Int J Histor Archaeol (2013) 17:613631

DOI 10.1007/s10761-013-0236-z

Excavating Ephemeral Remains of Life in a Time

of Witchcraft: New Insights into the Eighteenthand Nineteenth-Century Occupations at Leokwe
and Nyindi Hills in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence
Area, South Africa
Maria H. Schoeman

Published online: 31 July 2013

# Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013

Abstract Scholarly knowledge of the historical settlements in the Shashe-Limpopo

Confluence Area in northern South Africa is fundamentally entangled with narratives
told to N. J. Van Warmelo by two women, Sekgobogobo and Mphengwa. The account
based on these stories narrated elements of Sekgobogobos life history, and pointed to
the at times lethal effects of internal political processes combining with regional
instability and an approaching colonial frontier. This paper establishes a recursive
relationship between this narrative and archaeological excavations to deepen the understanding of the sociopolitical dynamics in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area in the
late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Keywords Mapungubwe . Women . Oral history . Nineteenth-century South Africa

Introduction
The archaeology of the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area has been under scrutiny since
the early twentieth century. Most of this research focused on the K2 polity (10001220
CE), which controlled a substantial territory around the confluence spanning into
Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa, and the transformation of this polity into the
first state in southern AfricaMapungubwe (122090 CE). Researchers initially believed that Mapungubwe dated to the Late Iron Age (Fouch 1937), but more recent
archaeological research and radiocarbon dating data have shown this to be incorrect (e.g.
Meyer 1998; Vogel 2000). In fact, the K2 polity and succeeding Mapungubwe state
flourished between the eleventh and thirteenth centuries.

M. H. Schoeman (*)
School of Geography, Archaeology and Environmental Studies, University of the Witwatersrand,
Private bag 3, WITS 2050, South Africa
e-mail: alex.schoeman@wits.ac.za

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The late thirteenth-century fall of the Mapungubwe state, however, did not signal the
end of settlement in the region. Instead, new groups moved into the area almost
immediately. The social dynamics of these occupations are not well understood. This
paper suggests that starting from the lives of people on the margins of power, but not
ending there, could help us to understand the archaeological record better (cf. Harding
2008, p. 225). In this case, I use the life story of a nineteenth century Shashe-Limpopo
Confluence Area woman, Sekgobogobo, as the starting point in a re-evaluation of
established ideas about the socio-political conditions in the region in the eighteenth
and nineteenth centuries. This facilitates a more subtle perspective that deepens our
understanding of the lives of the people in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area.
Sekgobogobos narrative is the starting point of my reflection on the nineteenth century
context of two hilltop sites: Leokwe and Nyindi.

How Sekgobogobos Story was Found

Sekgobogobo story was not intentionally pursued by Van Warmelo. Rather it was
found during the search for oral traditions about Mapungubwe. The collection of
oral histories formed an important part of research into the archaeology of
Mapungubwe in the 1930s. The initial research team at Mapungubwe thought that
there had to be traditions recounting the occupation because they believed that
Mapungubwe had been occupied in the recent past (see Schofield 1937). The first
interdisciplinary research team that explored the archaeology and history of
Mapungubwe included the University of Pretoria ethnologist and linguist Grard Paul
Lestrade (see Lestrade 1927, 1932). Lestrade, however, was unable to find any clear
narratives relating to the hilltop settlement at Mapungubwe. Ditjane, who lived near
Mapungubwe, and had directed the Mapungubwe discoverers to the hill, gave the
only account that explicitly mentioned a specific group of people living at the site. He
recounted that a female leader named Xobe/Hobe had resided at the base of
Mapungubwe hill, and that she had succeeded her father, Mapungubwe, the last
BaKwena chief (MA D/497; MA D/212). Lestrade, however, felt that oral history of
the area was in an extremely confused state because of extensive fluidity in-group
membership, and thus of little value in determining the ethnic history of the area
(MA D/497).
In spite of the limited success achieved, the collection of oral traditions remained
a crucial part of the Mapungubwe project, even after Lestrade left the Mapungubwe
research team. His departure from the University of Pretoria formed part of a purge of
scholars who were not Afrikaners, as well as of those Afrikaners who were not
Afrikaner Nationalists (Mouton 1993). Lestrade was replaced by the South African
government ethnologist N. J. Van Warmelo, who initiated several projects in the
region (e.g. Van Warmelo 1940a, 1948). Van Warmelos research on the history of
Mapungubwe and surrounds culminated in the publication of The Copper Miners of
Musina and the Early History of the Zoutpansberg (Van Warmelo 1940a).
Copper Miners was based on oral traditions collected and interpreted by the local
African scholars and Van Warmelo. Unlike many of the other publications by the Union
of South Africas Department of Native Affairs, the contributions by Van Warmelos
correspondents were included in vernacular text, and translated into English. The

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correspondents included local African intellectuals, such as S. M. Dzivhani, M. F.

