Mamabolo in the sources
The Mamabolo are a Northern Sotho (Pedi) community of the hills east of Polokwane. A 1940 history written in Northern Sotho for the ethnologist N. J. Van Warmelo says they came south from “Bokgalaka” (the Kalanga country in the north), take their descent from a man called Seolwana and his wife Mamabudusa, and swear by the pig.
What the sources say
The community in 1940. A. Letsoala (spelled Letsoalo in the typescript) describes the Mamabolo as living in the east near the village of Matlalwe (Haenertsburg), ruled by Kgosi Ethlone Mankweng II Mamabolo. He counts about thirteen churches, nine schools and three shops, and notes that the Mamabolo are made up of four divisions of the royal family: the people of Mankweng, who rule; the people of Seripa, who are the senior headmen; the people of Tswana, who follow Seripa; and the people of Mokgekolo. He writes that these divisions come from the sons of Seolwana, with Mankweng, Seripa and Towana named as his sons.
Origin. Letsoala says it is not known when or from where exactly the Mamabolo came, but that they are believed to have come from Bokgalaka, the Kalanga country, moving south in ancient times. He gives their ancestor as Seolwana “of Mmatalade”, a man of great strength, praised as Sekgopa-banna-matolo, and his wife Mamabudusa, who in the story carried some of her young sons on the journey. Their totem (seano) is the pig, kolobe, and he calls the Mamabolo “Dikolobe”.
Settlement and rulers. In Letsoala’s account the Mamabolo settled for a time at Seepe and on the Letsitele river, then at Bjatladi, ruled first by Kgosi Maribe and then by his son Mankweng I, whose birth place is not certain; Mankweng I was followed by his son Nkosilo and then by Sehlomola, and the people moved on to Sebokhung and elsewhere. J. Mamabolo’s separate short account gives a different list of early rulers, in which Mohlaume appears. Both agree on a ruling line called Seolwana. See the Cautions below.
Neighbours and wars. Letsoala places the Mamabolo with the Molepo to the west, near Molapong, the Dikgale to the north and the Mahutse mountains to the south. He tells of a battle with the Molepo at Sehlaba-Makhura, which he says the Mamabolo won, and another with the Dikgale at Midibidi, after which a marriage tie was made, as a result of which, he says, the mother of Kgosi Mankweng II was a Dikgale woman. He also tells of raiders whom the people hid from in caves.
Who is in the community. Letsoala lists many sub-groups under the Mamabolo who share the pig totem (among them Seabi, Ledinga, Seswaai and Rakgorwane), and others who joined later and kept their own totems, such as Letsoalo of Matau, Modiba and Sehlapelo (cattle), the Tau and Thabana (lion) and a long list of Ditlou (elephant) groups; he says the Mamabolo took them in, some of whom had been displaced by white farmers.
Mission. He says the first converts were Kamela Raphela and Mamadimo Mamabolo, young men who went south to work and came home with a gun and the Word of God; Raphela had been to school, and the elders welcomed the gun but at first refused the book. Raphela later founded a congregation at Donhill and a man called Sehlapelo another, and later ministers served them. J. Mamabolo’s account names early Christians including Daniel Mamabolo and lists the later churches.
Hofmeyr, 1867. The Dutch Reformed missionary Stefanus Hofmeyr, describing the Zoutpansberg district in a letter of January 1867, mentions Mamabolo among the “Kaffir” chiefs of the Houtbosch mountains to the east, together with Molepo and Legale (Dikgale) (chapter 2); the word “Kaffir” is his and we do not use it.
Cautions
Both Mamabolo texts are 1940 typescripts made for Van Warmelo, one by a Mamabolo author and one by a Letsoalo informant, in Northern Sotho; we read them as machine-read transcripts, and the translations here are ours and approximate. The second text is badly read in its older spelling (x for g) and we have used it only for the points above. We have no dates for the early rulers, and the two accounts differ on the list. The story of the founder’s journey is oral tradition. The Hofmeyr passage shows the name was known by 1867. We have not seen the manuscripts themselves, any later history of the chieftainship, or the Commission’s records, and say nothing about the present chieftaincy.
Izithakazelo (direto) and totem
The totem is the pig (kolobe). We found two short praise passages in Letsoala’s text but are not printing them, since our reading of them is uncertain. If you belong to the Mamabolo and recite your direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- A. Letsoala (written Letsoalo in the typescript), “Mamabolo history, tribal make-up and certain customs” (Northern Sotho, 13 January 1940; 105-page manuscript and 53-page transcript), Van Warmelo Collection, University of Pretoria; open access (we read the typed transcript by machine OCR)
- J. Mamabolo, “History of Mamabolo tribe and place names of its country” (“Mathomo a ba xa Mmamabolo”, Northern Sotho, 23 October 1940; 4-page manuscript and 6-page transcript), Van Warmelo Collection, University of Pretoria; open access (read by machine OCR; the transcript’s older orthography is poorly read)
- Stefanus Hofmeyr, Twintig jaren in Zoutpansberg (Cape Town: J. H. Rose, 1890), in Dutch; Internet Archive scan (chapter 2)
Do you belong to the Mamabolo? 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.