Molobi Clan Praises , Molobi Meaning & History

Here’s my last contribution which you can share with your children. It’s a synopsis of history from a book: “The tribes of Rustenburg and Pilanesberg Districts” by PL Breutz who wrote it for the Union of South Africa’s Departmment of Native Affairs in 1953. It explains why in our praise poem we are described as “sengalla Matebeleng ba gaabo ba le teng”. For me, the strife/battles over the baPhalane chieftainship led to the variants in the spelling of Molobi into “Molobi” and “Molubi” for those who did it for security reasons (while others blame it on the folly of the apartheid’s Department if Native/Bantu Affairs):
“Bakwena ba Phalane
Their totem is kwena (crodocile). Other tribes especially those living in Botswana call them Batlase (those lower down in the south).
The baPhalane broke off from the baKwena living in Botswana after Chief Malope’s reign. They are of the same stock as the bakwena ba Mogopa and the baKwena ba Modimosana. The first chief remembered by them is Pukwe, who probably lived during the first half of the 18th century. He had two sons – namely, Motshudi and Letlape.
After Pukwe’s death a serious conflict arose between these two brothers, and this led to the schism through which the present tribe came into being. The dispute arose over “a beast which had only one horn whilst on the other side of its head there grew a horn-shaped tuft of hair”. The beast belonged to Letlape’s son, Mokoke, but the chief and his followers oveted it. A war broke out and the chief’s younger brother Letlape I fled with his followers and crossed the Odi river (Crocodile). Pursuing them the baKwena chief found the river in flood and was unable to cross it.
Letlape was succeeded by his son, Mokoke II. Mokoke and his people lived by killing rooibok in the month of November (Maboye) and the two brothers abused one another across the river. The baKwena chief and his councilors mocked at them that they had better take the rooibok (phalane) as their totem. They accepted the name and henceforth called themselves baPhalane. This happened at Tlhapelabjale at the junction of the Thokwe (Sand River) and the Odi (Crocodle River) on Wachteenbietjiesdraai and Klipgat. In search of a place to settle they passed Botlhapatshwene (Makips Nek on the farm KcKip-zyn-rand) and moved on to the east of Thabazimbi. They attacked the people at Modiek (Krantzberg on the north-eastern border of the district) who were called baPule or baModikele, and having worsted them incorporated them in the tribe. They also fought other tribes in the neighbourhood called baNku, baNareng, baMokopane and baLaka (Ndebele) of which the latter two originally formed one tribe. One of the six chiefs in the Laka was known as Ratime. He also fought the baBididi.
In some of the “wars” it never came to actual fighting. The raiders would merely frighten the occupants of a village into surrender. By these methods the baPhalane had become a strong and numerous tribe when Mokoke II died in the Laka county near Mmapela, one of the Ndebele tribes.
When Mokoke died, his uncle Molobi III was appointed as the chief of the baPhalane. Mokoke’s son, Mafodi IV, was then moved out of the village to live with the baMokopane. The commander of the army, Kobete, supported Molobi against Mafodi.
At that time game was still abundant. The baPhalane collected and prepared the hoofs and certain bomes of game, especially of giraffe, and took them to the baPedi. Malekutu, a son of the baPedi chief Thulare, invited other tribes to attack Molobi and installed Mafodi IV as chief of the baPhalane. Kobete fled to Mmaleoko where the people of Laka originally lived.
This was when boorraMolobi and their followers fled the villages which were under his chieftainship for their own survival and safety.
Mafodi IV was still “a young man” when he became chief. He moved from Mmapela to the Thokwe (Sand River) where he stayed to the end of his life. The Thokwe being an eastern tributary of the Odi (Crocodile River), this would mean that the baPhalane lived on the eastern banks of the Odi, but they claim to have lived on the western banks of the Odi on Buffelshoek or Haakdoorndrift. Mafodi was a man in his thirties when Mzilikazi established his camp at Mosega. The Matebele killed a few baPhalane, but made no lasting impression otherwise.
Mafodi IV was succeeded by his son Moatshe Ramokoka V who was already married at that time. Moatshe moved to Phalane, the present land of the tribe. The regiments Matladi and maditshe took part in the Sekkukhuni war in 1879.
Genealogy of baPhalane chiefs: