The royal clan of the Bapedi
Wikipedia’s article on the Pedi says the primary Pedi state, established toward the end of the eighteenth century, was led by supreme leaders from the Maroteng clan. The Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims uses the form “Bapedi ba Maroteng” for the royal house. Our Bapedi page covers the people and their kingdom more broadly.
Origins and the totem
Wikipedia says the Pedi emerged as a distinct people between the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, that they originated from a Kgatla offshoot, a group of Tswana speakers, and that they settled south of the Steelpoort River around 1650. South African History Online says the Bapedi arrived in what is now Limpopo around the 1650s and grew powerful by subjugating several chiefdoms. Wikipedia says the tribe, founded by Thobela, revered the porcupine (noko) as its totem. It calls the origin of the name “Bapedi” uncertain, and notes one early missionary account that gives the meaning “Family of the King”.
Thulare and the first state
Wikipedia describes Thulare as ruling the polity at its height, from about 1780 to 1820 in its text, and says he died in 1824. It says the polity stretched from around Rustenburg to the lowveld and as far south as the Vaal River, and that Thulare unified smaller Sotho-Tswana tribes. South African History Online says that by about 1800 Thulare had an empire whose capital was Manganeng on the Steelpoort River. The two accounts give different dates for his rule.
The Ndebele attack and Sekwati
South African History Online says that around 1826 Mzilikazi’s Ndebele overthrew the Pedi regime and killed some of Thulare’s sons. Wikipedia’s article on Sekwati agrees, and adds that the older brothers Malekutu, Matsebe and Phetedi were killed in raids. Sekwati, a surviving son, fled north, later returned and made the mountain stronghold of Phiring his base, reunited the Pedi and became paramount chief. In 1852 Hendrik Potgieter led a Boer commando against him and besieged the stronghold for twenty-four days before withdrawing with Pedi cattle. Sekwati then moved his capital to Thaba Mosega (Mosega Kop) and signed a treaty making the Steelpoort River the boundary with the Lydenburg Republic. Wikipedia gives his death as 20 September 1861 and says he was buried at Thaba Mosega. That article is tagged as needing more citations. His sons Sekhukhune and Mampuru then contested the succession.
The royal house in the twentieth century
The Commission’s determination on the Bapedi dispute records the Maroteng royal house, with its Great Place at Mohlaletse (spelled Mohlaletsi and Mohlaletse in its text), through Sekhukhune II and the contest between two lines of his descendants. That history is set out on the Sekhukhune page.
Izithakazelo (direto)
We have not found a published text of the Maroteng praises, so we are not printing one. If you belong to the Maroteng and recite the direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Wikipedia: Pedi people (mostly web sources)
- Wikipedia: Sekwati (cites J.A. Winter, 1913, and Peter Delius’s thesis on the Pedi polity)
- South African History Online: Pedi and Anglo-Pedi wars, 1876 to 1879 (no author named)
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the dispute of Bapedi
Peter Delius’s The Land Belongs to Us (1984) is the standard history of the Pedi polity, and we have not read it first-hand.
Do you belong to the Maroteng or know the Pedi royal direto? Tell us what you know and where it comes from, and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.