Mamadi, M. M. Motenda and E. Mudau.
Van Warmelo did not explain why he chose the accounts written by these individuals, but Lekgoathi argued that Van Warmelo was motivated by the twin goals of
conserving and salvaging the African traditions from corrosion by Western influences
and of creating an archive (Lekgoathi 2009, p.65). While he recognised the importance of conserving traditions, Van Warmelo also felt that he could only see the past
from a white perspective, and to overcome this limitation developed a strategy of
letting people speak for themselves by involving local scholars (Lekgoathi 2009, p.
65). The use of vernacular texts, however, did not necessary allow people to speak for
themselves, but rather as in the case of the Ndebele was an ambiguous strategy of
letting the subjects speak for themselves at the same time as selecting and ordering
their voices (Lekgoathi 2009, pp. 6566). This contributed to a broader process in
which Van Warmelo was involved; The classification of more fluid pre-colonial African
identities into tribes, which was fundamental to Apartheid ideology in South Africa.
One of the few texts in Copper Miners not written by one of Van Warmelos
African correspondents was about the history of the Machete occupation at Leokwe.
This account is only published in English, and was written by Van Warmelo. It
recounted Sekgobogobos life history and elements of the history of the Machete
community, including a brief account about the occupations at Leokwe and nearby
sites and an explanation of their relationship with the Tshivhula (Fig. 1). (In the

Fig. 1 Map of the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area and surrounding regions showing places mentioned in the text

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twentieth century, groups such as the Machete, Tsivhula and Bolana and were categorized by Department of Native affairs naming processes as separate and independent
ethnic groups. Groups were often named after their nineteenth century chiefs, e.g.
Machete, Tshivhula and Bolana. In the twentieth century most of the Tshivula resided in
the central and western Soutpansberg, and paid allegiance to the Venda polity. In
contrast the Machete constitutes a relatively small political unit in the twentieth century.
Most members of this group lived in the Blouberg when the Mapungubwe team started
research in the 1930s. Currently very little is known about the Bolana in the area.)
This account was largely based on interviews with two women, Sekgobogobo and
Mphengwa. (Van Warmelo refers to them by their first names and not their full
names.) Sekgobogobo was about 90 years old when Van Warmelo spoke to her, but
she was still not keen to talk about the events that affected her. On the other hand
Mphengwa, an 86-year old woman from the Sebola (Tshivhula) clan, narrated the
events freely (Van Warmelo 1940b, p. 95). Their different clan affiliations, and thus
likely different places of residence, suggest that the women were interviewed separately, but this is not specified in the text.
Unlike most of Van Warmelos other informants, who tended to be royal, male
elders, Sekgobogobo did not speak from a position of power. She also was not
attempting to justify land holdings, political positions or territorial holdings, which
all the other papers in Copper Miners did. Instead she spoke from the margins. This
position was defined by her status, gender and race. It is not clear why Van Warmelo
based the chapter on the interviews with the two women, because throughout his
career he tended to work with male elders (see Lekgoathi 2009, p. 62).
We can be more certain about his reason for writing a chapter on Machete history.
This was motivated by the possibility of linking a site in the Mapungubwe Cultural
Landscape to extant oral traditions about sites in the region. Van Warmelo made these
sentiments explicit when he wrote Mmatht (Machete) and his people are but few
in number, and not of any special interest, except for the circumstances that they used
to live on Lekw (Luongwe) on the farm Little Muck 604, only 14 mi [22.5 km]
west of Greefswald 615 on which Mapungubwe hill is located (Van Warmelo 1940b,
p. 94). A footnote indicates that conical hill, Nyindi, is located to the southwest of
Leokwe (Fig. 2).

Regional Occupation Sequence

In the nineteenth century, the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area was squeezed in
between several expanding polities (Mulaudzi 2000), being flanked towards the west
by the Ngwato kingdom, to the north and northwest the Ndebele polity loomed large,
while the core of the Venda polity was to the southeast (Landau 1991; Loubser 1989,
1991; Ralushai 1977; Rasmussen 1975). Oral traditions and other historical sources
have been harnessed to help understand the origins of the people who shaped these
polities. According to these studies ancestors of Sotho-Tswana speakers moved into the
Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area in the early fourteenth century shortly after the fall of
the Mapungubwe state (Hanisch 1979; Loubser 1989, p. 55, 1991, pp. 164165). The
political core of the powerful nineteenth century Ngwato kingdom in southwestern
Botswana was Tswana speaking. Around the mid fifteenth century, material culture

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Fig. 2 Aerial photograph of

Leokwe and Nyindi hills.
The location of the Calabrese
excavations are marked 1 and
the Schoeman excavations 2

associated with the western Zimbabwean Khami polity spread into the Shashe-Limpopo
Confluence Area, and several Khami stonewalled sites were established in the Limpopo
valley (Huffman 2008; Huffman and Hanisch 1987). The communities associated with
the Khami polity appear to have exercised control over the trade network, and very few
trade goods are found at contemporaneous non-Khami sites (Loubser 1989, p. 55). The
extent of the Khami polity decreased in the eighteenth century, until it was finally
destroyed by the arrival of the Ndebele led by Mzilikazi in the nineteenth century
(Pikirayi 2001, pp. 4, 30, 218). The core of the Ndebele polity originally came from
South Africa during the time of troubles or mfecane that swept through large parts of the
South African interior in the 1820s and 1830s (see Hamilton 1995 for more nuanced and
detailed discussions of the mfecane). The other large polity in the region was consolidated when Singo royals split from the Khami polity in the seventeenth century, and
took control over the northernmost part of South Africa. They formed the Venda polity
through politically uniting local communities whose cultural identity developed out of
interaction between local Shona and Sotho-Tswana speakers. During the Khami polity
and Venda polity occupations elite stonewalled sites were placed on hills and commoners lived in open valley sites. The region continued to be linked into the Indian
Ocean trade network throughout this sequence (Loubser 1989, p. 55).

