Mokopane in the sources
Mokopane (Mugombane in Ndebele, called Makapan in settler records) is the name of several Kekana chiefs of the branch founded at Makapanspoort, and the name the town of Potgietersrus took in the early 21st century. The best-known is the chief whose people were besieged by a Boer commando in the Makapan cave in 1854.
What the sources say
Jackson says Mokopane’s grandfather Kgaba, a younger brother of Kgomba of the Kekana of Moletlane (Zebediela), broke away to found his own chiefdom, followed by Tshumana and then Mokopane. The Kekana at Moletlane, jealous, asked the Pedi, to whom they were subject, to bring Kgaba’s people back. Mokopane refused and took refuge in the cave at least three times before 1854, and many of his people died on each occasion. The Pedi nicknamed him Setswamadi, “the one who bleeds”. His capital lay on the farm Pruissen, east of the Schoemansdal road; his headman Lekalakala lived near Sefakaulo Hill (about pp. 14 and 17).
In 1854 the Kekana of Mokopane killed fourteen Voortrekkers at Moorddrif and Pruissen. Jackson says a commando of about 500 under M. W. Pretorius besieged the Kekana in the cave from late October, lost Commandant-General Piet Potgieter, and overcame them on 21 December, after more than 2,000 died. Wikipedia gives the dates of the siege as 25 October to 21 November 1854, and Esterhuysen reports that Pretorius claimed 3,000 deaths, which she thinks the Boers inflated; her excavation found bone fragments from about 30 people in the small area she dug, and she thinks a full excavation could have found over a thousand. A Kekana spokesman told Jackson that Mokopane escaped, returned to his capital and took poison out of grief (about p. 17).
The next generations: the heir Kgabadela died before his father, having eloped with a sister of Mankopane; his son Mokopane II, who was young, had a regent, Mogemi (Magude). Mokopane II married three daughters of Mankopane, and his heir Vaaltyn was the son of the second, Madikana. Mogemi and Mankopane fought the Boers together in 1868 and Mokopane II later fought Masebe (about pp. 21 to 22 and 33 to 35). See our Kekana page for another Kekana branch; the Kekana Royal Council, Esterhuysen says, has been divided by a chieftainship dispute since a chief’s death in early 2000, which has blocked the reburial of remains from the cave.
Cautions
The siege dates and death tolls come from different sources and do not agree. A headman Lebelo appears in this story, as the Kekana village nearest the Langa; whether he is the Lebelo on our Kekana page, who also broke away near Mokopane, no source we read says. 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 Mokopane and recite your own izithakazelo or direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- A. O. Jackson, The Ndebele of Langa, Ethnological Publications No. 54 (Department of Co-operation and Development, Pretoria); typed transcription by Joyce Lee Kunz Peck, 2024, read by us through machine OCR
- Mandy Esterhuysen, The Silences around the Makapan Cave Siege of 1854, The Heritage Portal (6 April 2022)
- Wikipedia: Makapansgat
- South African History Online: Johannes Jane Tane Kekana
See also Langa, Kekana and Ndzundza.
Do you belong to the Mokopane? 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.