Origins and the split from the Bakwena
Oral tradition traces the Bakgatla to an ancestor remembered as Mokgatlo, and the group is generally understood to have separated early from the Bakwena – one account describes the split as following conflict in which the Bakgatla, then holding the “blue monkey” totem, lost land to a Bakwena leader, Kgabo II, at the Madikwe River. The exact circumstances are oral tradition rather than documented fact.
A major internal division followed in the mid-seventeenth century: after the death of a chief remembered as Mogale, his son Kgafela‘s followers broke away, becoming the direct ancestors of today’s Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela. A separate account places the split of the Kgafela line from the related Mmanaana group at the start of the 1700s. Several major Bakgatla groupings exist today, including ba-Kgafela, ba-Mmanaana and ba-Mosetlha, and sources differ on the precise dates separating them – we present this as the broad shape of the history rather than a settled chronology.
Pilane, the Pilanesberg, and Moruleng
Kgosi Pilane, who is estimated to have ruled from about 1825 to 1850, became the progenitor of the ruling line in both the Pilanesberg area of what is now South Africa and at Mochudi in Botswana. His son Kgamanyane moved the South African capital to Saulspoort at Moruleng in the 1860s. In 1868 the Dutch Reformed missionary Henri Gonin purchased the farm for £900, with the Bakgatla themselves paying half the price – land that later proved to sit on a rich platinum reef, a major source of the community’s wealth today through the Bakgatla-Ba-Kgafela Investment Holdings company.
Kgamanyane later left Moruleng after a dispute with colonial authorities over forced labour on a dam project, moving north into what is now Botswana; sources differ on the exact sequence, but Kgafela’s branch is recorded as settling Mochudi in 1887, on land granted by the Bakwena. The result is a single royal house ruling communities on both sides of the South Africa-Botswana border – a structure the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela maintain to this day through linked but separate traditional councils.
The monkey totem and its stories
The kgabo (vervet monkey) is the group’s central totem. Oral legend explains its adoption in more than one way: in one telling, the Bakgatla were trapped at a river during the upheavals of the Mfecane and escaped only when a monkey showed them a crossing; in another, the monkeys’ loud alarm calls warned the group of approaching enemy soldiers. Both are oral legend rather than documented history, and at least one source notes plainly that the totem’s actual origin is not known with certainty. The related Bakgatla-ba-Mmanaana also use the monkey totem but add a red-and-white calf as a further identifying mark.
Direto (praises)
We have not yet located a confirmed written text of the Bakgatla direto. Praises would be expected to name the kgabo totem, Mokgatlo and the Pilane/Kgafela line; we would like to record a verified version rather than publish an unconfirmed one.
Where the Bakgatla are today
Moruleng and the Pilanesberg area of North West province, South Africa; Mochudi and the Kgatleng District of Botswana.
Related clans
The Bakgatla separated from the Bakwena (crocodile totem); the Bakgatla-ba-Mmanaana are a related branch with a shared totem but a separate royal line.
Sources and further reading
- Isaac Schapera, published work on Tswana clan structure and the Bakgatla specifically.
- South Africa Tourism / southafrica.net, “The Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela of the Pilanesberg.”
- Sonwabile Mnwana, MISTRA working paper on Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela in North West Province – on the platinum land and its governance.
- Academic journal article, “The pre-colonial political history of BaKgatla ba ga Kgafela” (journals.co.za).
Help us record the direto. If you are Bakgatla and can supply a verified praise text, or clarify the dates of the ba-Kgafela/ba-Mmanaana split, send us a WhatsApp on 065 138 8213 or use our contact page. We credit contributors who wish to be named.