Rethinking the Last 500 Years

Loubsers early insights into the feasibility of combining oral, historical, and archaeological sources have been followed by other more historically rooted archaeological
research into the last 500 years (e.g. Boeyens 2000, 2003; Esterhuysen 2006, 2008;
Hall 1995, 1997; Hall et al. 2008; Joubert and Van Schalkwyk 1999; Reid et al. 1997;
Schoeman 1998a, b; Van Schalkwyk and Smith 2004). This paper draws on the
insights gained in these studies, while shifting to a finer scale, thereby facilitating a
deeper understanding of the lives of the people who lived at Leokwe and Nyindi.
An approach to the archaeology of Leokwe and Nyindi that explores the making of
social realities, power relations and boundaries requires a shift from the traditional
approach to Iron Age archaeology that generally used ethnographic sources and
oral accounts as codified traditions of bounded mono-cultural, ethnic units. Rather

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these sources are viewed as accounts of complex communities, at times composed of

contemporaneous, multiple groups (Croucher and Wynne-Jones 2006; Hall 1984a, b;
Lane 1994/5, 2004; Stahl 2004). A more refined approach also requires a reexamination of the assumed simple cultural identitymaterial culture pairing that
excludes co-occupation of areas. A more profitable approach was advanced by John
Calabrese (2007), who showed that several enacted identities and material culture
combinations can co-exit temporally and spatially.
A new approach to the archaeology of Leokwe and Nyindi also requires a re-reading
of Van Warmelos texts as sources of information regarding historical process, and
relationships on the landscape. Thus, I recognise that the Van Warmelo account about
the Machete simultaneously formed part of the Department of Native Affairs project
of solidifying ethnic boundaries, told the story of an episode in the history of the
Machete community, and chronicled Sekgobogobos life history. The life history components comprise first-person narratives, and do not constitute an official history of the
Machete, or an agreed on communal oral tradition (see Henige 1988; Miller 1980;
Vansina 1989 for more detailed discussions on different oral sources). Combining
archaeology and historical sources, such as narratives, also allows for the interrogation
of the manufacture of social realities and power relations (cf. Brink 2008; Di Paolo and
Beaudry 2006; Hall 2000). Life histories and first person narratives have formed part of
oral history and historical archaeology projects for some time (e.g., Beaudry 1998;
Clements 2011), and are powerful sources that could allow for an exploration of
marginality, and to understand women such as Sekgobogobos perceptions of that
experience.
Obviously, there is a question of scale, and archaeologists can seldom access the
detailed patterning reflected in oral histories, but, people use material culture when
negotiating daily life and individual experiences are materialized and form part of those
of the larger community, or group of people at a specific time (Behrens and Swanepoel
2008). At times these form repeated patterns which archaeologists can excavate. These
patterns include material traces of witchcraft beliefs, for example in Mpumalanga
archaeological excavations showed that stratified Ndzundza middens reflect beliefs
about the potential use of ash in witchcraft that intensified during times of stress
(Schoeman 1998a). The structuring and locations of these middens materialised witchcraft beliefs, but also reflected the daily negotiations of these beliefs by people.

The Oral and Material Remains of the Leokwe and Nyindi Occupations
I now turn to the oral account and material remains from Leokwe and Nyindi hills.
Both hills rise above the plateau of the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, and
overlook the winding ribbon of green grass and tall trees that mark the route of the
Kolope River through the relatively flat Mopani veldt to the south and east. Leokwe
comprises several distinct sections (see Figs. 1 and 2). The western end is marked by
a steep-sided summit, separated from the rest of the hill by a neck that used to be
walled. John Calabrese excavated K2 period remains, as well as a small amount of
historical material, from the western hilltop (Calabrese 2007, 118135, Fig. 2:1). The
mid-section of the hill, to the east of the Calabrese excavations, consists mostly of
undulating sandstone that levels out towards the east, where it is partially covered by

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soil and archaeological deposit (Fig. 2:2). The northern and southern edges of the mid
section terminate in steep cliffs and two tall stone walls that vary between one and
two meters in width guard the sloping eastern edge; one of the walls was constructed
with loopholes (Fig. 3). The slope continues east before turning south, and then rises
into a cluster of three hills, the highest being Nyindi (M3S)which functioned as a K2Mapungubwe period rain-control site (see Figs. 2 and 3). Steep cliffs prevent ascent
to the flat Nyindi hilltop from the north and south, and sliding gravel making the
western ascent treacherous. Ascending from the east is less dramatic. This side is
covered in substantial stone terraces that appear to be contemporaneous with the
stone grain bin bases scattered over the hilltop.
Sekgobogobo only came to these hills later in her life. Van Warmelo indicated that
Sekgobogobo was born at the Saltpan in the Soutpansberg (see Fig. 1). This is about
450 km from the Banotwane area in the southwest of Botswana, from where her father,
Motete, came. He had married Maemo, the daughter of Chief Bolana, who at the time
lived at Leokwe/Nyindi. Chief Bolana also was an immigrant into the area, and it is
claimed that he used to live in an area under the control of chief Pudipedi in Zimbabwe.
He left Zimbabwe because of the conflict between chief Pudipedi and the Ngwato
kingdom. It is not clear what chief Bolanas political status or allegiances were once he
moved to Leokwe and Nyindi. He, however, was a skilled negotiator and alliance maker.
After Raletaupathe first Machete chieftook control over the region around Leokwe
hill, chief Bolana gave his granddaughter Sekgobogobo to Raletaupa as a wife for his
second son, Mmadithapa. The couple remained at Raletaupas new capital at Leokwe
and settled on the southern side of Leokwe hill. The marriage of Sekgobogobos older
sister, Mokotame (or Ndiyangaz) to Madidimal Mamadi signalled chief Bolanas
additional alliances with the chiefs in the Soutpansberg to the south (Van Warmelo
1940b, p.95).
Raletaupa only ruled from Leokwe for a short period before he died from a chest
complaint, believed to be tuberculosis. At the time this was a disease with magical
properties (Van Warmelo 1940b, p. 96). This was the first calamity that befell this
new community that, according to Van Warmelos sources, was set up with permission from Raletaupas grandfather Tshivhula on the condition that he remained quiet,
and did not declare his independence. Hence the name Mmatht (Mr. be quiet)
Fig. 3 Double boundary stone
walls with loopholes on
Leokwe
hill

