Microsoft Word - PhD Thesis Final.pdf - University of Limpopo ...

The original names of these communities – which are reverted to in some
cases – are mostly expressions of identities of those communities. Most of
the names bear the possessive suffix, Ga-, which indicate the ownership of
that place by the one whose name succeeds the suffix. For instance, the
name, Ga-Ngwepe, indicates that the place belongs to the people of
Ngwepe. In this case, Ngwepe was a headman of the community in that
area and most families were the Ngwepes. Other examples of such names
with the significance of belonging and ownership in the Makgabeng area are
Ga-Hlako, Ga-Lekgwara, Ga-Monyebodi, to name just a few.
The nucleus of the communal entities in the Makgabeng area has always
been a family. Even before the disruption of the communal arrangement of
the Black societies by European intrusion and invasion, a family unit was
the core of society. Before the arrival of the Europeans and their imposition
of their political and administrative policies, the Black families, which were
mostly extended, settled in clans. In the Makgabeng area for instance, the
Ngwepe families would live more or less next to one another and form their
own clan. This was the same with the other clans of Setumu, Mojela,
Seanego, Phukubje, Ramoroka Mokobane and Mpebe.
After the arrival of the White colonialists and their imposed policies of
demarcating and fencing of farms which they sold, the original set up of
communal settlement was disrupted. People as far as Moletji, Botlokwa, Ga-
Mamabolo, Ga-Dikgale, and other far away areas, flocked to Makgabeng to
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