The Mopeli family
Mopeli is the name of the family that has led the Bakwena ba Mopeli of Qwaqwa (Witsieshoek) in the Free State. It comes from Paulus Mopeli, described in the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims’ determination as a younger brother of Moshoeshoe, whom it calls king. Before this page was written, Mopeli was only a listing here, described as a branch of the Basotho royal house; the commission’s account is the first source we have read for it.
Paulus Mopeli
According to the commission, Moshoeshoe placed Paulus Mopeli at Mabolela, east of present-day Ladybrand, as a territorial chief (morena wa sebaka) ruling a section of his people. After the 1866 to 1868 wars between the Basotho and the Boers he had to leave Mabolela, applied in 1867 to the Orange Free State Volksraad under President Brand, and was given land at Witsieshoek on condition that his people remained Free State subjects. He was later recognised as chief. He died in 1897.
Names in the line
The commission names the following heads of the family after Paulus: his son Rantsane (who was barred by the Volksraad from returning from his father’s burial in Lesotho), Rantsane’s son Ntsane (from 1898, for twenty years), Ramatshediso Charles Mopeli (died 1962), Ntsane II (died 1965), Motebang Mopeli (ruled 1978 to 1993, with his mother Mampoi as regent while he was young), and Thokoana, for whom his mother Mathokwana acted as regent from 1993. The commission describes the community’s leaders in that order but does not give a single numbered pedigree, so we have not drawn one. The detail and the commission’s finding on the status of the position are on the Bakwena ba Mopeli page.
Is this the same Mopeli as other Basotho families?
We do not know. We have not found a source linking the Qwaqwa line to any other family of the same name, so this page covers only the line the commission describes. The brother relationship with Moshoeshoe comes from the commission’s text alone.
Izithakazelo (direto) and totem
We have not found a published Mopeli praise text or a confirmed totem, so we are printing neither. If you belong to the Mopeli family and recite the direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims: Determination on the position of the paramount chief of Bakwena ba Mopeli (pp. 26 to 46 of the document’s own numbering)
Do you belong to the Mopeli family? 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.