The Modjadji or Rain Queen is the hereditary queen of Balobedu, a people of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The succession to the position of Rain Queen is matrilineal, meaning that the Queen's eldest daughter is the heir, and that males are not entitled to inherit the throne at all. The Rain Queen is believed to have special powers, including the ability to control the clouds and rainfall.

There are several different stories relating to the creation and history of the Rain Queens of Balobedu. One story states that an old chief in 16th century Monomotapa (South eastern Zimbabwe), was told by his ancestors that by impregnating his daughter, Dzugundini, she would gain rain-making skills. Another story involves a scandal in the same chief's house, where the chief's son impregnated Dzugundini. Dzugundini was held responsible and was forced to flee the village. Dzugundini ended up in Molototsi Valley, which is in the present day Balobedu Kingdom. The village she established with her loyal followers was ruled by a Mugudo, a male leader, but the peace and harmony of the village was disrupted by rivalries between different families, and therefore to pacify the land, the Mugudo impregnated his own daughter to restore the tribe's matrilineal tradition. She gave birth to the first Rain Queen known as Modjadji which means; "ruler of the day".

According to custom, the Rain Queen must shun public functions, and can only communicate with her people through her male councillors. Every November she presides over the annual Rainmaking ceremony at her royal compound in Khetlhakone Village.

She is not supposed to marry but has many "wives", as they are referred to in the Balobedu language (These are not spouses in the usual sense of the word; as a queen regnant she has the equivalent of royal court servants, or ladies-in-waiting), sent from many villages all over the Balobedu Kingdom. These wives were selected by The Queen's Royal Council and in general are from the households of the subject chiefs. This ritual of "bride giving" is strictly a form of diplomacy to ensure loyalty to the Queen.

The Rain Queen's mystical rain making powers are believed to be reflected in the lush garden which surrounds her royal compound. Surrounded by parched land, her garden contains the world's largest cycad trees which are in abundance under a spectacular rain belt. One species of cycad, the Modjadji cycad, is named after the Rain Queen.

The Rain Queen is a prominent figure in South Africa, many communities respecting her position and, historically, attempting to avoid conflict in deference thereto. Even Shaka Zulu of Zululand sent his top emissaries to ask her for her blessings. The fifth Rain Queen, Mokope Modjadji maintained cordial relations with Nelson Mandela.

The Rain Queen has become a figure of interest, she and the royal institution becoming a significant tourist attraction contributing to the South African economy. The Rain Queen was offered an annual government civil list. The stipend was also expected to help defray the costs of preserving the cycad trees found in the Rain Queen's gardens.

However there are worries that the 400-year old Rain Queen dynasty may be coming to an end since no new Rain Queen has been enthroned since the previous one, Makobo died (In 2005). A male branch of the extended royal clan has also petitioned the South African President to restore the male line of the Balobedu royal house which reigned before 1800. This entreaty is considered unlikely to be granted, inasmuch as the Rain Queen heritage is recognised as a national cultural legacy and interest in it has stimulated significant tourist trade.

Previous Rain Queens
Rain Queen I Maselekwane Modjadji (1800-1854)
Rain Queen II Masalanabo Modjadji (1854-1894)
Rain Queen III Khetoane Modjadji (1895-1959)
Rain Queen IV Makoma Modjadji (1959-1980)
Rain Queen V Mokope Modjadji (1981-2001)
Rain Queen VI Makobo Modjadji (2003-2005)

Currently there is no ruling Rain Queen as the previous Rain Queen died on 12 June 2005.

This information was accessed on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rain_Queen on 4 July 2014,10:35.

The Modjadji or Rain Queen is the hereditary queen of Balobedu, a people of the Limpopo Province of South Africa. The succession to the p...

By Kesewa John

Having read about the phenomenon of the 'Born Frees' from abroad, and giggled at Cape Town-based blogger Tawanda's take on the notion, I was very pleased to come face-to-face with some Born Frees when in South Africa. Even more luck befell me when I had the opportunity to read 'Memoirs of a Born Free' by Malaika wa Azania. I wangled a copy from the Steve Biko Centre's Mwelela Cele, the archivist extraordinaire assisting my research on the Black Consciousness Movemement in King.

Memoirs is the story of a young South African activist's journey to a political home via 'a letter to the ANC'. To a foreigner not especially acquainted with South African political history (hence the research), the author offers an insider's take on current political formations in South Africa, and an alternative view of 'the end' of apartheid.

