Dithakong

Dithakong was an important town of the Batlhaping, a Tswana people of the southern African interior. Its name, meaning a place of ruins, also refers to stone-walled remains on the nearby hills. When an expedition from the Cape arrived in 1801, the town was the seat of the chief Molehebangwe. Its inhabitants kept cattle and grain in a country where water was precious.

In June 1823, during a period of upheaval in the interior, groups including the Bafokeng, Maphuting and Bahlakoana approached Dithakong. The missionary Robert Moffat sought help from the Griqua, whose mounted men carried firearms. Fighting around the town ended in the defeat of the approaching forces; Dithakong was burned, and many people were killed or taken captive. The struggle became one of the most remembered encounters in the region's early nineteenth-century wars.