“Motsenekatse hills, named after Matebele leader Mzilikazi bears a rich history that has attracted attention from historians, scholars and tourists, among others.
Even though the monument is named after the biggest of the three hills, which is situated on the Western side just off the Kgomokasitwa gravel road, the smaller Mmadithakwana is the one believed to have been the main abode for Mzilikazi while his troops sandwiched him and elevated atop Motsenekatse and Motsenekatsana on either side, with the intention to spot enemies from afar.” Posted on Facebook by Norinasi, 9 March 2022.
Among the myths peddled in Botswana by self-appointed social media heritage experts, one seemingly incapable of dying, is that Motsenekatse hill (near Molapowabojang) is named after the legendary AmaNdebele inkosi Mzilikazi Khumalo, claiming too that he occupied the site. It popped up once again yesterday (Sunday, 10 August 2025) atop the very hill when the assembled hikers (paying for the privilege!) were told they were standing where the mighty monarch once stood.
This tall tale, as spun by Norinasi and other heritage boondogglers, can be debunked on a number of counts. And to everyone’s benefit, the imaginary Mzilikazi can readily be replaced with much more interesting things to say about this site than the fantasies being marketed.
As a historian, I like to have evidence to support any version of the past, and to date, I have yet to hear anyone cite an authority on the matter other than echoing the same hearsay.
For a long time, good research on Motsenekatse has been available. Fifty-four years ago, a Peace Corps teacher and later deputy headmaster of Seepapitso Secondary School, Ron Pahl, published “Notes on an Iron Age settlement on Motsenekatse Hill” in the local journal Botswana Notes and Records, vol. 3 (you can read it for free on Sabinet online journals). Pahl had mapped the site and interviewed Kgosi Bathoen of the Ngwaketse, Kgosi Mosielele of the Hurutshe, and Makirika Mophatsane, an elder of the booRuele. Paul noted that “The name of the Hill, Motsenekatse, has often been confused with Moselekatse, the Setswana name of...Mzilikazi.” Paul’s informants identified several similar, stonewall sites occupied by their forebearers, but they did not know of anyone living at Motsenekatse. They and others do recall that the Ndebele attacked Kanye, but as Pahl learned, Mzilikazi was not involved. At the time, his capital (Norinasi’s meaningless “main abode”) was at eGabeni, located some 90 km northeast of Motsenekatse and 65 km north of Zeerust in the neighbourhood of present Silkaatskop (named after guess who?)
The distinction Pahl heard between the two names had been clear for 100 years before he published his article. In the Bloemhof Commission, held in 1871 to receive testimony from Batswana, Boers, and others regarding the boundaries among competing groups in the northern Cape and what was the western Transvaal and southern Botswana, testimony was recorded there by Gaseitsiwe Tshosa, Ngwaketse Kgosi (1857-1889), and two other “Bangoaketses” listed as Mathibe and Kilibone. Only two copies of this rare and invaluable Commission report are to be found in southern Africa: one in the Cape Library and another, or at least until it went missing sometime before 2017, in the Botswana National Archives (it’s still listed in the index). Fortunately, my son photocopied some of the Commission and gifted it to me. And I find on p. 187 Kilibone going on record to state “Moselekatse is the name of the chief and Mosinekatse the name of a hill.” Moselekatse (Tswana for Mzilikazi) was in common use at the time. Kgatla kgosi Pilane (died 1849) named the first son in his 10th house, the very Moselekatse, in honour of the Ndebele inkosi, and in all traditions collected by Isaac Schapera, only the Tswana version, Moselekatse, will be found.
The question is, therefore, what is the origin and meaning of Motsenekatse (or as Gaseitsiwe termed it p. 189, Mosenekats Kop)? Linguists have not yet dived into this matter, but some clues are there. If Mo is used as a locative (at the place of) rather than as a person, and when joined in truncated form with ‘letsene’ (slender thorn) and ‘lekatse’ (stud thorn), we have a term that probably refers to the thick bush surrounding the hill. Tswana place names are commonly descriptive of the landscape.
And by dumping the old Mzilikazi concoction, guides to Motsenekatse can have much more to offer visitors in connecting the site to Botswana’s deep, rich history. In my view, history should help the living understand themselves as linked to the past. Motsenekatse fits this bill aplenty. Its many stone walls are arranged in patterns that, as Ron Pahl realised, represent malwapa and kraals arranged together to form a community tied to agriculture and herding. We don’t know who built these walls, but it certainly was not the Amandebele, who used shrubs and thickets arranged in a large circular enclosure, inside of which their thatched beehive huts were lined around the edge. What Pahl guessed, and recent research bears him out, is that Motsenekatse was like many others, stonewall settlements that populated the bushveld by the hundreds from southern Botswana all the way to Pretoria. Examples may be found in Kika and atop the hill next to the water tower outside Ramotswa (the site is largely destroyed). The Ngwaketse can affirm that they built several stonewall settlements (Pitsa, Makolontwane, Sekalaba, Setlhabatsane, etc), yet they do not know the builders of Motsenekatse. Most likely, the inhabitants were the forerunners of the Ngwaketse, Kwena, and Ngwato, who entered Botswana at a later stage and drove out the earlier inhabitants. One Kwena tradition recalls that when the Kwena arrived in the Molepolole area, they encountered people living in stone wall settlements. These people, with names Kgatlheng, Nakedi, et al, were driven away to become part of a group of refugees known as the Bakgalagadi.
*Prof Fred Morton is a retired historian who formerly lectured at the University of Botswana (1976-1987, 2009-2020). His recent book, Cattle People: The Tswana, published by the Botswana Society (TBS) is available at Exclusive Books, the National Museum Mochudi rondavel, and the TBS office on UB campus. His many articles on Tswana history can be viewed on https://ub-bw.academia.edu/FredMorton.