Given her location in history as the daughter of an apartheid-era ANC activist, who grew up in the townships around Soweto 'after apartheid' that grew disillusioned after her grandmother, but before her mother, her story is must-read for anyone interested in the before and after of democratic South Africa.

However Wa Azania is also a writer; a newspaper columnist and a comms person (you know, as well as a second year uni student). As such, her book is well-written and features a fully human, youthful black feminist voice. Memoirs is both a story about a family, and a story about a changing political landscape and how people reorient themselves on shifting sands. Wa Azania's tale re-centres the people with far less bitterness than one might expect.

Slightly reminiscent of Wild Swans by Jung Chang in the way it deals with three generations of non-conformist women living through a particular historical phenomenon, without giving too much away, Wa Azania is also an activist, and it is on this plane that I connected with her story.

For those of us who are children of a movement, ie whose parents believed in ideals that they never set aside for material success, political expediency or despite shifts in political paradigms, today's world is a harsh place. We're talented but not built for corporations and conformity, and we're too idealistic for petty party politics. But we're not apathetic.

We are those John Blake calls the Children – and grand-children – of the movement. We may use facebook daily on our smartphones, but we also read Biko and Fanon, while listening to music that enlightens and inspires. We hear and believe in young people, but we don't have a set place in contemporary party politics. And we're not sure we really want one. Perhaps because our parents got too close, got burned and we have no desire to jump into a shark pool. Or perhaps because we are rebels.

I conversed once with a Ghanaian journalist who was present at the 1960 Congolese independence ceremony. He remembers Lumumba, and underlined that Lumumba was in the position of forming a government in a country that had four or five people with a university education and a lot of nationalists; people determined to create a fair 'system' which would serve the people of the Congo. Today's neo-colonial governments we concluded, were filled with university-educated people, but no nationalists. As a Nigerian friend put it, 'everybody wants a slice of the national pie.' But nobody wants to cook it.

The young people in the auditorium at the Steve Biko Centre articulated grievances about some of the untruths that they felt subjected to. Narratives that did not reflect their lived experiences. Ideologies that they simply did not buy into. Malaika Wa Azania asked whether those of us interested in social change, transformative egalitarian change, were married to the vehicle we hoped would bring that change, or the change itself. Truth-telling, the young people agreed, was imperative.

The following statements, made by the young people conversing that evening, made me pause for thought:

1) There is no rainbow nation in South Africa, let us stop fooling ourselves.

2) Whichever way the light hits a rainbow, the colours are always fixed in the same place. Blue never becomes red or orange or yellow. Green never bleeds into purple. The hierarchy between the colours never changes nor do they swap places, even momentarily.

3) I don't believe there are born frees because even if you grow up black with all the privilege of Sandton, at some point surely you must ask yourself 'If I am truly free, why do my people continue to be on the periphery of economic activity? Why do my people continue to be at the periphery of knowledge generation?'


Kesewa John teaches English at the University of the French West Indies and is interested in black intellectual history, particularly historical articulations of blackness by black thinkers.

By Kesewa John Having read about the phenomenon of the 'Born Frees' from abroad, and giggled at Cape Town-based blogger Tawanda...

Photo Retrieved from the South African History Archives website.

Goniwe usually went to Port Elizabeth every Wednesday to report to the United Democratic Front (UDF) leadership. As UDF organiser, Goniwe travelled a lot, mostly in his Honda Ballade, registration number CAT 8479, which had been given to him by the UDF for his work. On 24 June he called Derrick Swarts in Port Elizabeth (PE) to say he would come down a day later because he had to address a rally in Cradock on the Wednesday 26 June. The Security Police knew about his changed travel arrangements, they transcribed the call. It was Security Police practice to inform PE Branch if Goniwe was going to PE. Snyman or Hermanus du Plessis would be informed. Cradock Security Police chief Eric Winter and two other white Security Policemen left the office on the morning of the 27th, and did not say where they were going. They returned the following day, seeming anxious and secretive.

On 27 June 1985, Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli, left for Port Elizabeth at about 10am. Sicelo was an old childhood friend of Matthew’s. He was a school principal in Oudtshoorn, and was in Cradock for the holidays. He decided to go with Matthew “to catch up on old times”. The car was spotted at Cookhouse by police there, at around lunchtime. In the afternoon, Matthew attended meetings with his comrades.

