From Goodhope to Mmathubudukwane, Ghanzi to Gumare, Maun to Nshakashogwe, Vukwi to Platjaan, Botswana has a rich diversity of place names, and in any Botswana language you can think of. And some with names you wouldn’t even associate with Botswana, like Zanzibar (which is better known as a Tanzanian island, far in the Indian Ocean).

Some of the names are as straightforward as Mmadinare, others needing a bit of explaining, like Baines Drift (I mean, who was Baine, and what was he drifting from… then again there was Oliphant who had his own drift too), and then there are those whose meanings and etymologies remain a thing of wonder to most people.

In this mini-series, we unravel the hidden meanings behind these nigh unfathomable names of towns and villages. With this being a website about Setswana, it goes without say that for this purpose, we shall only focus on Setswana names. So I guess we won’t get to know about the Drifts and Halts (like Parr’s).

Mochudi

As the seane says, goorra motho go thebephatshwa (there’s no place like home), so why not start this section with the name of the village I am most familiar with.

Mochudi is a name that gave me several headaches, growing up, as I struggled to make sense of one thing after another about this word. Okay, picture yourself as a little primary-school going kid who is repeatedly told that the Setswana alphabet does not have the letter C, but you see it on official documents, boards, and road signs each time you go visiting your grandparents, who themselves insist the word is Setswana. Then after establishing some sort of truce with the C in the Setswana name, you are told that it is the Rolong pronunciation of a Kwena chieftain’s name, which happens to be the tribal capital for the Kgatla people. Mind blowing, right?
Yes, it turns out that the word should actually be Motshodi (in mainstream Setswana), but for some reason hitherto unbeknownst to me, it is pronounced in the Serolong/Setlhaping dialect. An earlier article discusses this idiosyncrasy in these southern dialects, and effectively explains how pre-independence, this land was called Bechuanaland.

Okay, so you finally decide to accept that the Bakgatla chieftain who settled his people in this land had a Serolong name, but then you are told Mochudi [Motshodi] was not even a Mokgatla either – he was a Mokwena! At this point you are really confused and want to deny any connection with Mochudi, and are actually even thinking of telling people that you are from Molepolole, Gabane, Ramotswa, or any of the other nearby places, but then you realise that you have no idea what any of those names could possibly mean.

So you are stuck with Mochudi and now wondering why the prince was given a feminine name. Because you are 10 years old, and back then, dishing food onto plates was almost exclusively a task done by women. And that is exactly what Motshodi [Mochudi] means. Then you start wondering if everyone is pronouncing it all wrong – because if you aspirated the second ‘O’ a little, you get a word with a totally different meaning: motshodi [carrier/holder], as Barolong would say. Then you remember, you are not among Barolong. But then again, these Bakgatla are speaking Serolong by saying Mochudi (not Motshodi) anyway!

Well, it turns out that Bakwena, one of the oldest Tswana tribes, and one of the first to move into present-day Botswana had a large territory, which includes what is now Kgatleng District, and some hundred years before the arrival of Bakgatla, they had a king named Motshodi. There is a lot of history spanning from his reign, including the birth of the Bangwaketse and Bangwato tribes – the latter later giving rise to the Batawana.

When the Bakgatla arrived in the early 1870s, the Bakwena leader was Motshodi’s descendent, Sebele I, who allowed them to settle there but asked that they pay homage to his renowned ancestor who had died and been buried atop the hill upon which they would construct their Royal Residence, and at the foot of which is the tribal kgotla: Phuthadikobo Hill. And in gratitude and deference, Bakgatla named the whole village Motshodi (which they decided to spell Mochudi, for whatever reason).

The reason they left South Africa?
Well, at the time, there was not South Africa, and they lived in the Boer Republic of Transvaal. The president of Transvaal at the time was Paul Kruger – for which Krugersdorp and Kruger National Park were named. Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela were led by their chieftain, legendary Kgosi Kgamanyane a-Pilane, who had managed to maintain a fragile peace with the Transvaal government, fell out with President Kruger when he refused to subject his people to demeaning and dangerous conditions as a labour force for the latter. The resulting standoff resulted in Kgosi Kgamanyane being flogged at Kruger’s instruction. Although publicly humiliated, the Bakgatla Kgosi remained steadfast in his resolve, orchestrating attacks on the Boers and putting an end to the long truce. For fear of further persecution and even death, Kgamanyane led his people across the Limpopo River, into what would become the Kgatleng District of Botswana.

Not all of them migrated, as many Bakgatla remained in the Transvaal (which would later become part of South Africa), but continued to acknowledge him as their king. Even today, the lands of Bakgatla traverse between the Bojanala Platinum District of South Africa and Botswana’s Kgatleng District, with their current kgosikgolo (Kgafela II) presiding over them from Moruleng in South Africa, after having started his reign in Mochudi, in the country of his birth.