1 'Re Betha Trupa': The Construction and Negotiation of Identity Amongst the Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha with an emphasis on Diturupa Cultural Commemoration. By Mojuta Steven Motlhamme 609203 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in the Depart- ment of History, School of Social Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwa- tersrand. 31 March 2021 2 D e c l a r a t i o n This study represents an original work by the author and has not been submitted in any form to another university. Where use has been made of the work of others it has been duly acknowledged in the text. Name Mojuta Motlhamme Date 31/03/2021 Name Supervisor: Prof. Sekibakiba Lekgoathi Date 31/03/2021 Name: Dr. Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi Co Supervisor Date 31/03/2021 3 Abstract Diturupa is a cultural commemoration that happens annually on the 26th of December in Maka- panstad. It is primarily based on military drilling and parades done by soldiers. It incorporates Setswana traditional elements from the locality of Makapanstad amongst the Bakgatlha Ba Mo- setlha community. This study is a critical analysis of how Diturupa shapes the identity and ethnic- ity of Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha community in Makapanstad. Diturupa has been sustainable for the past hundred years as a community based initiative rooted in custom and rituals linked to a diverse identity. Diturupa is linked to the SS Mendi tragedy where black South African soldiers lost their lives. It is also a commemoration of those who fought in World War I and World War II. Diturupa represents an inclusive commemoration rooted in a spirit of diversity, creativity, and togetherness. It is rooted in respect for chieftaincy and bringing the community together in the festive season. Diturupa has a rich material culture starting with the kilt (Scotch), kettle drums, Tempedi and soldier uniforms that are worn on the 26th of December. This material culture is rooted in Setswana culture but incorporates western elements to create a diverse identity. Performance is at the heart of Diturupa and brings together various elements to recreate and remember those who perished and sacrificed their lives on the many battlefields of the world wars. The legacy of Diturupa is an ongoing project that continues to be written and re written. It is safe to say that Diturupa will be with us for generations and represents a truly unique cultural heritage identity in the trans-provin- cial geopolitical region of Moretele. 4 Tshobokanyo (Abstract) Diturupa ke ngwao le setso se se diragalang ngwaga o mongwe le o mongwe ka kgwedi ya Sedimonthole kwa motseng wa Makapanstad. Moetlo o, o diragatsa tlholego ya di brass band le metsamao ya masole. E kopanya setso sa morafe wa Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha kwa motseng wa Makapanstad. Thuto e ya patlisiso e gatelela sekaseko e ka mokgwa o Diturupa di thusang ngwao le botho ba Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha. Tiragalo e ya Diturupa e ntse e tswelela go tloga mengwaga e lekgolo e fetileng e ikagile ka setsong le setho sa motse wa Makapanstad. Moetlo o wa Diturupa o ikgolaganya le SS Mendi eleng sekepe se se nweletseng kwa ntweng ya lefatshe yantlha mo matshelo a masole a mo Afika a latlhegileng. Moetlo o, ke segopotso le keteko ya botlhe ba ba lwelang kwa ntweng yantlha le ya bobedi ya lefatshe. Moetlo o wa Diturupa o emela ikopopotso e ka yone e ikaegileng ka mowa o o akararetsang batho botlhe, boitlhamedi le kutlwisisano magareng ga batho. Di ikaegile ka tlotlo ya bogosi le go kopanya morafe ka nako ya keteko ya bofelo jwa ngwaga. Moetlo o wa diturupa o humile mo setsong sa khai go simolola ka kiliti (sekotšhe), meropa ya diketlele, Tempedi le moaparo wa masole o o apariwang ka di 26 tsa kgwedi ya Sedimonthole ngwaga mongwe le mongwe. Khai e, ke khai e e ikaegileng mo setsong sa Batswana efela e akaretsa dielemente tsa setso sa se Wesetene go tlhama bong jo bo sa kgethololeng. Tiragatso ke yone e e botlhokwa thata mo moetlong wa diturupa gonne e tlisa mmogo dielemente tse di farologaneng tsa go tlhama gape le go gopola ba ba tswileng ditlhabelo 5 ka matshelo a bone kwa mabaleng a mantsi a dintwa tsa mafatshe. Boswa jwa Diturupa ke porojeke e e santseng e tswelela go kwala le go boeletswa go kwadiwa. Go sireletsegile go buwa gore Diturupa di tlabo di ntse di diragatsiwa mengwaga e le mentsi e e latelang ka gonne di tota di emetse ngwao boswa e e kgethegileng 6 'Re Betha Trupa': The Construction and Negotiation of Identity Amongst the Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha with an emphasis on Diturupa Cultural Commemoration. By Mojuta Steven Motlhamme Supervised by: Professor Sekibakiba Lekgoathi and Doctor Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi 7 Table of Contents Cover Page……………………………………………………………………………...1 Declaration Page………………………………………………………………………..2 Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………3 Tshobokanyo…………………………………………………………………………...4-5 Title Page………………………………………………………………………………6 Table of Contents………………………………………………………………………7 Acknowledgements…………………………………………………………………….8-13 Dedication……………………………………………………………………………...14 Buffalo Soldier Song…………………………………………………………………...15 Diturupa in Imagery……………………………………………………………………16 Setswana Terminology and Glossary………………………………………………… 17-18 List of Figures………………………………………………………………………… 19-20 Chapter One: Introduction…………………………………………………………….. 21-54 Chapter Two: Historical Context of the Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha……………………... 55-80 Chapter Three: Blood Stained Tears and Appropriation: The origins of Diturupa…....81-122 Chapter Four: Material Culture and the Performance of Diturupa…………………… 123-160 Chapter Five: The Centenary of Diturupa – A Legacy……………………………….. 161-181 Chapter Six : Conclusion………………………………………………………………182-185 Appendices…………………………………………………………………………… 186-191 Bibliography……………………………………………………………………………192-218 8 Acknowledgements First and foremost I would like to acknowledge Modimo le Badimo for ho tsamaya letsholo la thuto lenna. Kea leboga lona ba bagolo ka go nkema nokeng le go ntshireletsa le go mpulela ditsela. Ahee marangrang le batho ba lesedi le khanya! Bana ba Mmamafura a theku. Magadimana ntweng, gabaja ga ba gadimane. My wife Pulane Motlhamme thank you for your support. Thank you for being a pillar of strength and assistance. You really went the extra mile as I was going through the trial and tribulations of reading, writing and revising my work. You held my hand through the difficult times and listened to me and encouraged me to never give up. Thank you for being the star of the story behind this thesis. Your support has shown me what love is and how love perseveres despite the pressures and challenges. I would like to also thank my daughter @Bogoman (Remmogo). You came into my life when this thesis was still in its infancy stages and helped to shape it. I remember needing to study during lockdown and you always wanting to come near to the laptop and touch it. I hope this study will encourage you in which ever field you will take in the coming years to study the condition of our people and make a positive contribution. I thank My Mother and Father Mabel and Sam for raising me and for their guidance. Ke rata go leboga lesika le family yaame ka kemo nokeng yabone gonna. Bagaetsho ke thata kalona lotlhe. Letta Motaung le ba lesika for your readiness to assist. Johannes Motaung thank you for hosting me ko Moshabelong wa kwa Motaung. 9 I would like to acknowledge my supervisor Prof Sekibakiba Lekgoathi. Kea leboga Motebele. I have known you since second year and remember you telling my parents that I must return to Wits for my postgraduate studies and indeed I did return. Thank you for the generous criticism and for teaching me to be patient with myself and the processes of academia and intellectualism. I would like to acknowledge my supervisor Dr. Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi. I met you along the course of this research and I am grateful for your encouragement of my scholarship. Thank you for helping to find my voice in academia and encouraging me to always trust myself in the acad- emy. Your push for African centred knowledge remains an inspiration and an encouragement for young scholars like myself. I would like to thank the Neame family and in particular Sylvia Neame for a scholarship in the History Department to pay for my tuition fees. Through Prof Lekgoathi’s persuasion I was able to get assistance from you despite being a part time and working student. I hope your generosity can extend to other brilliant black students who have to work and study because circumstances do not afford them the privilege of only being full time students. I am grateful to members of the History Department at Wits University who have shaped my scholarship in one way or another since 2012. Your assistance does not go unnoticed. I am partic- ularly grateful to Maria Suriano for taking an interest in my scholarly work and for her encourage- ment and guidance. Thank you to Prof Noor Nieftagodien for the intellectual engagements. Dr Andrew Macdonald, Dr Saraah Jappie, Muchaparara Musemwa, Prof Peter Delius, Prof CI Ham- ilton, Prof Clive Glaser, Dr Stacey Sommerdyk. There are other scholars who have influenced my intellectual trajectory and I would like to acknowledge them as well. Dr Zimitri Erasmus who taught me sociology in second year 2013. Dr 10 Prishani Naidoo who taught me sociology as well. Prof Robert Muponde who taught me African literature. Mr Tim Trengove Jones of the Wits English Department. Prof Michael Titlestad of the Wits English Department. John Masterson of the English Department. And Prof Victor Houliston. And Mrs Quinn Setshedi of African languages. I would also like to thank scholars who have influenced my work from far and wide. The scholar activist tradition of African Americans is one I am immensely indebted to. The likes of the late Prof John Henrik Clarke, Dr Marimba Ani, Molefi Asante, Manning Marable, Yosef Ben Jochan- nan, Clenora Hudson Weems, Asa G Hilliard, Runoko Rashidi, Patricia Hill Collins, Itibari Zulu, Noliwe Rooks, Ama Mazama, Gerald Horne, James Conyers, Zine Magubane, Bernard Magubane, Yvette Abrahams, Archie Mafeje, Jacob Mohlamme, Robert Sobukwe, Steve Biko, Clement Keto, Eskia Mphahlele, and many others. I am grateful to the people who work behind the scenes at Wits who make sure that we can re- sources and access to the institution. Thank you to Ntate Mulaudzi and Mme Gugu at the front desk of William Cullen library who make sure that we get the books we need. The staff of Wits Historical Papers thank you for your patience and assistance with regards to archives. Staff at the Wits Education Library Mme Chisholm and her team thank you. Madam Rene Casterns of the Wits History Department thank you for your unwavering assistance. Staff at the Wits Education and Main library thank you as well for your assistance. The Wits hu- manities faculty staff at South West Engineering thank you for dealing with my administration issues, special thanks to Mpho Ntseare for dealing with my postgraduate administration. Mrs Yuri- sha Pillay thank you for assisting with Wits E and turn it in. 11 Thank you to the Library Genesis team and in Particular Alexandra Elbakyan and Z Library Team. As scholars/students in the global south, many of us do not have access to resources and endowed libraries with vast amounts of collections such as the Bodleian or Harvard Library. Through you, our work is able to reflect global understandings and readings because you are able to provide books for us to read that we would normally not find in our university libraries. I would like to thank my fellow Masters’ students Patrick Nyathi, Mphako Machete and Kefuoe Maotoane for always being a listening ear and assisting where necessary. Thank you to the community of Alexandra for raising me. I am also grateful to the Alex Education Committee for helping me in my high school years in particular Frank Simmonds and Linda Toms. Carter Primary School for igniting my passion for reading and writing. Mr City Nkoane for the newspapers and intellectual engagements in Setswana and Sepedi. Mr Potsane at Eastbank High school and Mr Lungu at Highlands North Boys for your encouragement. I would like to thank my colleagues at Highlands North Boys High School for their support. In particular Mr Masinge, Mrs Sithole, Mrs Mushagasha and Mr B Buthelezi. The learners for listen- ing to me and showing interest when I spoke about Diturupa. I am grateful to staff at the National Archives of South Africa in Pretoria. Your work is important people! I am also grateful to Ausi Lebogang at the North West Provincial Archives in Mafikeng. Pula e go nele Mokhatlha. Mama Soni Mphake and Kagiso for hosting me in Dinokana as I went to the archives in Mahikeng. To the gentleman who gave me a lift to Mahikeng when going to the archives thank you. 12 Johannes Motaung thank you for giving me accommodation at my great grandmothers home ko Moshabelong ko Makapanstad. Letta Motaung thank you for believing in my project and hosting me ko Moretele. Sonny Motaung kea leboga Tau for your assistance. Ntate Seleka ko Maropeng kea leboga Phuti for hosting me at my grandfathers home. Ntate Ranamane thank you for the informative discussions. To the community members of Makapanstad who welcomed me with warm hands and spoke to me enthusiastically about Diturupa this is for you bana ba kwa Mosetlha! Gratitude to Lencoe Makapan and his unwavering assistance when needed as he helped me to get contacts and suggest people to interview. Rorisang Motaung for your help in getting interviews thank you. To the people I interviewed in particular Mme Mputla, Mme Matlala, Ntate Matlala, Ntate Ran- yawa, Mme Madikoata Mareme, Lucas Ledwaba. Ka sedimo re re ga di lebogwe. Bagaetsho gantle le lona nkebe ke le motho fela. Le nthusitse. Ke solofela gore re tlo tsamaya tsela ya botshelo ba botlhe ebile re tlile go berekisana ka go tlhabolla kwa Mosetlha le go tlisa diphetogo. Thank you Ntsele Dimati for your assistance. Mike Milazi kea leboga Motswana o nkemeng nokeng e bile o rotloetsa thuto le patlisiso yaame ka Sekgatlha. Ke solofela go berekisana le lona ka ngwao le dikgangkhutswe tsa Bakgatlha, Bat- swana le batho ba bangwe ba naga yarona le Aforika ka Bophara. Lencoe Makapan Rraetsho kea leboga ka thekgo yagago le go mpa pelo ka kitso le patlisiso ya Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha. Ke solofela gore teko yame e tla go natifisa e bule ditsela tsa go tlhabolla bakgatlha Ba Moseltha le metsana ya bone. Pula a e go nele Kgabo!! I would like to thank the songs I would listen to while working on this dissertation. Amapiano as a musical genre has contributed to the rhythm of this work. Songs such as Amanikiniki, Areyeng 13 Sandton, Labantwana Ma Uber, Phoyisa, and Kokota Piano helped me to keep going. The spiritual music of Universal Khatisma was important as it helped me to connect with God and the ancestors whilst working on my study. I would also like to thank the music of Batswana groups such as culture spears, Makgona Ngwao of Namibia, Ditaola Cultural Group, Mmausi Lekoma, Nomtiti, Dikakapa, Maxxy wa le Khoisan, and Shumba Ratshega. I am also grateful to the numerous social media groups that taught me a lot about African history, Diturupa and other topics related to my dissertation. It takes a village in my culture. I would also like to thank myself for the spirit of enquiry and tenacity of wanting to know. It is important to go the extra mile as a researcher. I would like to thank my ancestors for always walk- ing with me and helping me as I delve deeper into villages and interact with people who might not seem keen at first but become resourceful to the project as time goes by 14 Dedication To my ancestors who once lived and touched my life in one way or another. This one is for you. May your beautiful souls be reincarnated in the living. Samuel Kgang Motlhamme 1945-2020. I love you Papa. Thank you for teaching me about life, love, education, politics and spirituality. Rest in peace and know that you are remembered, loved and missed. This work is dedicated to you. Mmadiplase Mumsy Lesoro Mokgabudi 1937-2010 Moerane Motaung 2013 Arios Seleka 1923-1959 Mamoshabelo Motaung 1913-1993 Moserwa Motaung 1941-2018 Frank Simmonds 1939-2013. Mmasha Motlhamme 1928-1993 Stoffel Motlhamme 1923- 2008 Ntatemogolo Mokgabudi Rakgadi Nanny Mam Mashawana Keetseng Mametse 15 Buffalo Soldier by Bob Marley Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta There was a Buffalo Soldier In the heart of America Stolen from Africa, brought to America Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival I mean it, when I analyze the stench To me, it makes a lot of sense How the dreadlock Rasta was the Buffalo Soldier And he was taken from Africa, brought to America Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival Said he was a Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta Buffalo Soldier, in the heart of America If you know your history Then you would know where you coming from Then you wouldn't have to ask me Who the heck do I think I am I'm just a Buffalo Soldier In the heart of America Stolen from Africa, brought to America Said he was fighting on arrival Said he was a Buffalo Soldier Win the war for America Said he, woe yoy yoy, woe yoy yoy yoy Buffalo Soldier, troddin' through the land woah Said he wanna ran, then you wanna hand Troddin' through the land, yeah, yeah Win the war for America Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival Driven from the mainland To the heart of the Caribbean Singing, woe yoy yoy, woe yoy yoy yoy Troddin' through San Juan In the arms of America Troddin' through Jamaica, a Buffalo Soldier Fighting on arrival, fighting for survival Buffalo Soldier, dreadlock Rasta1 1 Bob Marley and the Wailers. (1978). “Buffalo Soldier”. Sony Music. Date Accessed: 28 February 2021. URL: https://www.jah-lyrics.com/song/bob-marley-the-wailers-buffalo-soldier https://www.jah-lyrics.com/song/bob-marley-the-wailers-buffalo-soldier 16 Diturupa in Imagery Figure 1: Diturupa Participants in Action at Motlhabaneng Section of Makapanstad.2 Figure 2: Diturupa participants parading at the Mosate Royal Headquarters3 2 Ledwaba, L. (2019). “Figure 1: Ditrupa Participants in Action at Motlhabaneng Section of Makapanstad”. 