Khama III�s home at Old Palapye in 1893 :: Mmegi Online

In the past we used to go up and down to Old Palapye very often. Each visit was a huge pleasure and a challenge trying to figure out what was what. All we knew about Khama’s lelapa was that it must have been close to the huge kgotla. A local resident told us that a slightly raised area was all that was left of it.

We had no reason to doubt his word because the lelapa was almost certainly fired when Khama shifted his capital to Serowe in 1902. If it had somehow been overlooked, the passing of a 100 years or so would have ensured that little of any significance would have been left to find.

Khama was unusual amongst Tswana Dikgosi in always preferring to live in traditional housing both at Old Palapye and in Serowe. Others, as we know, made the change very early from round to rectangular housing, from the traditional to the modern.

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Khama III�s home at Old Palapye in 1893

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