His last meeting, at the house of UDF activist Michael Coetsee, finished at around 21h00 and the four left at about 21h10, after Matthew refused the invitation from his friend Derrick Swarts, to stay over and not travel at night. He told Derrick he didn’t spend enough time with his family and wanted to get home. He would only stop for the police.

It was the last time they were seen alive. The four were abducted from a car in which they were driving, and assassinated. Mystery surrounded the finding of the burnt-out car, with two different sets of number plates, and then, in two different areas, burnt bodies were found (Sparrow and Sicelo). The police could not explain how, if the activists had been under constant and intensified surveillance, and travelling together, they could have disappeared and been murdered. Days later, the bodies of Matthew and Fort were found, also burnt, stabbed and mutilated.

Two inquests failed to get to the truth, the second inquest opened after a newspaper, New Nation, on 8 May 1992, published a copy of a top-secret “signal message'” sent to the State Security Council on 7 June 1985 from the Eastern Province Joint Management Centre. The message detailed a telephone conversation between Brigadier CP “Joffel” van der Westhuizen and a General Van Rensburg, a senior member of the SSC secretariat. Three names, Matthew Goniwe, Mbulelo Goniwe and Fort Calata were targeted to be “permanently removed from society, as a matter of urgency.”

The second inquest in 1992 found the Security Forces responsible for their deaths, but could not make the crucial link between the actual killers who applied to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission for Amnesty, and the people who ordered the murders.

General Nic Janse van Rensburg, second in command of the Eastern Cape security branch at the time, told the TRC’s amnesty committee in 1998 that he had planned the operation, and believed it was the right thing to do. Janse Van Rensburg said he was surprised to hear other government officials in Pretoria, including the State Security Council, were considering reappointing Goniwe. Janse van Rensburg said he would have voted to eliminate Goniwe. Nic Janse Van Rensburg also quoted statements made by political leaders at the time, including president PW Botha and defence minister Magnus Malan, to the effect that "we must fight fire with fire" and "we are facing a total onslaught". Janse Van Rensburg said he, Du Plessis and Van Zyl had identified Goniwe and other UDF leaders as being behind the unrest in the region.

Van Rensburg admitted to trying to make the murders look like the work of vigilante groups or rival political groups such as the Azanian People's Organisation. He insisted the order to kill the activists came from his superior, Harold Snyman, who in turn received instructions from higher up. Snyman did not attend the hearings as he was receiving treatment for cancer (which later killed him).

Advocate George Bizos, for the families, said it appeared from documents produced at the hearing that one arm of the state regarded Goniwe's reappointment as a way to curtail unrest in the Cradock area, while the other was planning to kill him.

Nelson Mandela, when he visited their gravesite of Matthew Goniwe, Fort Calata, Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli at the 10th anniversary of their death, said: “The death of these gallant freedom fighters marked a turning point in the history of our struggle. No longer could the regime govern in the old way. They were the true heroes of the struggle.”


This Information was accessed on The Cradock Four Website. For the full story please visit http://www.thecradockfour.co.za/Matthew_Goniwe.html

Photo Retrieved from the South African History Archives website. Goniwe usually went to Port Elizabeth every Wednesday to report to the Uni...

Names: Mashinini, Teboho "Tsietsi" Macdonald

Born: 27 January 1957, Central Western Jabavu, Soweto, South Africa

Died: 1990, Guinea

In summary: Student leader,in the Soweto student uprising of 16 June 1976

Tsietsi Mashinini was born on 27 January 1957 in Central Western Jabavu, Soweto. Mashinini was the second son of Ramothibi, a lay preacher in the Methodist Church, and Nomkhitha Mashinini, and was one of 13 children (11 boys and twin girls). He was active in his local Methodist parish and chairperson of the Methodist Wesley Youth Guild at the age of 16.

His education started at the Amajeli crèche in 1963. He went on to Seoding Lower Primary, after which he proceeded to Itshepeng Higher Primary. In 1971 he became a student at Morris Isaacson High. He was a passionate reader.  This was spotted by his History and English teacher, Abram Onkgopotse Tiro, who taught at Morris Isaacson after was expelled from the University of the North (Turfloop) for his political activities. Tiro had great influence in shaping Mashinini's political thinking and subsequent adherence to the ideology and philosophy of Black Consciousness. He mentored him and supplied him with reading material. Through Tiro, Mashinini started reading about the history of Africa’s struggles, American slavery, the Human Rights Movements in the USA and about the evil of apartheid. Mashinini was the chairperson of the debating team at his school, and his excellent academic performance became the basis for his influence among his peers.

