By: Kenneth Mokgatlhe
The forgotten Kaditshwene or Gaditshwene is the birthplace of Bahurutshe, one of the many Batswana tribes found in the Lehurutshe/Marico region around the present-day Zeerust. It is a special place because it was one of the greatest cities between the 1400s and 1800s, a Southern African iron age settlement.
Bahurutshe had dual cities, Tswenyane and Kaditshwene. Their cities were destroyed and dispossessed by land thieves, and they abandoned their ancestral land in the 1820s due to unending conflicts, which were meted out by those who were covetous of the beauty that they were seeing there. Bahurutshe is, to this day, peace-loving inhabitants who could not stand against aggression by settlers or sometimes by other African kingdoms/nations.
According to oral history, in 1820, Kaditshwene was big and better than Cape Town at that time. There were arguably more than 20 000 people, and this is evidenced by extensive settlement remains that include house foundations, stone walls, and ash middens, as well as evidence of the metalworking industry.
Both Kaditshwene and Tswenyane were then occupied by the invaders who are still “owning” the spiritual land of Bahurutshe people.
Although Kaditshwene city has been declared a heritage site, it is just a tombstone next to a gravel road of a present-day Enselsberg, which is 25 kilometres southeast of Zeerust, North West. No one has access to the actual heritage site because more than four white farmers deny Bahurutshe people access to their heritage.
To compound matters, one white farmer who has caged Tswenyane city demands R300 for Bahurutshe people to access their sacred place where they talk to their ancestors. It is a special place for Bahurutshe where they talk to their ancestors inside the water flowing from the top of the hill of Tswenyane. They cannot do so if they do not have money to access the “private property” of someone who illegally and immorally secured that important piece of land, obsessed with making money out of misfortunes of dispossessed people.
Like other dispossessed people, Bahurutshe people have been robbed of their land during colonialism, and they are still robbed under democracy as justice has not been served. The only way to serve justice is to restore the land back to its rightful owners.
The land, to us, is not only a commodity to be used or abused to create wealth. it is also a sacred and spiritual asset that we always use to communicate to our ancestors.
Unlike four white people who claim to own more than 6000 hectares of the land, Bahurutshe (African people) do not believe that there should be an individual claiming ownership of an inch of the land here in Africa because we are of a strong view that the land belongs to those who are alive, the dead (ancestors) and the future (next generation).
As we are alive, we use the land to feed our bodies and soul, the dead are buried under the same land, and they also live among us through their spirits, and we should preserve and take care of this land for the next generation. Therefore, it is laughable that only four people who are originally from outside Africa come and tell us that they are owning our land.
We are appealing for government intervention by means of convincing these people to pack their luggage and leave our land because we are people with no dignity, identity, or integrity when we have no access to our ancestral land. We want our land now, and we do not want to do so by means of war. War kills, and it should be avoided at all material times.
We are aware that significant pieces of our heritage have been stolen and piloted to European countries. Other pieces of such magnificent heritage are with these four families, while others are with notable South African universities. It is shocking that Bahurutshe people have got nothing to show while European descendants are owing to our heritage and making money out of our misery. They should be stopped now.
*Kenneth Mokgatlhe is a political commentator and journalist