The Roof

This photo of the UCCSA church in Serowe which was taken in the course of its construction in, perhaps 1911/12, shows how the builders had decided they should construct a roof which would bridge that yawning gap between the two side walls. Constructing a roof whose span was longer than a standard-sized rondavel had always been a problem. In the north, the weight of the roof was taken by a central pole and by a circular brace of vertical timbers with the wall having no structural function.

In contrast, with the Bakgatla, not least, the weight of the roof was taken not by a central pole but by the exterior walls. The problem was that, usually, the rondavel could only be increased in size by flattening the thatched roof – something that is regularly to be seen today – with the result that rain was released only slowly and the thatch rotted. In Mochudi, there can still be seen at least two surviving super-sized rondavels, which demonstrate that somehow the Bakgatla had learnt the art of constructing a more sophisticated roof.