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(Van Warmelo 1940b, p. 94). The Machete elders now dispute much of this narrative,
including their sub-ordinate relationship with the Tshivhula family, and when
Raletaupa first moved to the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area (Interview with Mr
L. Machete on July 10, 2009, at Leokwe hill, Mapungubwe National Park). The next
leader at Leokwe, Raletaupas oldest son and heir, Rantshana, did not rule for long
before he was killed by a leopard. It was believed that this was the result of
witchcraft, thus his great-grandfather Tshivhula called a diviner to his homestead at
Madzhie in the central-western Soutpansberg to establish who perpetrated the witchcraft (see Fig. 1). The dice and diving bowl indicated that Mmadithapa and his
relative Sepetane were guilty; as a result both were killed.
A number of Tshivula clan members also wanted to kill Sekgobogobo, but she was
spared because some believed in her innocence. She, however, lost her royal status,
and as a widow without any assets, or right to land, was in a very precarious position.
Sekgobogobo would have had to become a menial laborer if chief Mamadi did not
intervene. She was still young and soon remarried, but stigma of the witchcraft
allegations clung to her. So, Sekgobogobo and her new husband moved from place
to place until her husband died. Eventually she settled with her sisters family near
Alldays in the Limpopo Province, South Africa (Van Warmelo 1940b, p.97).
Van Warmelos account was the first to link a specific known community to the
archaeology of the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape. This account, unfortunately, is
limited, and very little other historical information exists for the period. The only
exception being Victor Ralushais (2001) exploration of oral traditions relating to
earlier occupations of the Mapungubwe Cultural Landscape. The focus of more
recent oral histories are on a late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century site in an
open valley in the Mapungubwe National Park that was occupied by Chief Machete
until the first half of the twentieth century. This more recent site is also invoked in the
Machete community land claim. This site is not marked by stonewalls, instead the
only signs of occupation relate to the circular house foundations (Regional Land
Claims Commission 2005). The amount of information from these sources about the
occupations is limited, but when combined with material culture from two excavations key insights can be gained into the history of the region.
The most visible features are the two imposing boundary walls marking the
Eastern end of Leokwe hill, different activity areas are demarcated by smaller stone
structures including low stone circles, semi-circular walls, terrace-like walls and
higher upright, straight walls that all appear to date to the historic-period use of the
site. The height of the walls increased towards the slightly higher center area, which
also is furthest away from the defensive, front boundary walls. In general, this type of
zone tends to be the location of higher status people on South African Late Farming
Community sites, and it is likely that the area with the highest walls on this part of the
hill housed the chief.
In an attempt to recover archaeological remains of the nineteenth-century occupation
at Leokwe I excavated areas near and in the stone-walled structures. Shallow historic
deposit overlay early second millennium K2-Mapungubwe period deposit. The shallow
historic deposit was not necessarily the result of soil accumulation constraints, because
in some areas the historic deposit overlay much more substantial K2-Mapungubwe
period deposit. Excavations uncovered two post-K2-Mapungubwe occupation horizons.
The upper, and more extensive horizon covering the whole site was associated with the

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stonewalling. This horizon yielded an area with unidentifiable dakha clumps, one
partially burnt house floor and a buried stone foundation. An older horizon that underlay
the stone walls was exposed in one area. The extent of this horizon seems limited to a
small part of the site.
The post K2-Mapungubwe components of the deposit on Leokwe hill were poor in
material culture. Less than 150 ceramic shards were unearthed from the upper occupational horizon and most of the non-K2-Mapungubwe ceramics were undecorated
and mostly undiagnostic. We only recovered 83 glass beads including earlier K2Mapungubwe beads. This small number of beads was not the result of sampling
techniques, and is comparable with the yield of 113 European beads from John
Calabreses extensive excavations on the Western end of Leokwe (Wood 2005).
Beads found in my Leokwe assemblage facilitates dating, because the assemblage
includes blue hexagonal that were manufactured in Bohemia from the 1820 to 1900s,
blue annular beads produced in the later part of the nineteenth century as well as
European white heart beads common from the mid nineteenth to the twentieth century
(Wood 2000, 2008, p. 157). On visual criteria the Leokwe beads resemble the 1840 to
1864 Maleoskop assemblage (Wood 2008, plate 20). The metal finds were more
substantial, and in addition to an imported teaspoon, the excavations revealed the
presence of several large metal artifacts, including two solid iron hoes found immediately below the surface.
Nyindi was excavated in 2002 as part of a project investigating the role of raincontrol in Mapungubwe state formation (Schoeman 2006a, b). The upper layer of
Nyindi hilltop deposit reflected on the use of the site over the last 500 years, and
similar to Leokwe this overlay substantial K2-Mapungubwe period material. Stone
grain bin platforms are visible on the surface, and excavations exposed an unbaked
dakha floor and additional grain bin remains. The deposit at Nyindi was richer than
that at Leokwe, and in addition to ceramic shards, excavations recovered over 300
glass beads (of which a small portion dated to the period 10001300 CE).
(Some areas of the site underwent extensive bioturbation, and it is not always easy
to determine the association of smaller items, however a substantial number of the
glass beads resemble more recent bead types.)
Many of the beads were not diagnostic and several identifications were tentative,
but included European and Khami period beads. The Khami beads are significant
because they indicate a pre-mfecane occupation that pre-dates the Machete settlement
at Leokwe. The Nyindi material culture sample, however, constitutes meager pickings when compared to the thousands of ceramic shards, glass beads and gold found
on top of Mapungubwe hill, which was only used for about 70 years before being
abandoned (Meyer 1998).

