THE HISTORY OF SEKWATI. 



By Rev. [ohannes August Winter. 



Introduction. 



\\ hen the capital of old Tulare at Steelpoort had been 

 destroyed by Mosilikatse, after an awful fight which lasted a 

 whole day, and the deep donga was quite filled up with corpses,* 

 the Zulus settled down at Steelpoort for some time. Sekwati 

 went to the north of Zoutpansberg, and by killing out little kraals 

 and capturing women and cattle, he afterwards became a great 

 man. At that time Mosilikatse used to send impis there annually to 

 collect taxes. Sekwati thereupon fled into the Woodbush, always 

 coming out again after the Zulus had left. Later on he came to 

 Magalie, where the Boers and the Zulus in vain tried to storm his 

 stronghold, and whence, after these had gone home, Sekwati sent 

 them peace-offerings. He must have been a genius. In his old 

 age he became partially paralysed in his feet. He was kind to 

 the first missionaries, whom he assisted in 1861 in his isolated 

 stronghold, Thaba Mosigo, on the farm Hackney — where I still 

 found the hut alongside his grave in the cattle kraal half-way up 

 the hill, and where, at night, sacrifices and prayers are still offered. 

 Moroa-Sck-a'ati is still an honoured title. 



Sekwati, flying from the Zulus, crossed the Olifants River 

 with a considerable remnant of Tulare's men and women into 

 Zoutpansberg, first to Mapahlele's Kraal, south of Pietersburg. He 

 did not stay there long, but went to Botlokoa, to the north of 

 Pietersburg. There he said to the Chief, " Tell me the names of 

 all kraals which are inimical to you. I shall fight with them and so 

 get food for the road." In this way he went first to Boroka in 

 the Ba-Mafefera (near Haenertsburg). There he settled for 

 some time, and commencing raids round about, he got large, quan- 

 tities of cattle. He gave part of this loot to Mamohlatlo, widow 

 of Malekut, and to her young son Tulare, who was of the same 

 age as Sekukuni. This woman, however, grumbled about the 

 cattle, saying, " You do not give me enough." Sekwati, displeased 

 at this, went back to Botlokoa. From there he went to Ganana 

 (Blauwberg), where he found a white man (the first Boer), 

 Kadisha, near the great Zoutpan. Sekwati drove the people of 

 Ganana from the salt-pan and they commenced to fight him. Se- 

 kwati was victorious. Kadisha was a friend of Sekwati, and went 

 with him on many of his raids. Kadisha had no gun, but fought 

 with bows and arrows. He had no white wife, but several black 

 ones — in fact he was then Paramount Native Chief there, notwith- 

 standing his white colour. Then Sekwati crossed the Limpopo 

 River and went to Bokalaota (a Bakgalaka tribe like Mapela, near 

 Piet-Potgieters Rust) and took many cattle kraals away, the 



* See this volume p. 98. 



