A Snake Cannot have Two Heads

This article focuses on the social dynamics of the mid-twentieth century that influenced the body of tradition championed by members of the royal family of Kekana Ndebele at Mošate, Limpopo Province South Africa. The material remains of the 1854 siege of the Kekana Ndebele under chief Mugombane I, provided a means of detecting old political alliances and contributed towards understanding variances in the narrative topography constructed by two senior members of the Royal Council, who related the history of the recovery of Mugombane II during the 1980s. While each adopted the same narrative technique to embellish the political influence of the old chiefdom, each mapped out a different set of relationships. The symbolic import of these different geographic interpretations begins to emerge when considered against the highly fractious local and regional politics of the 1960s and '70s. This article traces the history of the oral narrative and the two storytellers to reveal the political bent and intention of each author. Notes * This research formed part of the Five Hundred Year Initiative, which was funded by the NRF/DSTs African Origins Platform. I am indebted to Phil Bonner for suggesting that I revisit the Kekana oral traditions, and to Phil, Dineo Skosana and Sekibakiba Lekgoathi who provided access to, and translated, conversations with the Kekana. My thanks to Shula Marks, Peter Delius, Jeannette Smith, Thembiwe Russell and two referees who provided invaluable suggestions and editorial comment. 1 N. Swanepoel, A. Esterhuysen and P. Bonner (eds), Five Hundred Years Rediscovered: Southern African Precedents and Prospects (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2008). 2 A. Stahl, ‘“Route Work” through Alternative Archives: Reflections on Cross-Disciplinary Practice’, South African Historical Journal, 62, 2 (2010), p. 254. 3 The biographical trope has been applied by archaeologists, anthropologists and art historians since the mid-1980s see, for example: A. Appadurai, ‘Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value’, in Appadurai (ed.), The Social Life of Things, pp. 3–63; I. Kopytoff, ‘The Cultural Biography of Things: Commoditization as Process’, in Appadurai (ed.), The Social Life of Things, pp. 64–91; N. Thomas, Entangled Objects. Exchange, Material Culture and Colonialism in the Pacific (Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 1991); B.J. Mills and W.H. Walker, ‘Introduction: Memory, Materiality, and Depositional Practice’, in B.J. Mills and W.H. Walker (eds), Memory Work. Archaeologies of Material Practices (Santa Fe, New Mexico, School for Advanced Research Press, 2008), pp. 3–23. 4 See A. Portelli, ‘The Peculiarities of Oral History’, History Workshop Journal, 12 (Autumn, 1981), pp. 96–107; Thomas, Entangled Objects, p. 126; K. Hodgkin and S. Radstone, ‘Introduction: Contested Pasts’, in K. Hodgkin and S. Radstone (eds), Contested Pasts: the Politics of Memory (London, Routledge, 2003), pp. 1–21. 5 C. Gosden and Y. Marshall, ‘The Cultural Biography of Objects’, World Archaeology, 31, 2 (1999), p. 170. 6 Gosden and Marshall, ‘The Cultural Biography of Objects’. 7 See, for example, P.L. Bonner, Kings, Commoners and Concessionaires: the Rise and Dissolution of the Nineteenth-Century Swazi State (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1982), p. 22; J. Vansina, ‘Once Upon a Time: Oral Traditions as History in Africa’, Daedalus, 100, 2 (1971), p. 456; and C.A. Hamilton, ‘Ideology and Oral Traditions: Listening to the Voices “From Below”’, History in Africa, 14 (1987), p. 73. 8 Subsequently published as A.B. Esterhuysen, ‘Ceramic Alliances: Pottery and the History of the Kekana Ndebele in the Old Transvaal’, in N. Swanepoel, A. Esterhuysen and P. Bonner (eds), Five Hundred Years Rediscovered Southern African Precedents and Prospects (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2008), pp. 197–214. 9 J. Comaroff and J. Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution: Christianity, Colonialism and Consciousness in South Africa,Volume 1 (Chicago, IL, Chicago University Press, 1991), pp. 140–50. 10 Comaroff and Comaroff, Of Revelation and Revolution, pp. 140 & 164. 11 H.O. Mönnig, The Pedi (Pretoria, J.L.Van Schaik Limited, 1967), p. 256. A.O. Jackson, ‘The Ndebele of Langa’, Department of Co-operation and Development, Ethnological Publication No. 54 (Pretoria, Government Printers, 1983) makes mention of the political fall-out that follows when wives are exchanged but perceived, by the gifting chief, to be inappropriately ranked. 