Discussion
Starting from Sekgobogobos Life
The starting point of this research is Sekgobogobos life. It, however, did not leave
any recognisable material remains. Unlike contemporaneous and even earlier colonial
houses in Cape Town, South Africa (e.g., Malan and Cornell 2005), there are no

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household inventories of nineteenth-century African villages. Nor are there maps

indicating in which house Sekgobogobo lived. Furthermore, even if we could link her
to one of the structures, the objects found in the house could still be multivocal, for
example the hoes were simultaneously tools used by women to work fields and trade
items obtained through male controlled trade (cf. Vermeer 2009, p. 322 for a more
detailed discussion on the challenges associated with establishing gendered material
culture correlates). However, while we cannot track Sekgobogobos personal property, her life story read in conjunction with the archaeology of Leokwe and Nyindi
does help us to understand her life and the world she lived in.
In this world, which had a general sex-based division of labor and rights, a
womans status in society was not only determined by her sex (Walker 1991, p. 1).
Rather womens access to resources was shaped by her social and marriage statuses.
Sekgobogobos life embodies several of the different positions. As a royal granddaughter and later wife of a royal son she held a privileged position in society, which
would have allowed her access to prestige goods such as the imported glass beads
found on Leokwe and Nyindi hills. Similar to many other royal women she acted as
an ambassador for her family once married (cf. Comaroff and Comaroff 1991, pp.
140, 164; Esterhuysen 2008, p. 200). Although as a woman Sekgobogobo was not
directly involved in political decision-making. These roles did not necessarily free her
from other female duties, such as farming and producing food for her family. The iron
hoes found in two different areas on Leokwe hill underlines the engagement of
members of the chiefly family in farming activities, and that they were able to import
iron objects to make farming easier.
Chiefs also controlled land allocation, and chiefs generally selected the best land for
themselves and their families. In an arid area such as the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence
Area access to good agricultural land was essential. The choice to settle at Nyindi and
Leokwe might in part relate to the availability of good agricultural land in the Kolope
river floodplain immediately to the south of Leokwe hill. While at Leokwe
Sekgobogobo probably had good fields. She, however, is unlikely to have had access
to good agricultural land after her husband, Mmadithapa, was killed, because
irrespective of their status women did not have the right to own land and could only
get land to farm through men. This mostly was though their husbands, who would be
granted land to farm by the headman or chief (see for example Schapera 1970, pp. 199
202). She also lived in a time when land ownership of African people in South Africa
was being eroded, and chiefs had less and less land to allocate.
The Changing World Around Sekgobogobo
In order to understand the dynamic processes that shaped Sekgobogobos life it is
important to identify the period/s of occupation. Van Warmelo (1940b) indicated that
the followers of chief Bolana lived on Leokwe and/or Nyindi until they were
displaced / incorporated by the Raletaupa. Furthermore, we can date the occupations
of both sites; Sekgobogobo was about 90 years old and Mphengwa about 86 years old
when Van Warmelo interviewed them in the early twentieth century. Mphengwa
indicated that the witchcraft allegations took place when she was 12 years old, and
that the events pre-date the 1867 destruction of the Boer town at Schoemansdal, south
of the Soutpansberg by Venda warriors (Van Warmelo 1940b, p.94; see Fig. 1). It is