Mashinini’s energy, creativity and sportsmanship became evident through his recreational activity, which included theatre, baseball, ballroom dancing, martial arts, swimming and tennis. Former teacher Mrs Benadette Mosala said of him: “He had real potential in the theatre and asked for assistance for his productions. He had high aims for himself and would refuse to play second fiddle. He was a very attractive and handsome young boy. I know the girls loved him and he was very confident.”

As a teenager of his time, he preferred African-American fashions, especially drawn to hippie culture.

He sported an Afro and wore bell-bottomed trousers and high-heeled shoes, and had a vibrant social life.
Mashinini joined the South African Students Movement, a student body established to assist students with the transition from Matric to university.

On 13th June 1976, about 500 Soweto students met at the Orlando Donaldson Community Hall to discuss ways and means of confronting and challenging the Department of Bantu Education.
 The students decided to stage a peaceful protest march on 16 June against the introduction of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction.

An Action Committee was set up to prepare for the campaign. Mashinini was elected chairperson of the Action Committee, which was later renamed the Soweto Students Representative Council (SSRC), with Mashinini as its first president (until he was succeeded by Khotso Seatlholo from Naledi High School). Mashinini and Murphy Morobe were the two representatives from Morris Issacson High School serving in the Soweto Student Representative Council.

During assembly on the morning of 16 June at Morris Isaacson High School, Mashinini climbed onto the podium and led students into song, and out of the school grounds towards their assembly point for the planned student demonstration.

After June 16,the intense scrutiny compelled Mashinini to flee the country. He left the country for Botswana in August 1976, living there for few months before he proceeded to the West Coast of Africa. Heads of states, notably Sekou Toure of Ivory Coast, and African parliamentarians received him. He resided in countries like Nigeria where he was briefly hosted in the presidential guest house in Lagos. While in exile Mashinini was interviewed by many media organisations and he addressed students at universities, revealing the realities of the South African political situation.

Mashinini finally settled in Liberia, where he married Welma Campbell, the daughter of a parliamentarian, in 1978. The marriage was blessed with two daughters, Nomkhitha (named after his mother) and Thembi. However the marriage ended after a few years.

Mashinini later visited the United Kingdom and the United States, where he addressed the United Nations on the brutalities of the apartheid regime. By many accounts, Mashinini did not join any of the established liberation movements in exile.

One of Mashinini's admirers was his compatriot, Miriam Makeba, who was in exile in Guinea. She had offered Mashinini a place to stay in her home in Conakry shortly before his death. Mashinini died under mysterious circumstances in 1990. He was hospitalised for multiple injuries, aparently the result of an attack.  He died a few days later. Mashinini's body was terribly disfigured: his left eye had fallen out into his coffin; his left ear was bleeding and he had deep bruises on his face, including a large scar on his forehead.

At his funeral service, held at the Amphitheatre Stadium in Jabulani, Soweto, former Azanian People’s Organisation  President Professor Itumeleng Mosala said: “The students of 1976 took the struggle from the classroom to the streets; the students of today take the struggle from the streets into the classroom.” Leaders of the June 16 uprising spoke in praise of Mashinini, saying he had made an indelible mark in shaping the history of the country.

The epitaph on his tombstone reads: “At the height of struggle, he gave impetus to the liberation struggle.” His tombstone at Avalon cemetery in Soweto was twice vandalised, and the marble stone was removed.

On 27 April 2011, the State President, Jacob G Zuma honoured Tsietsi Mashinini, posthumously, with the Order of Luthuli in Gold for his inspirational leadership to young people, for the sacrifices he made while leading students against Afrikaans as a medium of instruction, and for his role in the struggle against apartheid.

Accessed on http://www.sahistory.org.za/people/teboho-tsietsi-macdonald-mashinini on 13 June 2014.

Names : Mashinini, Teboho "Tsietsi" Macdonald Born : 27 January 1957, Central Western Jabavu, Soweto, South Africa Died : 19...

In 1906, following the Anglo-Boer War, the Colony of Natal was plunged into rebellion when several tribes refused to pay a Poll Tax that was introduced by the Colonial Government, headed by Prime Minister The Hon Charles Smythe, to help reimburse the somewhat depleted Treasury.

