The Mabelane is a
Northern Sotho,
Northern XiTsonga Sepedi speaking,
tribe
The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...
that had settled in an area north-east of the town of
Lydenburg (between the towns of
Burgersfort
Burgersfort is located in the valley of the Spekboom River at the edge of the Bushveld Complex in the Fetakgomo Tubatse Local Municipality, near the border of the two provinces Limpopo and Mpumalanga. The town was named after a hexagonal fort bu ...
on the north and
Ohrigstad on the east) in
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
.
The origin of the tribe is
Cabo Mabelane, a coastal town in Southern
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
map of Cabo Mabelane in Inhambane Province
/ref> where the founder of the tribe, Mokgadi, came from. Mokgadi's three sons, Mareologa (eldest) and Chegoane and Letšamolodi are thought to have been the first to use the town of their father's origin as an official written surname.
The tribe was forcibly moved in the early 1960s as part of South African government's apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
policy of settling blacks into what became known as homelands. In recent times (2005 to date) the tribe has lodged a successful land claim and have registered a Communal Property Association called Batau Baga Mabelane to administer their land. A process of compiling an official demographic of the tribe has begun. They elders use to tell stories while the children would dance around the fire
References
{{Reflist
There were originally three brothers, Mareologa, Chegoane, and Letšamolodi.
Sotho-Tswana peoples in South Africa