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thus likely that Leokwe hill was the centre of the Machete chiefdom during the late
1850s or early 1860s. The use of the site appears to have been relatively brief, so it is
unlikely to have lasted more than a decade or two. This suggests that the Bolana
component of Nyindi dates to the relatively stable late 18 century, and the early
nineteenth century, before the ripples of the mfecane, colonialism and capitalism
would have been felt in the region. A mid nineteenth century date for the Leokwe
occupation is supported by the glass bead data. Nyindi yielded pre-mfecane Khami
beads, whereas later nineteenth-century annular and several hexagonal beads found at
Leokwe. This bead data also correlates with the oral sequence that places the start of
the Bolana-Nyindi occupation earlier than the Leokwe settlement.
Unfortunately, it is not clear from the historical or archaeological sources which
polity controlled the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area in the mid nineteenth century, or at least under whose jurisdiction the area fell. The information from the Van
Warmelo account suggests that the area was under the jurisdiction of the Tshivula
chiefs, thus part of the Venda polity (Van Warmelo 1940b). Lestrades informant
Ditjane indicated that the area around Mapungubwe used to be occupied by a
BaKwena (presumably Tswana) chiefdom (Kwena is the Tswana word for crocodile),
but also that he paid tribute to the chiefs in the Makgabeng (Blouberg) (MA D /212;
see Fig. 1). The Ngwato kingdom was the closest Tswana-speaking polity to the
Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, and it is possible that its boundaries extended
beyond the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area. It also is possible that the BaKwena in
question refers to the Hananwa at the Makgabeng, who were believed to revere
crocodiles (Kriel 2004).
The material culture mirrors this complexity, and the regional archaeology of the
Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area does not speak to a hegemonic occupation of and
control over the region. A range of different stonewalling patterns and ceramic styles
occur on eighteenth- and nineteenth-century sites. Furthermore, the ceramics and
walling at Leokwe and Nyindi does not fit into any strict stylistic types and cannot be
categorized into explicitly cultural terms. Instead the archaeology corroborates the
complexity implicit in Sekgobogobos life story, and reflects on fluid patterns of
group membership. Complex and overlapping groups would have resulted in the
confused state of the oral traditions that so disturbed Lestrade. Furthermore, the
complexity of the regional archaeological record indicates that Sekgobogobos family
were not the only new arrivals in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area. This
complexity, however, is not new in the area, and groups with distinct identities have
simultaneously co-occupied the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area since the eleventh
century (Calabrese 2007).
One of the reasons for this complexity is that people moved to the region to escape the
conflict in the neighboring regions. This did not mean that the area was safe, and
Sekgobogobos narrative hinted that while it provided safe refuge from troubles elsewhere, it was not a comfortable place to be (Van Warmelo 1940b). This unease is
reflected in the regional archaeological site distribution. The location of most sites that
date to the nineteenth century suggests that people had moved onto hilltops and other
places that could provide refuge. We, however, should be wary of generalizing conflict
in the nineteenth century. Here, this can be avoided though establishing a recursive
relationship between the archaeology and Van Warmelo text. As mentioned above, there
is a regional shift in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area onto hilltops in the

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nineteenth century. There, however, are variations in the pattern of hill occupations.
Leokwe and Nyindi embody the two main patterns. Leokwe is a steep-sided hilltop, with
no sign of occupation on the more accessible slopes. The differential wall height at
Leokwe suggests that the walls were used to demarcate areas and signal status. Nyindi
on the other hand, is different. The hilltop and the slopes are marked by residential
remains. In fact, the slopes are reconfigured through stone walled terraces, but there are
no tall stone walls on the hilltop. These features suggest that the people who lived there
felt safe enough to invest substantial amounts of energy into construction of nondefensive features on easily accessible slopes.
An ethnic model probably would explain these differences as cultural. Instead I
suggest that these two patterns speak to two very different perceptions of security and
safety, and thus reflect on regional stability. People at Nyindi, led by Chief Bolana,
were less concerned about their safety than those at Leokwe. The people at Nyindi,
however, underestimated the extent of the instability, and Nyindi was not able to
withstand the takeover by Raletaupa. On the other hand, Leokwe hill where
Raletaupa set up home was the ideal fortress and the Leokwe settlements did not
end due to external attack. The topography, combined with the two tall boundary
walls with loopholes at Leokwe, could have helped to protect the community from
military assault. Rather, the causes were more complex.
Killing Witches or Controlling Margins?
The Van Warmelo text located the end of the Leokwe occupation in the witchcraft
allegations against Mmadithapa, his uncle Sephetane and Sekgobogobo. The witchcraft beliefs and accusations against Mmadithapa and Sephetane were not extraordinary. Missionary sources, from the first mission station in the area, reflected that the
fear of witchcraft was pervasive in the mid 1800s (Kirkaldy and Kriel 2006; Kriel and
Kirkaldy 2009), including in the Makgabeng (Blouberg) which is located 120 km to
the south of Leokwe hill, and adjacent to the Saltpan site where Mmadithapa was
refused refuge (see Fig. 1). Delius (2001), however, pointed out that whilst the belief
in witchcraft was pervasive in the mid 1800s, the execution of witches was infrequent. This seems to apply to large areas in the Limpopo and continued into the early
twentieth century in the region, when the punishment of witches still was used to
reaffirm group solidarity and to intimidate political opponents; however the actual
opponents were not killed (Niehaus 1993). Similar patterns of maintaining authority
in African villages and chiefdoms were recognised by social anthropologists working
in other parts of Africa in the twentieth century (see Douglas 1991; Evans Pritchard
1935; Melland 1935; Wilson 1951). This includes using witchcraft allegations against
the powerful, such as unpopular leaders, young tyrants, or ageing monarchs, but
seldom killing them (Douglas 1991).
It is possible that Mmadithapa had the potential to be an unsuitable leader, and that
the allegations were aimed at preventing this from happening. However, against the
regional archaeological background that embodies concerns about security, as well as
the inability to exercise complete control over the area, it is also likely that the desire
for keeping people and power also impacted on the accusations managed by Chief
Tshivula, Mmadithapas great grandfather. In the nineteenth century, the Tshivhula
chiefs were losing resources and people, and had to renegotiate a world in a context