12 The site is also known as Makapansgat and the cave of Gwaša and is situated in the Makapan Valley World Heritage Site. 13 Andries Pretorius's report, written a month after the siege, suggests that over 4,000 people took refuge in the cave. While these numbers may have been exaggerated, calculations based on the number of human skeletal remains recovered from the cave confirm that the numbers were high. See SS 7 R733/54 Verslag van M.W. Pretorius 6 Des. 1854; J.J. De Waal, ‘Die Verhouding Tussen die Blankes en die Hoofmanne Mokopane en Mankopane in die Omgewing van Potgietersrust, 1836–1869’ (MA thesis, University of South Africa, 1978), pp. 105–17; A.B. Esterhuysen, V.M. Sanders and J.M. Smith, ‘Human Skeletal and Mummified Remains from ad 1854 siege of Mugombane, Limpopo South Africa’, Journal of Archaeological Science, 36 (2009), pp. 1,038–49. 14 Esterhuysen, Sanders and Smith, ‘Human Skeletal and Mummified Remains’. 15 The platform at the back of the hut was regarded as the most important and sacred part of the hut where the ancestral spirits were thought to dwell. E.J. Krige, The Social System of the Zulus (London, Longman Green, 1936), p. 46; A-I. Berglund, Zulu Thought Patterns and Symbolism (Cape Town, David Philip, 1976), pp. 102–3. 16 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. 17 F.C. De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid in die Familie-opvolgings en Erfreg van Noord-Ndebele’ (D.Phil. thesis, University of Pretoria, 1986), pp.70–8; I. Hofmeyr, “We Spend Our Years as a Tale that is Told” Oral Historical Narrative in a South African Chiefdom (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 1993), p. 120. 18 Hofmeyr,“We Spend Our Years as a Tale that is Told”, pp. 120–21. 19 See N.J. van Warmelo, Transvaal Ndebele Texts Ethnological Publications Vol. 1 (Pretoria, Government Printers, 1930); D. Ziervogel, A Grammar of Northern Transvaal Ndebele (Pretoria, L.J. Van Schaik, 1959); De Waal, ‘Die Verhouding’; De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’. 20 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, pp. 48–51. 21 See for example, C. Hamilton, ‘Ideology, Oral Traditions and the Struggle for Power in the Early Zulu Kingdom’ (MA dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, 1985), p. 152; B. Oomen, ‘“Chiefs!” Law, Power, and Culture in Contemporary South Africa’, in P. Geschiere, B. Meyer and P. Pels, Readings in Modernity in Africa (Indiana, Indiana University Press, 2008), p. 83. 22 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. 23 Lucky Kekana interviewed by I. Hofmeyr, April 1990, unpublished transcript Part 2, p. 100. 24 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009; See also De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 49. 25 I. Kopytoff, ‘The Internal African Frontier: the Making of African Political Culture’, in I. Kopytoff (ed.), The African Frontier: the Reproduction of Traditional African Societies (Indiana University Press, 1989), p. 22. 26 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 53. 27 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. 28 Lucky Kekana interviewed by I. Hofmeyr April 1990, unpublished transcript, Part 1. 29 Lucky Kekana interviewed by I. Hofmeyr April 1990 unpublished transcript, Part 2, p. 34–5. 30 Lucky Kekana interviewed by I. Hofmeyr April 1990, unpublished transcript Part 2, p. 34–5. 31 I. Hofmeyr, ‘Jonah and the Swallowing Monster: Orality and Literacy on a Berlin Mission Station in the Transvaal’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 17, 4 (December, 1991), pp. 645–51. 32 Lucky Kekana interviewed by I. Hofmeyr April 1990, unpublished transcript, Part 2, p. 19. 33 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. According to Abram a meeting was called in 1964 for all migrants and chiefs in the Daveyton Community Hall. Piet Koornhof agreed to create a homeland that would extend from Middelburg to Mokopane. 34 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. 35 S.P. Lekgoathi, ‘Chiefs, Migrants and North Ndebele Ethnicity in the Context of Surrounding Homeland Politics, 1965–1978’, African Studies, 62, 1 (2003), pp. 70–71. 36 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 53. 37 Lekgoathi, ‘Chiefs, Migrants and North Ndebele Ethnicity’, pp. 70–71. 38 I. Van Kessel and B. Oomen, ‘ “One Chief, One Vote”: the Revival of Traditional Authorities in Post-Apartheid South Africa’, African Affairs, 96, 385 (1997), pp. 561–85; B. Oomen, ‘“We Must Now Go Back to Our History”: Retraditionalisation in a Northern Province Chieftaincy’, African Studies, 59, 1 (2000), pp. 71–96. 39 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. 40 My thanks to (Moks) Mokhonoana the Mošate Council's spokesperson for bringing this to my attention. 41 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 53. 42 Transvaal Archives (T.A.), Central Archive Depot (C.A.D.), Department of Native Affairs (NTS), 314, 12/55, Minutes of the meeting at the Native Commissioner's Office, 19/03/1949 – Piet Shiloane Kekana. 