There were, of course, several other factors that contributed towards the uprising.

One of the amakhosi (chiefs) who had thrown his weight behind the resistance to the payment of the Poll Tax was Bhambatha Zondi. Bhambatha, son of Mancinza Zondi, was born in the Mpanza Valley between Greytown and Keate's Drift, KwaZulu-Natal, in about 1865. A somewhat controversial character, he had been convicted on several occasions for debt, cattle theft and, early in 1906, for participating in a faction fight .

When the time came to pay the tax on 22 February 1906, Bhambatha was faced with a dilemma; he was apparently prepared to pay, but one of his indunas (Nhlonhlo) informed him that the majority of the tribe refused to do so, and would resort to armed resistance if necessary. The magistrate in Greytown, Mr Cross, received a report informing him that he would be killed if he went to Mpanza, so he instructed Bhambatha to travel to Greytown.

On 22 February, the tribal elders arrived in Greytown while Bhambatha remained in a wattle plantation overlooking the town, apparently trying to persuade Nhlonhlo to change his mind, but, according to the elders, he was suffering from a stomach ailment (which could have been a case of 'butterfly nerves', which we have all experienced in difficult circumstances).

The result was that Bhambatha was deposed as inkosi of the amaZondi, and he fled to the Usuthu umuzi (homestead) of King Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo. According to Bhambatha's wife, Siyekiwe, King Dinuzulu ordered Bhambatha to return to Natal and carry out an act of rebellion, a claim that was subsequently vehemently denied by the King at his trial.

Bhambatha then readied his tribesmen for combat. His inyanga (war doctor), Malaza, prepared some muthi (medicine) at an umuzi on the late Mr George Buntting's farm, Fugitive's Drift. According to tradition, body parts of a child were used in the recipe, resulting in immunity to the white men's bullets (which would turn into water). The site of this umuzi is quite close to Mzinyathi Cottage on Mr David Rattray's farm, Fugitive's Drift.)

On the first occasion that the muthi was put to the test, the action at Mpanza on 4 April 1906, none of the Rebels was killed or wounded, lending credence to Malaza's claim. Four members of the Colonial forces were killed  and three were wounded . Those killed were buried on the farm, Burrups between Mpanza and Greytown. This action resulted in Bhamhatha and the amaZondi hecoming totally involved in the uprising and his name being given to the Rebellion.

The back of the 'Bambata Rebellion' was broken on 10 June 1906 in the Battle of Mome Gorge, in the heart of the Nkandla area of Zululand. According to official sources, Bhamhatha was killed while walking up the Mome stream Shortly before the shelling of the Dobo Forest by the Natal Field Artillery, a 'native levy' on the left bank of the Mome noticed a solitary unarmed rebel making his way upstream, walking in the water. On the right hank, just behind the rebel, was another 'levy'. The rebel left the water to move along the right bank having observed the former 'levy', but not the latter. The latter, then on the same bank as the rebel, thrust his spear into the rebel with such force that the blade was bent and could not be removed. The rebel collapsed and the 'levy' was joined by the other, who raised his spear to finish off the victim. Then the rebel suddenly grabbed the spear with both hands and tried to wrest it from his grasp. Both 'levies' were attempting to overpower the rehel when a member of the Nongqayi (the Natal Native Police) arrived and shot him in the head.

It was only on 13 June - three days after the battle - that a party under Sgt Calverley was sent back into the gorge to obtain proof of Bhambatha's death. This same rebel's hody was found, already in an initial stage of decomposition, and identified as that of Bhambatha. The head was removed, placed in a saddlehag and taken to Nkandla, where it was identified. Official reports emphasise the respect shown for the head, and only a selected few were permitted to view it.
Identification in the gorge was based upon a description of Bhamhatha's features beforehand - a gap between the two middle upper teeth; a slight beard rather under than in front of the chin; a scar immediately below one eye and another on the cheek opposite; a high instep. According to Capt J Stuart, these features were confirmed by the two Zulu informants at Nkandla, and also by two of Inkosi Sigananda Shezi's tribesmen, as well a prisoner who had linked up with Bhambatha. All confirmed that it was Bhambatha's head .

This Article was written by Ken Gillings and was accessed on The South African Military History Society website on http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol124kg.html on 6 June 2014.

In 1906, following the Anglo-Boer War, the Colony of Natal was plunged into rebellion when several tribes refused to pay a Poll Tax th...