncited list. Mphelo’s 1942 account is a short typescript read by machine from a Northern Sotho original; the translation is ours and rough, and the Mphahlele chieftaincy is currently in a court dispute, on which we take no side and which we do not describe here. Spellings differ (Bakgaga, Kgaga, Sekgaga).
Izithakazelo (direto) and totem
If the totems given by Wikipedia are right, the crocodile and the duiker would be the Bakgaga’s; we have not confirmed them and are not printing any praise text. If you belong to the Bakgaga and recite your direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Northern Sotho language (its list of Highveld-Sotho / Pedi dialects and groups, which has no inline citations)
- Wikipedia: List of Sotho-Tswana clans (it states that it cites no sources)
- M. Mphelo, “Mphahlêlê history and mantlwana game” (Northern Sotho, 1942; 10-page manuscript, 6-page transcript), Van Warmelo Collection, University of Pretoria; open access (read by machine OCR)
- Wikipedia: Lebowakgomo and Lenyenye; Census 2001 profile of Lepele-Nkumpi municipality (census2001.adrianfrith.com)
Do you belong to the Bakgaga? Tell us your direto and what elders say about the family’s history, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.