3 Ledwaba, L. (2019). “Figure 2: Ditrupa participants parading at the Mosate Royal Headquarters”. 17 Terminology and Glossary Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha: The community of Makapanstad and its neighbouring villages. Borekhu: A tasty, sticky gummy substance that oozes from certain thorn trees found mostly in the bushveld. Herdboys often collected this borekhu and ate it while looking after goats and cows. Dikarolo: name used for sections in Setswana. Diturupa: An event that happens annually in Makapanstad on the 26 of December in Makapanstad. Kettle Drum: Kettle drums are modern drums with higher sound beat than the traditional drum. They are widespread and found in brass brands, choirs, and military bands. They can be termed a western drum as they came with the advent of colonial and mission rule. Kgoro: Kgoro is a traditional community village structure. Kgosi: The leader of a community. In English the equivalent term can be monarch/chief/king. Kwa Mosetlha: This is the historical name for the area. Often in most Basotho-Batswana commu- nities villages and regions are informally called by leaders who made a huge impact on those communities. Examples include Ga Sekhukhune in Limpopo, Ga Mmabesi in Botswana to name a few. Lebala: This is the ground/field that is used for Diturupa. In this context it is not a stadium. Morethetho: Rhythm. The essence is rhythm and movement. Moropa wa Letlalo: This is the traditional African drum. It is made out of wood and cow hide. It is a very heavy drum and takes years of practise to master. When it is cloudy you need to light a fire to make it play smoothly. 18 Mosate: Mosate is the royal headquarters of Mosetlha royals. Most of the deceased chiefs like Thipe, Seaparankoe and Motshegwa have homes in the yard. The current chief designate Nchaupe III does not live on the property but lives outside in another section. Mosate is where community meetings are held, village administration carried out. There are satellite offices for government services. It is also the first place where Diturupa gets performed Motse: name for village in Setswana. Pula: Rain. Scotch: Scotch is the kilt worn by Diturupa participants during their performance. Scotch is an adaption of the Scottish kilt because it comes from Scotland and there is no local direct translation it was called Scotch. Sekgatlha: Setswana dialect spoken in Makapanstad. Tempedi: Tempedi is a popular Setswana instrument made of metal and cow hide skin. It is played with a stick and makes a sound that gels with that of a drum. It helps with rhythm and dancing during Diturupa. Turupa: The singular form of Diturupa. It stands for one group performing at Diturupa. 19 List of Figures Figure 1: Diturupa Participants in Action at Motlhabaneng Section of Makapanstad. 16 Figure 2: Diturupa participants parading at the Mosate Royal Headquarters. 16 Figure 3: A map showing the villages of Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha around Makapanstad. 23 Figure 4: A Map showing the Bojanala District Municipality with Makapanstad in the Moretele- local Municipality in the North West Province of South Africa. 24 Figure 5: A picture from the 1927 royal coronation showing Seaparankwe Hendrik Makapan be- ing flanked by Regent Diratsagae Makapan seated on his left. 74 Figure 6: King George V inspects the South African Native Labour Corps -1918. George was the King of the British Empire that had colonized the Black people of South Africa 87 Figure 7: General Jan Smuts inspects an SANLC unit in France. This is one of the few photographs of Black South Africans involved in the WWI. 88 Figure 8: The Steamship SS Mendi en route to France in 1917. 89 Figure 9: Members of a Trupa group beating kettle drums in Makapanstad. 127 Figure 10: A Traditional drum. 128 Figure 11: A Tempedi (Setswana musical instrument). 129 Figure 12: Lucy Mputla, leader of Special Springbok Trupa holding the flag of their Trupa Group 135 Figure 13: An overhead drone picture of Motlhabaneng section sports complex. 138 20 Figure 14: A sergeant from Special Springbok Trupa. 145 Figure 15: A female soldier from Winterveldt Troop. 148 Figure 16: Men wearing kilts from Phomola Trupa. 149 Figure 17: A poster commemorating 100 years of Diturupa. 161 Figure 18: A young Diturupa member from Phomola Diturupa. 162 Figure 19: Soldiers from Sefikantsoe Trupa wearing face masks. 174 Figure 20: Shows Diturupa being performed at Motlhabaneng Section. 175 Figure 21: Shows Phomola Cultural Festival Diturupa in performance. 176 Figure 22: Women as soldiers in Diturupa. 177 Figure 23: depicts soldiers of a trupa group dancing to a song and rhythm they have created. 179 21 Chapter One: Introduction Diturupa is important as a carnival because it changes our perceptions of events and the politics of commemoration. It challenges our thinking about who and what we commemorate when we remem- ber the fallen of the First and Second World War. The word Diturupa is taken from the English word “troop” which means a group of soldiers. When translated into Setswana it also sounds like the French word troupe which means a theatrical performance. Diturupa started in 1918 after WWI when black South African soldiers came back from the war and wanted to commemorate their war- time experience.1 Diturupa is the main focus of this work because of its ability to bring the com- munity together. It is perceived as being cultural whilst other traditional ceremonies such as the makgotla (public meetings) perceived as political have poor attendance due to community percep- tions that traditional leaders, are not improving living conditions in the rural villages today. Diturupa displays culture, tradition, ethnic diversity and the history of the Moretele region as troop groups change and adopt different symbols from the original Scottish kilts and military uniform of British soldiers. The approach of scholarship to ethnicity in Southern Africa more generally, and Batswana ethnicity in particular, has been to explore one group in isolation from surrounding ethnic groups, as if there is no complex relationships between different communities. Historians writing about Batswana have always placed tribalism and chieftaincy at the centre of narratives and how they respond to colonial intrusion. This is exemplified in the way Batswana communities such as Bangwato and Bakwena and Bakgatlha ba Kgafela have been historicised as fixed “tribes” by authors such as Schapera and Breutz. Contemporary historians have to transcend and expand upon these historical trajectories to 1 Grundlingh, A. (1987). Fighting their Own War: South African Blacks and The First World War. Ravan Press: Jo- hannesburg. 122. Ledwaba, L. (2013). “Diturupa, a celebration of life”. City Press. Address: https://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Diturupa-a-celebration-of-life-20150429 https://www.news24.com/Archives/City-Press/Diturupa-a-celebration-of-life-20150429 22 bring the wider trans-ethnic community into the conversation. 