Bakgatla

The Bakgatla include several Tswana communities with distinct histories and chiefs. Among them, the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela lived in the country between the Pilanesberg and Waterberg. Their elders recall a movement into the Pilanesberg area around 1700, followed by repeated changes of settlement. Near the end of the eighteenth century, Kgosi Pheto settled his people at Sefikile hill. In the early 1820s Pilane moved them again. The arrival of Mzilikazi's Ndebele brought new danger: the Bakgatla paid tribute in skins, grain and ivory to preserve peace for a time. These changes formed part of the upheavals that reshaped communities across the highveld.