THE TRADITION OF RA'LOLO. 



By Rev. Johannes August Wintei 



Introduction. 



Ra'lolo (pronounced Rachlolo) is one of the greatest 

 Indunas of the present paramount chief Sekukuni II. He is a 

 man of about 50, I should say, iron gray, slender, with an intelli- 

 gent face, and of very quiet manners. He is the son of old 

 Selai. who used to be called, by his own wish, Satan, mothsuba- 

 batho (the burner of men). This Selai was the most intimate 

 friend of old Sekukuni I. When the latter, while still a young 

 prince, was banished from the capital by his father Sekwati, 

 because of his misconduct with one of his father's wives, the 

 young Selai went with him. They always hunted together. On 

 the very night of Sekwati's death both hurried in the dark to the 

 capital, and, before anyone knew of it, Sekukuni took possession 

 of the chieftainship against his rival Mampuru. In January, 

 1880, when I came to establish a Mission Station alongside the 

 capital, then recently burnt down by Sir Garnet Wolseley, I went 

 to a little kraal in the mountain to tell the chief there: " Do not 

 be afraid if you see a strange fire in the plain ; it is mine." I 

 found in the expression of face of this chief a very sad dignity, 

 not often seen in any man. I saw, squatting on a stump, a bald- 

 headed, oldish-looking chief — with just the face you see in pic- 

 tures of Mephisto — above the ears on both sides little bushes of 

 hair like small horns. I was told it was old Satan, the man who 

 urged on Sekukuni to kill the Christians, at the time of the 

 martyrdom of our oldest Bapedi Christians. I had with me one 

 of the best of all Native Christian men, old Johannes Maeli, of 

 Rotsabelo, of Maleo's tribe, one amongst ten thousand, 50 years 

 old, a man of no bigoted or hypocritical ways, but a sober, 

 practical Christian, who was always greeted by the Mapoch 

 warriors, " Sagobona mabule " (greeting, opener), because 

 when the others were afraid to fire the first shot at the Boers 

 before their home, he was the first to shoot. This man was 

 known by hearsay to old Satan, who loved all brave men. Both 

 started chatting. I shall never forget how Maeli told Satan 

 what Christianity meant. He said (looking down on the ruins 

 of the old capital): "Where is the capital? The capital is, 

 where all *difoka are brought together." 



This word interested old Satan, and wishing to hear more, 

 he actually accompanied us down the hill. Both his wives 

 were amongst the first I baptised, and strangely, both loved each 

 other without jealousy ! Once the younger complained that 



* " Difoka " is their war-flag, a stick covered with black ostrich feathers 

 borne alongside the chief when marching, always waved up and down. 