2 The focus here will be on how Di- turupa has shaped the history, culture and identity of Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha in contemporary times. It is about cultural adaptation and expression of identity by Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha in the context of inter-ethnic interaction, colonial encounters, materiality and as well as how Diturupa has become a symbolic representation of identity formation and construction for the people in and outside of Makapanstad., a rural community in the North West Province just outside Hammanskraal. Rationale of the Study Why BaKgatlha Ba Mosetlha? Diturupa and Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha can help us get a different cultural history of carnivals and festivals from a marginalised community that refuses to be erased out of history and the heritage landscape. The Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha is part of the Bakgatlha family of the Batswana people in South Africa and Botswana. The early history records a community that split in the 1700s when Mosetlha, the first-born daughter of Kgosi Matshego contested for power against her brother Kgafela, which led to a split between the Mosetlha and Kgafela groups.3 Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha had a respected chief in Kgosi Nchaupe, also called Seaparankwe in the 1950s. They also speak a distinctive brand of Setswana dialect that is synonymous with Sepitori, which is a growing creole language based on the Sekgatlha dialect of Setswana spoken in Mmakau and Makapanstad, Sepedi, Sesotho, XiTsonga, Afrikaans and other languages spoken in the Pretoria, Hammanskraal and Bela Bela regions.4 This is an example of cultural fluidity and intermixing with other ethnic groups. The 2. The work of Molosiwa Phutego on the Babirwa is a notable example. Molosiwa, P. (2013). ““The Tragedy of the Ababirwas”: Cattle Herding, Power and the Socio-Environmental History of the Ethnic Identity of the Babirwa in Botswana, 1920 to the Present. PH.D Thesis: University of Minnesota. 3Breutz, P. (1989). A History of Batswana and the Origins of Bophuthatswana: A Handbook of the Survey of the Batswana, S Ndebele, QwaQwa and Botswana. Ramsgate: Private Publication. 330 4 Ditsele, T & Mann, C. (2014). Language contact in African urban settings: The case of Sepitori in Tshwane. South African Journal of African Languages, 34:2, 159-165. 23 literature on Batswana in the past focused on groups who had an illustrious history of fighting co- lonialism and had hegemony over neighbouring ethnicities. Figure 3: A map showing the villages of Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha around Makapanstad. 5: More recently, there is an academic shift towards the communities in the platinum belt of the North West Province.6 This research seeks to disrupt notions of what constitutes being MoKgatlha and aims to make a contribution by placing BaKgatlha ba Mosetlha in their myriad diversity at the centre of contemporary narrative. This research seeks to understand Diturupa as a phenomenon and cultural consciousness of the Bakgatlha people and the diverse communities around them. The community itself has a rich narrative of difference as people from different ethnicities and languages came to settle here and create a melting pot of diversity that is often not common in the rural areas of South 5 Nona.Net. (2020). “Makapanstad”. Date Accessed 12/12/2020. URL: https://www.emerald.com/insight/con- tent/doi/10.1108/IJCCSM-02-2019-0009/full/html 6A lot of the literature focuses on groups such as The Bangwaketse of Makaba II who was comparable to King Shaka in military strength, The Bakwena of Sechele who vanquished the Boers at Dithubaruba, Kgosi Luka Jantjie, Kgosi Galeshewe and Kgosi Toto Makgolokwe who led the Langeberg Rebellion in 1897. Manson, A & Mbenga, B. (2014). Land, Chiefs, Mining: South Africa’s North West Province Since 1840. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCCSM-02-2019-0009/full/html https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/IJCCSM-02-2019-0009/full/html 24 Africa. This is seen in how the language spoken is a regional dialect that is used as a lingua franca by people from different ethnicities and the settlement of diverse ethnicities such as Batswana, Bapedi, amaNdebele, amaSwati and vaTsonga people in the greater Hammanskraal region. Figure 4: A Map showing the Bojanala District Municipality with Makapanstad in the Moretele local Municipality in the North West Province of South Africa. 7 7 Municipalities South Africa. (2020). “Bojanala Platinum District Municipality”. Date Accessed: 01/042019. URL: https://municipalities.co.za/map/139/bojanala-platinum-district-municipality https://municipalities.co.za/map/139/bojanala-platinum-district-municipality 25 Why Identity? Identity is important for helping us to understand how communities compose and constitute them- selves. African communities had identities prior to colonial rule and they made, unmade remade their identities in the face of different contexts.1 This research proposes to work on counter-narra- tives of fixed identities and offer examples of fluid identities using the Diturupa carnival as a meta- phor for this identity construction and negotiation.2 When scholars debate the origins of tribalism in African societies, they often forget to look at African identity in a complex manner.3 Due to Euro- pean scholars not having access to some of the idioms and indigenous knowledges, they often used identity in relation to their own European conceptions of identity and simplified the complexities of African societies.4 By so doing they confused, misrepresented and misinterpreted African identities. Social structure and identity is vast and complex in African communities and cannot be reduced to one rubric or template of classification as communities change and incorporate new identities. The limited scholarship on Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha has focused on mapping the chiefly genealogies, the socio-economic status of rural life, the experience of women and how Christianity has eroded tradi- tional belief systems within the life of Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha. 5 This research aims to contribute to 1Msindo, E (2012). Ethnicity in Zimbabwe Transformations in Kalanga and Ndebele Societies, 1860–1990 Roches- ter, NY: University of Rochester Press. 34. Mamdani, M. (2012). Define and Rule: Native as Political Identity. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 36. Vail, L. (Ed). (1989). The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa. Los Angeles: University of California Press. 2 Hall, Stuart. (1996). “Introduction: Who Needs ‘Identity’?” In S. Hall, and P. Du Gay. (Eds). Questions of Cultural Identity. London: Sage. Pp 1–17. 3Odora-Hoppers, C. (2002). Indigenous Knowledge and the integration of knowledge systems: towards a philosophy of articulation. Claremont: New Africa Books. 12. 4 Mkhize, N. (2018). “The Missing Idiom of African Historiography: African Historical Writing in Walter Rubusana’s Zemk’inkom Magwalandini”. In Bam, J, Ntsebeza, L & Zinn, A. Whose History Counts: Decolonising African Precolonial Historiography. Cape Town: African Sun Media. 57. 5 The limited scholarship is as a result of not having African students not enroll for postgraduate studies during the apartheid era. Another reason is the fact that scholars often study societies that have a larger body of archival mate- rial or fought wars against British or Dutch colonialists which the Bakgatlha did not do on a massive scale as com- pared to the role of Bakgatlha Ba Kgafela in the South African War of 1899, the AmaZulu in the Anglo-Zulu War and the Bapedi British War of 1877 which generates studies and literature on the societies mentioned above. An- other reason is the dwindling prestige of historical studies in the post 1994 era and lack of funding to allow students to undertake research work. 26 this literature by looking at how Diturupa has shaped the cultural identity of a historically margin- alised community and how Diturupa offers a window into the past, present and future of Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha as it signifies a living and very public history and heritage. Why Diturupa? Diturupa was chosen as the main theme of this research because it happens on an annual basis and reveals a lot about the history and heritage of BaKgatlha Ba Mosetlha. Diturupa as a festival man- ages to attract people from diverse walks of life. Most rural festivities in the Setswana speaking world such as Dithubaruba6, Dikhwaere7 and Dikgafela8 often attract Batswana while Diturupa brings over 30 000 people from different ethnicities and cultures to Makapanstad.9 The cultural cosmopolitanism can be compared to those that happen in Cape Town during Kaapse Klopse and the carnival festivities in the Caribbean. Thus Diturupa carnival is chosen for its ability to illuminate cultural insights into the past and present realities of the Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha and their neigh- bouring communities living near to them. It is an opportunity to look at how marginalised commu- nities can use heritage to give insight into their history of resilience and agency in the face of colonial administration.10 Diturupa also presents a study in ambiguity. It is an interface between tradition, 6 Dithubaruba is an annual festival held in the Bakwena Ba Ga Sechele town of Molepolole in Botswana and com- memorates the battle of Dithubaruba in 1852 against the Trek-Boers in the former Transvaal. 