Ramorulane in the sources
Ramorulane is a ward at Mapela whose people say they came from Bopedi. Their totem is kwena, the crocodile.
What the sources say
Jackson says they were conquered by the Langa at Senta Hill, north of Mapela, in Mapela’s time. They think they were subject to the Phalane then, but the Matlou say the Ramorulane had a chief of their own (about p. 142).
Their praise poem, which the book prints, describes a person who avoids reeds and fed the small children. The ward had about 135 households, half of whom share the crocodile totem with the ten households of the ruling clan, and half are of mixed origin. There are no sub-headmen under Ramorulane.
Cautions
This is the ward as Jackson found it in 1968; headmen and household counts will have changed. The praise poems are printed in his book and we are not reproducing them here. 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 Ramorulane and recite your own izithakazelo or direto, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
See also Langa, Kekana and Ndzundza.
Do you belong to the Ramorulane? 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.