�THUTHUNYANE��THE GUNS OF DIMAWE (I)

“Marksman brother of Kgosidintsi [Sechele], he and Paul [Kruger] shot at each other all day; at midday Paul became tired, the Marksman alone remained shooting. Crocodile, shoot off the Boer child’s hat; show life to those who dance to the monkey totem [Bakgatla bagaMmanaana], let them live through you, the wanderers, though they bring trouble to you and pass by, while the Dimo remains eating only you.”

The above opening stanzas of a praise poem about Sechele’s stand against the Boers at Dimawe captures something of the essence of the battle. On 30 August 1852 Paul Kruger, as the officer coordinating the Boers frontline attack and Kgosi Sechele, who was at the centre of the fighting, quite literally shot at each other all day, deploying artillery as well as rifle and musket fire.