7 Dikhwaere is a choir competition that sees different choirs competing and is popular in Botswana and South Africa and sees the choirs singing songs in Setswana and other African languages. 8 Dikgafela i giving thanks for the food harvest. It is usually held in September or October. 8 Informal Discussion s an annual cultural celebration held by Batswana communities that symbolises the first fruit offering to the King and giving thanks for the food harvest. It is usually held in September or October. 9 Informal Discussion with D Ranamane, conducted by Mojuta Motlhamme, Makapanstad Motlhabaneng Section, North West Province, 26 December 2019 (Translated). 10 Constant-Martin, D. (1999). Coon Carnival: New Year in Cape Town, Past and Present. Cape Town: David Phil- lip Publishers. 27 culture, custom, modernity and cosmopolitanism.11 Some community members would like to see Diturupa keep its present format of accessibility while others want to see it commercialised. Literature Review There is a tiny body of literature that has specifically explored the history and culture of Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha. Writing in the Volkekunde tradition, Van Warmelo and Breutz provides bits and pieces of the history of Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha in the introductory pages of their ethno- logical publications. Their studies were mainly focused on giving a brief summary of the Bakgatlha’s origins, their areas of settlement and their chiefly genealogies.12 They tell us very little about Bakgatlha identity as their chief focus was on land settlement and chiefly personali- ties who held power in different centuries.13 The authors do not tell us what Sekgatlha identity meant for the people in the community and present identity in a fixed and limited context going back to the agenda of colonial ethnography and its intentions.14 H.J. van Zyl wrote his doctoral thesis as a sociological study on Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha in 1952, which got printed as a book in 1958. Like the two authors above, Van Zyl wrote in the Afrikaans academic tradition that supported grand apartheid - Volkekunde.15 This book covers the colonial history of Ba Mosetlha from an archival and ethnological perspective with an unreferenced use of ethnography and interviews.16 It is important as a source of empirical data on the history of Ba 11 Giddy, P., & Detterbeck, M. (2005). “Questions regarding tradition and modernity in contemporary Amakwaya practice.” Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa 59, 26-44. doi:10.1353/trn.2005.0048. 12 Breutz, P. A History of Batswana, 333-335. 13 Ibid. 332. Van Warmelo, N. The Bakgatla of Ba Ga Mosetlha. Pretoria: Government Printing Works. 1944.35. 14 Ibid. 333. Morton, F & Boeyens, J. (2019). “The Tswana’s antiquarian: the life and work of state ethnologist Paul- Lenert Breutz’ (1912–1999)”. Southern African Humanities 32: 109. 15Sharp, S. (1981). “The Roots and development of Volkekunde in South Africa”. Journal of Southern African Stud- ies, Vol. 8, No. 1. 16. 16 Van Zyl, H. (1958). Die Bakgatla van Mosetlha: An Poesisie en Bantoestame. Johannesburg: Voortrekeppers. 23 28 Mosetlha and gives an important overview of the history and the area under Kgosikgolo Hendrik Makapan II.17 I am impressed with the relative ease that the author is able to use Setswana terms relating to the culture of Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha. Being a sociological and ethnological book, one gets a sense that the book is more about listing information in a census like style and not tell- ing a narrative or story about Bakgatlha that puts them at the centre. Volkekunde scholarship often puts African communities as static and only changing through Eu- ropean influence and applauds communities who collaborate with the apartheid system.18 There were other scholars such as Wilson, Hunter, Schapera and Kuper among others who became pro- fessional anthropologists and operated outside the frame of Volkekunde.19 This does not make them immune to criticism as they also worked in a Eurocentric ideology that was prevalent at the time. According to Webster: Liberal anthropology and Bantu Studies at Wits did not question the European right to conquest, nor the posterity of white settlers in South Africa, and worked towards the es- tablishment of a ‘civilised’ society based on the European model. The liberal notion that the major antagonism in South African society was Afrikaner nationalist segregation ide- ology functioned as an iteration of colonial unknowing in that it obfuscated the more fun- damental problems of conquest and settler colonialism. Rather, the two traditions should 17 Ibid. 15. 18 Ibid. 220. 19 Bank, A. and Bank, L. (Eds). 2013. Inside African Anthropology: Monica Wilson and Her Interpreters. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Carstens, P. “1985. “Agnes Winifred Hoernle (1885-1960): The Mother of Social Anthropology in South Africa.” in Anthropology Today, 1(6): 17. Hammond-Tooke, W. D. (1997). Imperfect Interpreters: South Africa's Anthropologists 1920- 1990. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press. 14. 29 be read as ideologically and politically consistent and unified within a project of white supremacy in South Africa.20 A recent intervention by Petunia Mabokela, “Women of Makapanstad” (2018) is the latest addi- tion to Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha historiography. 21. Mabokela, writing from a political studies tra- dition drawing from feminist scholarship, uses a life history approach that looks at the experi- ences of Bakgatlha women from the generations of the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s. This study was influenced by the study of Mmantho Nkotsoe and Belinda Bozzoli called Women of Phokeng which looked at the lives of women of Phokeng from an urban and rural sociological perspec- tive.22 These intergenerational experiences touch upon the impact of traditional leadership on their lives as well as community relations and the contexts of segregation in the early 1900s- 1940s, apartheid from the 1950s-1980s and the democratic period from 1990s -2017.23 Mabokela looks at a historical period as well as present day issues facing Bakgatlha from the co- lonial administration to Bophuthatswana and then the post-apartheid government. The strength of the thesis is that it sheds light on current struggles facing the community such as corruption by traditional leadership and poor service delivery from the Moretele Local Municipality.24 The life history approach gives voice to previously marginalised women’s authority of experience and challenges the historiography of always giving prominence to men and elites in history and polit- ical studies.25 The gap in the thesis, however, is its lack of engagement with a variety of sources 20 Webster, A. (2017). “Silencing Africa: Anthropological Knowledge at the University of the Witwatersrand”. Un- published M.A. Research Report: Wits University. 16. 21Mabokela, P. (2018). “Women of Makapanstad: The Life Experiences of Rural Women Living under Traditional Leadership from Segregation to Democracy”. Unpublished M.A. Thesis: Wits University. 22 Bozzoli, B & Nkotsoe, M. (1991). Women of Phokeng: Consciousness, Life Strategy and Migrancy in South Af- rica, 1900-1983. Portsmouth: Heinemann. 23Mabokela, “Women of Makapanstad”. 32. 24 Ibid, 45. 25 Ibid, 26. 30 on the history of Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha such as the Mosetlha and Kgafela split and the chal- lenges of Ntebeng Makapan as a Bakgatlha regent since it is based on women and gender in Makapanstad. Mogapi Letebele has written a Master’s thesis on Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha looking at the customs, beliefs, and Christianity in the community. His work focuses on the ways in which Christianity has decimated the cultural belief systems of the community. Through the missionary and colonial incursions, Bakgatlha culture and customs started playing second fiddle to the might of mission- ary and colonial indoctrination.26 Although the research is about Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha, one of its weakness is that only two people are interviewed. The voice of ordinary people in different Bakgatlha villages would be interesting to hear regarding sweeping generalizations such as these: All that is left of the BaKgatlha Ba Mosetlha is the name and not what used to define them as BaKgatlha; their identity is left only in their name. There was little or no serious crime and there was respect for authority, family life sanctity and community structures, but that is no more. There is very little hope for a future for the BaKgatlha peoples if the current trajectory is sustained and maintained. Christianity and colonialism have been accused of this degeneration or destruction of a culture, customs and beliefs.27 Colonialism and Christianity need to be engaged in a complex manner and not only that of vic- tim and conqueror type as Bakgatlha used their agency under these institutions and systems to negotiate their identity. Letebele, in a nostalgic approach, imagines Bakgatlha as a community that lived in utopia during precolonial and colonial times. Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha accepted the 26 Letebele, M. (2019). “Customs, Beliefs, and Christianity within the Life of the Bakgatla Ba Mosetlha”. Un- published M.A. Dissertation: University of Pretoria. 20. 27 Ibid, 8. 31 Hermannsburg mission from Germany on their land, something the author does not grapple with and how these missionaries did not only destroy African traditions but assisted with land buying and teaching people to read and write.28 African communities such as Batlhaping under Kgosi Mothibi saw missionaries as a passport to acquiring guns and securing land title deeds as exem- plified by the Bafokeng.29 Letebele did not consult archives on the complex relationship between Bakgatlha and Christianity hence it becomes a one sided narrative of Christianity destroying Af- rican spiritualty and culture. Hammanskraal is the town closest to Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha. The historiography of Hamman- skraal excludes Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha. They are mentioned in a generalised form but they are not named.30 The conceptualisation of a history of Hammanskraal excludes those who stay in Greater Hammanskraal, thereby robbing us of complexity. Sarah Godsell looks at the history of how Hammanskraal came into being without interrogating the complex relationships in the Moretele region between the different ethnic groups and urban communities. She looks at how a group of Amandebele-a-Moletlane settled among Bakgatlha and kept their culture and ethnicity. In the 1880s, with the assistance of missionaries, they started buying the farms Leeuwkraal and Tweefontein from the whites.31 Under the leadership of Karel Kekana, they were slowly im- pacted by colonial rule and white settlers.32 28 Chisholm, L. (2017). Between Worlds: German Missionaries and the Transition from Mission to Bantu Educa- tion. Johannesburg: Wits University Press. 56. 29 Shillington, K. (2011). Luka Jantjie: Resistance Hero of the South African Frontier. Johannesburg: Wits Univer- sity Press. 35. Mbenga, B and Manson, A. (2010). People of the Dew: A History of the Bafokeng of Phokeng-Rusten- burg Region, South Africa, From Early Times to 2000. Jacana Media: Johannesburg. 18. 30Godsell, S. (2015). “Blurred Borders of Belonging: Hammanskraal Histories 1942-2002”. Unpublished Ph.D. The- sis: Wits University. 47. 31 Ibid, 47-48. 32 Ibid, 51. 32 Inter-ethnic Relations among African Societies Literature on ethnicity and interactions amongst different polities in Southern Africa often draw upon colonial references, there is a need to rethink colonial taxonomies, historiographies and con- text. As Europeans took a central role in shaping and writing up much of African history, their theorisations and conceptualisations have taken hold and often remove the African voice out of history.33 Terence Ranger, in The Invention of Tradition posits that traditions were created by colonialists who settled on the continent.34 Ranger speaks about invented traditions as if they were absent on the African continent not in their particular form but in their essence. Concepts such as subordina- tion and domination, class formation and governance were already in existence in different forms in African society.35 For example, he says “…some Africans could become members of the gov- erning class of colonial Africa.”36 This statement is paradoxical as there were already other social structures in African polities that allowed for conquered or assimilated groups to join the ruling lineage by performing particular tasks. An example of this is the Buthelezi chiefdom and its im- portance to the amaZulu royal family.37 With regards to the tradition of subordination, this saw smaller polities and groups being absorbed by the hegemonic group. This was present in African polities long before colonial conquest. An example is the Bapedi Ba Maroteng, who as they be- came powerful were able to incorporate other chiefdoms into their administration by placing their 33 Mkhize, “The Missing Idiom of African Historiography”, 40. 34Ranger, T. (1983). “The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa”. In E. Hobsbawm and T. Ranger. The Inven- tion of Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 211. 35Lekgoathi, S. (2006). “Ethnicity and Identity: Struggle and Contestation in the Making of the Northern Transvaal Ndebele, ca 1860-2005.” Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis: University of Minnesota. 8. 36Ranger, T. “The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa”. 220-221. 37 Mzala, N. (1988). Gatsha Buthelezi: Chief with a Double Agenda. London: Zed Books. 102. 33 own chiefs and headmen into newly conquered territories or marrying into the ruling family.38 African communities did not become part of the modern world only when European colonists started to govern them. They had their own systems and traditions which also influenced colonial traditions, of which the European colonists took advantage of and incorporated them into the co- lonial system.39 Mafeje writes about the ideology of tribalism and challenges the convention of using terminology like “tribalism” when analysing African societies. Mafeje locates “tribalism” as an ideology that encapsulated African societies into a timeless colonial dimension incapable of social change.40 Mafeje adds that: A relatively undifferentiated society, practising a “primitive” subsistence economy and en- joying local autonomy, can legitimately be designated as a tribe. When such a society strives to maintain its basic structure and local autonomy, even under changed economic and political conditions, perhaps it can be said to exhibit 'tribalism'. But to impose the same concept on societies that have been effectively penetrated by European colonialism that have been successfully drawn into a capitalist money economy and a world market is a serious transgression.41 Thus, we can see that Mafeje is arguing against the retribalisation of African societies who have been drawn into the colonial societies both in rural and urban areas. The ideology of tribalism is an important concept in helping us move away from thinking about rural societies as inherently tribal as compared to their urban counterparts. This work on Bakgatlha seeks to complicate the 38Delius, P. (1983). The Land Belong to Us: The Pedi Polity, the Boers and the British in the Nineteenth-Century Transvaal. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. 39 Magubane, B. (1996). The Making of a Racist State: British Imperialism and the Union of South Africa 1875- 1910. Asmara: Africa World Press. 32. 40Mafeje, A. (1971). “The Ideology of Tribalism.” The Journal of Modern African Studies, 9, 2, 253. 41Ibid, 258. 34 idea of identity beyond the notion of “tribe” and actually engage the Bakgatlha community in their myriad diversities. It also seeks to show us the folly of Bantustans. Which went against systems of African social organisation which were based on nation, clan and lineage which offers a com- prehensive account of peoples’ identities; as compared to Bantustan states that lumped people together and differentiated others based on their ethnic affiliation without considering other deeper complexities. Colonialism in South Africa Colonial rule shaped identity in Africa in profound ways. However, it was not the only structure that solely shaped African societies. Different colonial powers came into the continent at different times, and they made incremental gains as they increased their territorial gains and subjected Af- ricans to their rule.42 The particular brand of colonialism that we will be looking at is settler colo- nialism. Southern Africa experienced this form of colonial domination. This part of Africa was mainly the preserve of the British, Portuguese, the Dutch and Germans. Colonial rule used ethnic- ity to create a fixed identity for Africans and used that to codify people and differentiate them institutionally. Although pre-colonial identities were there, they had some nuanced fluidities that allowed flexibility and tolerance. The way ethnologists such as Breutz and Schapera used history and its allied disciplines to create ethnic separatism and discrimination affected people’s psycho- logical and material reality and sense of belonging if they were between two shifting identities. My other way of thinking about ethnicity that informs this project is the way in which ethnicity and totemism coalesce. So, Ba Mosetlha are named for a Bakgatlha group but they fall under the general rubric of Batswana – which is a contested identity itself and in part a colonial construct.43 42Magubane, The Making of a Racist State, 309. 