Bakwena Ba Mogopa community of Northwest commemorate painful past of forced removals
By Funeka Bambalele
While the whole world celebrated love this past weekend, for Bakwena Ba Mogopa community near Ventersdorp, Northwest, it was a remembrance of a painful historic moment.
Bakwena Ba Mogopa were forcefully removed from their land in 1984 on February 14. This painful act by apartheid regime had to happen on a day that everyone is expected to spread love.
Just like many other groups, Bakwena were forcibly removed from their land because of the Natives Land Act of 1913 which restricted where Black people could own or occupy land, leading to mass displacement and forced removals to designated native reserves by the Apartheid government.
To commemorate the forceful removals, they hosted an event this past weekend which took place in Mogopa Village. Themed Honoring Our Past, the commemoration started with the community visiting the graves of the fallen community members which was followed by speeches done by community leaders and there was a memorial service to honor those who endured the struggles of forceful removals in 1984. In terms of entertainment, there was a storytelling session while traditional dance groups as well as renowned music group Sun Xa Experiment entertained the community.
Spokesperson of Bakwena Ba Mogopa and 4th generation grandchild, Kopano More explained that the commemoration of the day was important for the Bakwena, especially the younger generation.
“It is important for our children to know the story about what happened to our land. If they know about the land it will be easy for them to protect it. If you look at the history of nations that were forcefully removed, we were the last one to experience that. It happened in 1984, and we were the first community to take legal action. We were the first to get our land back officially by the new dispensation. Those key things are important to us also that our story is not only marked by forceful removals.”
He said: “There was a history before that and a very successful one for that matter. Our great grandmothers and grandfathers bought this land in the 1900s. We have since realised that the reason they bought this land is that they were not happy back in the Free State where they were forced to work as labourers. They ended up in the Free State because they were running away from the Boer and British wars to Lesotho, and they were making their way back. They had to find a home for their children. They build a very sustainable community, where they build a clinic, a sustainable system and two schools.”
“On Saturday, it was a reflection and celebration aimed at bringing together the community and supporters to acknowledge their journey while emphasizing the ongoing efforts to reclaim their heritage and ancestral lands whilst opening a new page of prosperity.”
Further he explains that during forceful removals many of Bakwena Ba Mogopa got scattered all over South Africa and they always encouraged them to come back to their land and be part of a bigger community.
Bakwena ba Mogopa, are one of the most important traditional communities in South Africa. The Bakwena assumedly crossed the Botletli (Zambezi) River from central Africa. This was before the eleventh century when the Bakwena was still part of the larger single Sotho group.
Later the Sotho group subdivided into several groups, namely the Bahurutshe, the Bakwena, the Bakgatla, Bakgalagadi, Bafokeng and the Barolong.