43 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 48. 44 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009; see also De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 49. 45 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 49; also mentioned by Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. 46 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 51. 47 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 51 48 Jackson, ‘The Ndebele of Langa’, p. 125. 49 Interview with Jeff Kekana, Madimetsa Lekalakala and David Phahladira, interviewed by P. Bonner and D. Skosana, at the Protea Park Hotel Mokopane, 18 September 2009. 50 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. Excerpt from the taped transcript transcribed by D. Skosana. 51 Interview Jeff Kekana, Madimetsa Lekalakala and David Phahladira, interviewed by P. Bonner and D. Skosana, at the Protea Park Hotel Mokopane, 18 September 2009. 52 Transcripts published in Hofmeyr, “We Spend our Years as a Tale that is Told”, pp. 187–268. 53 Hofmeyr, “We Spend our Years as a Tale that is Told”. 54 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 38; Jackson, ‘The Ndebele of Langa’, p. 17. 55 I. Schapera, ‘Political Institutions’, in I. Scapera, The Bantu-speaking Tribes of South Africa (London, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966), p. 184. 56 Mogeme is variously referred to as Makute or Magude. 57 Jackson, The Ndebele of Langa, pp. 20–21. 58 Vansina, ‘Once upon a Time’, p. 445. 59 Hofmeyr, “We Spend our Years as a Tale that is Told”, p. 161. 60 S. Heckford, A Lady Trader in the Transvaal (London, Gilbert and Rivington, 1882). 61 National Archive Repository (T.A.B.), Governor General (G.O.V.) 1088, PS 50/8/07, Location Commission History of Native Tribes, 30 May 1907, p. 6. 62 Hofmeyr, “We Spend our Years as a Tale that is Told”, pp. 187–269. 63 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’ and reiterated by Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. 64 De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, pp. 38 & 37–8 65 Kuvusa sighodla is practised when a chief's oldest son from his principal wife dies before he is married. If there is no other male heir a woman is brought in to bear a son and revive the chiefly-line, and ensure that the deceased's name does not die out. The father is usually a member if the chiefly lineage. De Beer, ‘Groepsgebondenheid’, p. 377 66 Ziervogel, A Grammar, genealogy published between pp. 6 & 7. 67 Jackson, The Ndebele of Langa, p. 21. 68 The sequence of attacks and counter-attacks is documented by De Waal, ‘Die Verhouding’, pp. 176–9 69 Jackson, The Ndebele of Langa, p. 21. 70 Heckford, A Lady Trader, p. 294. 71 Heckford, A Lady Trader, p. 306. 72 Hofmeyr, “We Spend our Years as a Tale that is Told”, p. 129. 73 According to Abram, Molalakgori would burn hyena hair before council meetings to bamboozle fellow council members. Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi, D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009. 74 Jackson, The Ndebele of Langa, p. 28. 75 On 10 October 1868 the magistrate of Marabastad reported that representatives of Sebetiela approached the trekkers in Potgietersrus to make peace on behalf of Mogeme and Lekalekale. S.S. 103, 1192: Landdros-staatspresident, Marabastad, 1 October 1868. This indicates a truce between Mogeme and Sebetiela, but also that up until then Sebetiela was still allied with the trekkers. 76 Spelt as ‘Tjhumana’, ‘Kxumbha’ and ‘Kxhaba’, in Ziervogel, A Grammar. 77 Ziervogel, A Grammar, p. 8. 78 T.A.B., G.O.V., 1088, PS 50/8/07, Location Commission History of Native Tribes, 30 May 1907, p. 2. 79 See Esterhuysen, ‘Ceramic Alliances’, p. 209. 80 T.A. S.S.3, R254/51: H.B. Kloppers – A.W.J. Pretorius, Apenrivier, 2 March 1851. 81 See, for example, S. Hall, ‘A Consideration of Gender Relations in the Late Iron Age “Sotho” Sequence of the Western Highveld, South Africa’, in S. Kent (ed.), Gender in African Prehistory (London, AltiMira Press, 1998); O.P. Gosselain, ‘In Pots We Trust. The Processing of Clay and Symbols in Sub-Saharan Africa’, Journal of Material Culture, 4, 2 (1999), pp. 205–230. 82 See for example, T.N. Huffman, ‘Regionality in the Iron Age: The Case of the Sotho-Tswana’, Southern African Humanities, 14 (2002), pp. 1–22. F. Ohinata, ‘The Beginning of ‘Tsonga’ Archaeology: Excavations at Simunye, North-eastern Swaziland’, Southern African Humanities, 14 (2002), pp. 23–50. 83 Esterhuysen, Sanders and Smith, ‘Human Skeletal and Mummified Remains’. 84 Abram Kekana, interviewed by A. Esterhuysen, P. Bonner, S. Lekgoathi & D. Skosana, at Mošate, 1 August 2009

Chiefdom · African history and culture studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · South African History and Culture

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