18 Nov 2014

Motsenekatse Monument and Cultural Site in Molapowabojang has rich history that attracts tourists and scholars from Botswana and abroad.

Narrating the history of the site in an interview recently, the village’s senior chief’s representative, Kgosi Kedirile Letshabo said Motsenekatse was a Setswana rendition of Mzilikazi.

In fact, the evidence of historians and archeologists had proved that Mzilikazi sought refuge at the hills during the Mfecane wars or the crushing period; hence the name Motsenekatse Hills.

Kgosi Letshabo said the Matebele clan led by Mzilikazi during the period stayed on the hills to protect themselves from enemies; they could see enemies from afar and deploy the right strategies to deal with them. 

He said one of the strategies that worked well for Mzilikazi’s in-group was to roll down stones on enemies as they approached them.  Additional research shows that Mzilikazi was born in a place known as Mkuze in South Africa in 1790 and died on September 9, 1868 in the Matebeleland aged 78. 

He was buried in a cave at Matopo Hills in Zimbabwe on November 4, 1868, and his name means ‘the great road’. Many consider him to have been the greatest Southern African military leader after the Zulu king Shaka. David Livingstone, in his autobiography, referred to Mzilikazi as the second most impressive leader he ever encountered on the African continent. 

He took his tribe, on an 800 kilometre journey from the Zulu Kingdom to what is now called Zimbabwe.

Along the way, he showed considerable statesmanship as he was able to weld his own people and the many tribes he conquered into a large and ethnically Azilikazi’s attacks in the Nzunza kraal at Esikhunjini, where the Nzunza King Magodongo and others were kidnapped and subsequently killed at Mkobola River.

For the next ten years, Mzilikazi dominated the Transvaal during a period known locally as the Mfecane or the time of crushing which was characterised by devastation and murder on a grand scale.

He removed all opposition and remodeled the territory to suit the new Ndebele order using a method of scorched earth to keep distance to all surrounding kingdoms. 

Attacks led him to present-day Botswana where he sought refuge at the hills in Molapowabojang popularly known today as Motsenekatse Hills and then later northwards towards what is now Zambia. 

He was unable to settle there because of the prevalence of tsetse fly-borne diseases of cattle. Mzilikazi therefore travelled southeastwards to what became known as Matabeleland, situated in the southwest of present-day Zimbabwe and settled there in 1840.

A custodian of Motsenekatse Monuments and Cultural Site, Ms Omphemetse Olefhile said the site comprised three hills which are adjacent to each other being Motsenekatse, Mmadithakwana and Motsenekatsana.

She said the community trust committee was raising funds to fence the area and build camp sites, emphasising that they were still benchmarking with other cultural sites such as Mogonye; they were also planning to go to Lesotho to enhance skills in running the trust and the site.

She said King Mzilikazi came to Molapowabojang in 1824 after a quarrel with Shaka Zulu whereupon arrival the village’s cultural site provided him with refuge during the Mfecane wars.

She added that before his stay at the site there was an indication that the other Bantu speaking people from the Katanga region in Cameroon were staying in the area.

During Mzilikazi’s stay in Molapowabojang, Kgosi Makaba II was ruling the Bangwaketse tribe, she said, emphasizing that trails at Mmadithakwana indicated that a king was residing atop the hill.

At Mmadithakwana, Motsenekatse and Motsenekatsana hills there are scattered pottery (dinkgwana), stone sharping instruments (tootso), grinding stones (tshilo le tshilwana), vitrified cow dung, tombs and wall stones all which depict a rich history of people who lived there.

Ms Olefhile said the packing of wall stones in the Southern region was different from the Northern part of Botswana citing that Motsenekatse Hills’ wall packing is different from the ones in the North East at Domboshaba in Masunga.

She said in some areas it showed that people were burying using pots which can be distinguished by the size of the forehead of the skull whether the person was a man or woman.

When walking in some parts of the site the environmental sound depicted that something of historical significance can be found under the ground, she explained while walking on top of a place believed to be where people were making fire centuries ago.

There are trails of the Stone Age life on the hills which is an ancient period during which stone was widely used to make implements with a sharp edge, a point, or a percussion surface. 

Stone Age artifacts are still visible in the area. The Stone Age is the first of the three-age systems of archaeology, which divides human technological prehistory into three periods: The Stone Age, The Bronze Age and then The Iron Age.

There are also trails that the occupants were smelting and molding household utensils or rather equipment. ENDS