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625

that was very similar to modern southern Africa, where witchcraft is an idiom that
helps people to negotiate the world in a context rapid social transformation, under
historical conditions yield an ambiguous mix of possibility and powerlessness, of
desire and despair (Comaroff and Comaroff 1999, p.283).
Some of the desire and subsequent despair might relate to the economic history of the
Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area. From the tenth century, the Shashe-Limpopo
Confluence Area formed part of the Indian Ocean trade network, and thus was a place
where wealth could be accumulated even though it was arid and not ideal for agropastoralist activities. In other parts of Africa witchcraft has been linked to the market and
it is argued that similar to the market witchcraft conjures up the idea of an opening, a
leakage through which people or resources are withdrawn from the community and
disappear into the outer world. . . . Witchcraft is inherent in the kinship order but at the
same time a betrayal of its boundaries (Ciekawy and Geschiere 1998, p. 5). Markets did
not form part of the pre-colonial South Africa economy, but regional and long distance
trade did, and created similar conditions. In the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area one
of the factors causing the instability that eventually led to these witchcraft allegations
might have been changes to the trade regime. These were caused by political-economic
shifts related to the expanding colonial frontier in the nineteenth century, and meant that
fewer trade goods reached the region. This is mirrored in the glass bead assemblages. In
addition to the European beads, the Nyindi historic assemblage included Khami style
beads that point to a pre-mfecane occupation. On the other hand the smaller historic
Leokwe assemblage comprises mostly of European beads, including nineteenth-century
hexagonal and annular beads. This suggests that the shifts in trade patterns postdate the
mfecane, because a relatively high number of imported glass beads were found at
Nyindi, where the occupation started before the 1830s, and more beads were said to
have been inside the lost Bolana heirloom pot (Van Warmelo 1940b).
One of the key causes of the decrease in trade goods reaching the Shashe-Limpopo
Confluence Area relates to the colonial frontier to the south of the Soutpansberg, in
part embodied in the establishment of the white Boer town Schoemansdal. This
frontier fed into the instability in the northern regions of South Africa in the
nineteenth century through white settlers taking control over areas in the south, and
thereby squeezing independent African communities into ever smaller spaces
(Boeyens 2003; Hall 1995; Lane 2004). In addition the economic impacts of the
advancing frontier were felt. In the mid nineteenth century Schoemansdal, located on
the southern slopes of the Soutpansberg, embodied the complexity of the reach of the
European colonial frontier into the area. This town was implicated in the slave and
stock raids carried out by the Boer commandos in the Soutpansberg/ Blouberg region,
which generated the largest number of slaves and inboekellinge (indentured laborers)
in South Africa (Morton 2005), and the Boers competed with local African communities and the hybrid Buysdorp community for control over the ivory trade.
In fact, white Dutch/Afrikaans speaking Boers moved to the area to participate in
the ivory trade, which was one of the major export products from this region since the
early tenth century (e.g., Wagner 1980). Direct Boer involvement in the region, would
have decreased the access of local African communities, such as the Machete, to
elephants and ivory. Simultaneously, the price of ivory was declining (Delius 1983, p.
37). Other key export commodities included copper from Musina and tin from
Rooiberg further to the southwest (Mulaudzi et al. 2010). The indigenous Musina

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copper mines were destroyed in the second half of the nineteenth century (Mamadi
1940a). Thereby increasing the stress experienced by local African economic systems. Colonial expansion and Boer control also disrupted the indigenous trade
networks, thereby limiting the ability of local communities to accrue imported goods.
With decreasing profits from ivory and other trade goods the Machete might not have
been able to send the expected tribute to Chief Tshivhula. These economic changes
would have resulted in increased internal stress, as well as Chief Tshivulas increasing
inability to reward loyalty and prevent fission.
The Tshivula chiefdom, however, was not only losing tribute, they were also
loosing followers. Some of Chief Tshivulas people might have been lost in raids
by Boers. However, the unstable population dynamics in the nineteenth-century
Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area probably had a more substantial impact on the
number of Tshivula followers. The narratives in the Van Warmelo (1940a) volume
repeatedly suggest that political loyalties were not constant. Examples of this fluidity
are visible in the move of Chief Bolana to the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area, and
the move to the Saltpan area by the Tshivula breakaway group led by Chief Leshiba
(Mamadi 1940b). In such fluid contexts royal families could not directly control
followers or force them to stay. Furthermore, in a system where wealth was accumulated through people (cf. Guyer 1995) a loss in followers would have equated to a loss
of power as well as tribute. Consequently, one of the conditions set by Chief Tshivula,
when he allowed the Raletaupa to move to Leokwe, was that he was not allowed to
declare his independence. Furthermore, in an arid area, such as the Shashe-Limpopo
Confluence Area, loss of loyalty had drastic implications for ownership and management of cattle herds, which is one of the main indigenous forms of wealth in southern
Africa. Sustainable cattle keeping in climatically marginal landscapes requires large
grazing zones, the possibility of transhumance in times of drought and the ability to
farm out cattle to loyal subjects. These formed essential components of the
economy of the Mapungubwe state (Smith et al. 2010), and were still used in the
nineteenth century. In such a carefully managed system, a shift in loyalty would
equate to the loss of cattle managed by the subjects, and a reduction in the territory
under control and thus safe grazing.
Chief Tshivula, obviously, was not the only leader facing the consequence of an
advancing colonial frontier. Other communities were equally or even more affected,
and resistance against the advancing colonial frontier soon followed. In 1867, the
Boer town, Schoemansdal, was attacked and destroyed by members of the Venda
polity. As a result, the area north of the Soutpansberg remained outside of direct Boer
control until they defeated the Hananwa in the Makgabeng during the Maleboho war
of 1894 (Kriel 2004; Mulaudzi 2000). North of the Limpopo River the Bechuanaland
protectorate was created in 1885, but did not signal immediate British control over
Botswana (Lane 2004; Reid et al. 1997).
Lost Treasures and Barriers to Return
Thus far I have discussed the dynamics that shaped the region and the occupation of
Leokwe. I now turn to processes that affected the site. The historical Leokwe and
Nyindi deposits are shallow, ephemeral and artifact-poor, which is not that surprising
in the light of the short occupations and dramatic departures implied in the narratives.

