Batlokwa Chiefdom

Origins

The Tlokwa were a Sotho-speaking people of the upper Wilge and Caledon river region. When Hlubi and Ngwane refugees broke into the highveld in the early 1820s, the regent MaNthatisi led the Tlokwa on a long series of migrations and raids that made her name feared across the interior, before they settled around the mountain fortresses of Joalaboholo and Marabeng near modern Ficksburg.

Rule and society

Power rested on cattle, mountain strongholds and fighting men drawn from many uprooted groups. MaNthatisi handed authority to her son Sekonyela, whose rivalry with Moshoeshoe of the Basotho Kingdom dominated the Caledon valley for two decades. Sekonyela received Wesleyan missionaries but kept to traditional religion, and he clashed in turn with the Voortrekkers: around the end of 1837 Piet Retief tricked him into handing over cattle taken from the Zulu king Dingane, along with his horses and guns.

Decline and legacy

In 1853 Moshoeshoe stormed the Tlokwa strongholds and Sekonyela fled; he died in the Orange Free State. Most of his people were absorbed into the Basotho, while others later settled at Witsieshoek in the Free State, where a Tlokwa chieftaincy survives.