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627

In spite of this, excavations recovered several larger metal artifacts, such as the iron
hoes at Leokwe. There are no local iron reserves and thus iron objects were valuable
trade commodities, especially after the indigenous trade networks were declining. I
suggest that the abandoned of valuable objects at Leokwe speaks not only hasty
departures but barriers to return.
There are other examples of leaving valuable objects at sites that were abandoned
during times of stress. For example, a hoard of metal hoes and bangles were found at
Makgwareng in the Free State province of South Africa. This site was occupied
between the sixteenth or seventeenth and the nineteenth centuries. The hoes were
placed against the back wall of the house and it appears as if the bangles were hidden
in the thatch of the roof. The terminal date of the Makwareng occupation coincides to
the period when occupation in the area was disrupted by mfecane related processes
(Maggs 1976). Iron was a rare, traded in commodity in the Free State grasslands,
where there are not enough trees to smelt iron (Chirikure et al. 2008), hence it is
unlikely that these artifacts were discarded willingly. Instead, it is likely that the
instability related to the mfecane would have created similar barriers to return.
Similarly, two copper bangles were left on a royal house floor at KwaMaza,
which was abandoned after the site was destroyed by attacks during the early
nineteenth century. Ndzundza traditions indicated that the attackers stayed at the
site for some time after the destruction (Schoeman 1998a), thereby making return
impossible.
In the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area these barriers included Sekgobogobos
lingering fears stemming from the witchcraft allegations. This is evident in the Van
Warmelo (1940b) text, which recounts that in the early 1900s Mabusa, Sekgobogobos
blind nephew suggested that they retrieve his grandmothers pot of beads that had
remained behind near Leokwe. Sekgobogobo was too scared to go, so the pot that
was a Bolana heirloom was not retrieved. Whites, however, are said to have found the
pot of beads around 1934 and to have paid Mabusa for the pot (Van Warmelo 1940b, p.
5). This might correlate with the pot of beads found by P. W. Van Tonder, who was one
of the Mapungubwe excavators.
In the broader context of a changing political landscape this inability to return might
also relate to the regional instability during the mid to late nineteenth century. It simply
would not have been safe to fetch the pot when conflict was rife, or while the Boers were
raiding. These frontier raids eventually escalated into white settler occupation, culminating in the 1913 Land Act under which the bulk of land in South Africa was formally
appropriated for white ownership. By the time that Van Warmelo collected the narratives
from Sekgobogobo and Mphengwa white settlers had taken control over much of the
region, and divided the land into white owned farms.

Conclusion
This article tried to develop a more subtle understanding of life in the nineteenth century
in the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area through starting from Sekgobogobos life.
This approach made it possible to identify changing dynamics on the margins, and
glimpse the potentially precarious position of women in destabilized societies, irrespective of their social status.

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Contra Lestrades dismissal of the oral accounts, they clearly are of immense value
when exploring the sociopolitical dynamics of the Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area
during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The archaeological record resonates
with the complexity and fluidity embodied in Sekgobogobos life story. This suggests
that in the first half of the nineteenth century allegiances of people living in the
Shashe-Limpopo Confluence Area were not fixed, and their prime identities were not
ethnic. Rather, the increasing stress resulted in and was managed through complex
networks and alliances. Some of these are embodied by royal marriage alliances. For
others, the solution was to move to safer zones, thereby creating fluid group membership. This complexity highlights the flaws in earlier attempts to categorise groups
according to tribal affiliation.
Understanding the complex sociopolitical conditions that created the climate in which
the witchcraft allegations against Sekgobogobo and Mmadithapa took place, however,
does not change the very real consequences of these allegations for Sekgobogobo. She lost
her status, home and husband, and could never escape the consequences of the witchcraft
allegations. Even though witchcraft is an idiom that provides comment on contemporary
political economic processes, witchcraft allegations have real consequences.
Acknowledgments I thank the Mapungubwe National Park staff for all their assistance, and the Machete
Elders for sharing their knowledge freely. The excavations at Leokwe were conducted as part of a
University of Pretoria, Department of Anthropology and Archaeology field school, and I benefited greatly
from conversations with my Pretoria colleagues who visited and helped during the field school. I also am
grateful to Bronwen Van Doornum, who helped to ensure that the excavations proceeded smoothly.
Bronwen and two anonymous reviewers made valuable comments on earlier drafts of this paper. The
Mapungubwe Museum kindly allowed me access to the historical papers it curates. The Leokwe project has
been funded by the NRF AOP grant to the Five Hundred Year Initiative, and undertaken with permission
from SANParks. The sites were excavated under SAHRA permits 80/09/04/003/51 and 80/01/08/015/51.

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