43Schapera, I., Comaroff, J. (1991). The Tswana. New York: Routledge. 20. 35 I am interested in how Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha were impacted by colonialism. My particular focus will be on the traditions and customs of the Bakgatlha that get impacted by colonial control. Di- turupa started to happen in a colonial context in the 1920s. I am interested in how Bakgatlha sol- diers returning from World War I appropriated military drills and parades from the frontline of World War 1 and then went on to create, invent and craft a carnival that gave particular meaning to their lives as war veterans in the post-war period. Scholarship on war and the military are silent on the emergence of carnivals like Diturupa, 44 which is a gap in the research of this scholarship that my work is filling and to which it is making a contribution. Diturupa started in 1918 after World War One.45 It was a tradition that was em- powering for Bakgatlha soldiers who had experienced racial segregation and poor remuneration after returning from the war.46 Scholars like Grundlingh have written about black participation in the war but do not use specific contexts and focus more on the general economic and political ramifications of the war on black communities in South Africa.47 They do not touch on the cul- tural consciousness that became part of the Black South African psyche after WWI as they saw military parades happening on the battlefronts. 44 See Grundy, K. (1983). Soldiers without Politics: Blacks in the South African Armed Forces (Perspectives on Southern Africa). Los Angeles: University of California Press. Nasson, B. (2015). WWI and the People of South Africa. Cape Town: Tafelberg Publishers, Sherperd, B. (2017). Men Of The Mendi: South Africa's Forgotten Heroes of World War. Johannesburg: 30 Degrees South Publishers. Nasson, B. (2004). “Delville Wood and South African Great War Commemoration.” in: The English Historical Review 119/480, 61-62. 45Grundlingh, Fighting their own War, 23. 46Mabokela, “Women of Makapanstad”, 91. 47Grundlingh, Fighting their own War, 167. 36 The idea of carnival will be looked at using literature from the African Diaspora, for instance from the former slave communities such as the Caribbean in Trinidad and Tobago.48 This festi- val arose out of a heritage of slavery, colonialism and a mixing of cultures from different conti- nents; The Trinidad Carnival not only syncretized these different forms into a unique spectacle but also cultivated a space that had the capacity to make public, real issues and experi- ences of injustice and discrimination through performance. The strength of the Trinidad Carnival performance lies in the performative, Carnivalesque ‘free abandon’ coupled with both: (1) the deeper significant African masquerade element evident in secret socie- ties throughout the African Diaspora, as well as (2) the celebration of freedom from slav- ery.49 Thus, we can see how carnival in Trinidad is a festival of entertainment that is laden with com- memorative aspects of African culture and the symbolic freedom from slavery. I am interested in how Ba Mosetlha through Diturupa carnival address community issues whilst simultaneously reflecting on their colonial blood-stained history. In South Africa, The Kaapse Klopse50 in Cape Town will be used to see what similarities these carnivals have with Diturupa in Makapanstad. I 48 Dewis, A. (2014). “Carnival Performance Aesthetics: Trinidad Carnival and Art Making in the Diaspora”. Un- published Ph.D. Thesis: Cardiff University. 24. 49 Ibid, 28. 50The Kaapse Klopse, also called the Tweede Nuwe Jaar Carnival happens in Cape Town amongst former slave communities who use it to celebrate their emancipation. Gregory, J. (2018). “A musical ethnography of the Kaapse Klopse carnival in Cape Town, South Africa”. Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation: Queen’s University Belfast; Oli- phant, C. (2013). “The changing faces of the Klopse: performing the Rainbow Nation during the Cape Town Carni- val”. Unpublished Master’s Thesis: UWC. Baxter, L. (1996). “History, identity and meaning: Cape Town's Coon Carnival in the 1960s and 1970s.” Unpublished M.A. Thesis: UCT; Jeppie, S. (1990). “Aspects of Popular Culture and Class Expression in Inner Cape Town, circa. 1939 – 1959”. Unpublished M.A. Thesis: University of Cape Town. 37 will also interrogate the idea of the Carnivalesque in an oppressive society and what this narra- tive and agency from Ba Mosetlha mean in shifting World War I (WWI) and World War II (WWII) culture and perspectives from a Eurocentric to an Afrocentric lens and worldview.51 I will also look at the politics of appropriation and what they mean in this context. Appropriation coming to mean the fact that Diturupa is a concept that was taken from the European soldiers who had a culture of marching and parading especially after emerging victorious in war.52An- other angle of decolonising looks at how Diturupa is appropriating African methods of carnival such as mekete (ceremonies), initiation and commemorations of war in African societies. Performance and cultural identity I have looked at the Trinidad and Tobago Carnival and South Africa’s Kaapse Klopse as two ex- amples of carnival in Africa and the African diaspora. There are numerous other examples of carnivals/festivals and musical performances which will be explored that focus on diverse themes of carnival and how that carnival is connected to issues of identity, race, ethnicity and class. The Trinidad and Tobago Carnival is about identity in the sense that it is a celebration by people who were emancipated from slavery; while Kaapse Klopse becomes a cultural expression of a creolized community at the Cape in South Africa who also have a heritage of slavery and settler colonialism. Neo Lekgotla laga Ramoupi has written extensively on the use of songs in cultural solidarity and resistance amongst the political prisoners of Robben Island.53 Musical performance on the Island took on resistance proportion and sustained inmates. According to Ramoupi: 51Keto, T. (1994). The Africa Centred Perspective of History. Chicago: Frontline Distribution. 28. 52Grundlingh, Fighting their own War, 167. 53 Lekgotla la ga Ramoupi, N. (2013). “‘Izingoma zo Mzabalazo” Esiqithini! Role of Songs in the African Libera- tion Struggle of South Africa, 1960-1991”. A Culture History of Robben Island.” Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation: 38 Song has always been, and continues to be, at the heart of humanity’s journey and has oc- cupied a central position in the life of African and black people in southern Africa. Songs have preserved many elements of African culture throughout the African experience from time immemorial, before the African’s encounter with Europeans, through the African ex- perience in slavery, which in the United States of America became the black experience, and through the colonial and apartheid periods in southern Africa. In a region where white minority rule attempted to eradicate not only African culture but also the African’s essen- tial humanity, Botho/Ubuntu (humaneness) African and black southern Africans held on to and developed their songs as a way of resisting, protesting, remembering, enduring, celebrating, subverting, loving, and ultimately triumphing.54 Ramoupi establishes songs as an important part of the African worldview and struggles from op- pression against colonial rule.55 These songs were sung by diverse prisoners on the Island in dif- ferent languages such as English, Afrikaans, IsiZulu, Sesotho, Sepedi, Xitsonga, and IsiXhosa. These songs carried a meaning and were used as an encouragement for those kept on the Island on the quest for liberation.56 The struggle songs fostered a culture of unity and a spirit of forging ahead in their quest for liberation. Struggle songs carry meanings and histories. Each struggle generation left its own footprint on the musicality of the struggle songs. This shows us that in thinking about political musical performance sites such as Robben Island were able to break the racial/ethnic/class/linguistic/political affiliation chain of struggle musical performance. Howard University.105. Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, N. (2018). “Cultural Resistance on Robben Island: Songs of Strug- gle and Liberation in Southern Africa.” In W.H. Worger, C. Ambler and N. Achebe (Eds). A Companion to African History. New Jersey: Wiley Blackwell. 459-482. 54 Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, “Cultural Resistance on Robben Island”, 464. 55 This new wave of historical narrative takes particular events and places them at the centre and is often a collective history as compared to the histories of the Island which often focuses on big shot political leaders like Nelson Man- dela. 56 Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, “Cultural Resistance on Robben Island”, 466. 39 David Coplan has done extensive research on Basotho migrants and their oral praise songs on the gold mines of Johannesburg. These poems are a break from the praise poetry found in Lesotho. They represent a new way of reconstructing oral poetry and incorporating it into song.57 These songs are used on the way to the mines, during leisure hours, underground in the belly of the earth and on weekends when competitions are organised.58 These songs reveal a break with the past traditions of focusing oral poetry on chiefs and their military exploits. They rather focus on the conditions miners face at the mines, the life and people they meet in Johannesburg. Oral praise poems have a moral authority of rebuking and chastising kings or chiefs when they err; while the oral performance by Basotho migrants does not rebuke the white mine supervisors but creates new meanings and forms of negotiation with authority.59 This genre of oral poetic music reveals that Basotho ethnic and cultural identity is fluid and susceptible to change and challenges our thinking about culture and tradition as fixed and static phenomena to be found only in the countryside. Deborah James has written on the musical performance of Bapedi men and women in a genre called kiba. This genre has its roots in the traditional music of Bapedi. Kiba is rooted in migrant culture as mediated and experienced by different Bapedi migrants. These migrants include men from Sekhukhuneland and other Bapedi areas, their wives in the rural areas of Sekhukhuneland and those who grew up on white owned farms and made their way to Johannesburg to work in different industries.60 Through kiba, female and male migrants dance and sing as a way to con- 57 Coplan, D. (1986). “Performance, Self-definition, and Social Experience in the Oral Poetry of Sotho Migrant Mineworkers”. African Studies Review, 29 (1), 29-40. 58 Coplan, D. (1987). “The Power of Oral Poetry: Narrative Songs of the Basotho Migrants.” Research in African Literatures 18, 1. 5. 59 Ibid. 14. 60 James, D. (1997). “‘Music of origin’: Class, social category and the performers and audience of Kiba, a South Af- rican migrant genre.” Africa, 67(3). 454 40 nect with their cultural roots, create social commentaries, while away their leisure time and or- ganise competitions among migrant organisations who are deeply connected to their homes in Sekhukhune, Moletji, Molepo and other areas in Bopedi.61 Kiba is unique in that it straddles the ground between tradition and modernity as the migrant performers wear Scottish kilts and sing using drums and traditional music found in the rural areas of Sekhukhuneland.62 This musical genre gives a particular ethnic identity to its performers and strengthens ties to the rural home- land. Beni Ngoma is an African Carnivalesque performance that is performed in the Swahili towns of Tanzania. Beni Ngoma originated from a fusion of Swahili coast Ngoma traditional dances and European military drills and brass bands.63 World War I popularized Beni Ngoma, which is rooted in cultural expression, competitive rivalry and mocking the colonial administrators. Beni Ngoma was a form of escape and relief from the harsh realities of colonial rule as people were affected by loss of land, forced labour, migration, famine, and other oppressive traits of colonial- ism.64 The success and popularization of Beni Ngoma was in its diffusion into inland Tanzanian towns who gave it their own meaning. Beni was an elite activity that saw its members incorpo- rate various material culture such as Scottish highlander uniforms, British royal regalia, model war ships and military uniform.65 The British took over German East Africa after WWI. Some 61 Ibid. 457. Maahlamela, T. (2017). “Sepedi Oral Poetry With Reference To Kiba Traditional Dance of South Af- rica.” Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis: Rhodes University. Mapaya, M. (2014). “Indigenous African Music: A Descriptive Analysis of Mmino wa Setšo from a Northern Sotho Perspective,” Mediterranean Journal of Social Science, 5(20), pp. 2211-2215. 62 Ibid. 455. 63 The military drills are also at the core of ditrupa dance techniques. Ranger, T. (1975). Dance and Society in East- ern Africa, 1890-1970: The Beni Ngoma. Berkeley: University of California Press.10. 64 Ibid. 30. Other scholarship on Beni Ngoma include: Strobel, M. (1979). Muslim Women in Mombasa 1890-1975. Yale University Press: New Haven. Tsuruta, T. (2003). “Popular Music, Sports, and Politics: A Development of Ur- ban Cultural Movements in Dar es Salaam, 1930s-1960s.” African Study Monographs, 24(3): 195-222. Gearhart, R. (1998). “Ngoma Memories: A History of Competitive Music and Dance Performance on the Kenya Coast.” Un- published Ph.D. Thesis: University of Florida. 65 Ranger, Dance and Society in Eastern Africa, 45. 41 Beni Ngoma elites were still loyal to German colonial rule and wanted Beni Ngoma to not change. New modes of leisure emerged such as football and new cultural modes of expression such as Taarab and Dansi saw Beni Ngoma go into decline in the 1950s.66 Beni Ngoma is a good example of how colonial rule and military cultures mixed with African traditional perfor- mances and created unique performative identities. It was criticized for its hierarchical, class ex- clusive and gender- based nature. This is a theme taken up by scholars such as Geiger who look at the role of women in the Tanganyika African National Union. This was a Tanzanian liberation movement that played a part in cultural consciousness and challenged the gender hierarchy of Beni Ngoma by forming female dance and music societies that also engaged in political activi- ties.67 Contribution of Study to Scholarship This study contributes to the understanding of Diturupa as a cultural commemoration amongst the Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha in Makapanstad. It also analyses the way identity changes and adapts to new contexts in a community. This study seeks to fill a gap with regards to cultural studies in rural communities. This study contributes to studies on performance and identity in rural areas and mar- ginalised communities who use culture to preserve and negotiate their identity. It seeks to place Diturupa at the centre of discourse and academic analysis. This is done by observing and inter- viewing participants of different Diturupa groups and understanding how they make meaning of the annual Diturupa cultural commemoration. This study is an Afrocentric study that places Afri- can voices at the centre of scholarship. It is also the first study to attempt to trace the origins and 66 Suriano, M. (2011). “Making the Modern: Contestations over Muziki wa Dansi in Tanganyika, ca. 1945–1961.” African Studies. 70:3, 393. Taarab music is a fusion of pre-Islamic Swahili tunes sung in rhythmic poetic style, spiced with Arab-style melodies. Dansi is a musical genre that focuses on dance music and Jazz in a Swahili context. 67 Geiger, S. (1997). TANU Women: Gender and Culture in the Making of Tanganyikan Nationalism, 1955-1965. Heinemann, James Currey. 42 organisation of Diturupa as it happens in Makapanstad and the changes that happen over the dec- ades. Another key site of contribution is to the world war studies. Diturupa contributes to the scholarship on counter-memory and counter-commemoration of WWI and II. Diturupa was one of the first commemorations of black soldiers when the colonial and apartheid governments wanted to erase the black contribution to the war effort. Diturupa is to be counted amongst the commemorations of the SS Mendi tragedy as participants dance and drill in honour of those who lost their lives. Diturupa also helps us to make sense of hybridity and the cultural impact of colonialism from the perspective of victims who used their agency to craft a new cultural consciousness in the form of Diturupa cultural commemoration. Diturupa adds to studies on African material culture and how this material culture adapts and uses western material culture to its own advantage. This study also contributes to debates around modernity in the African context and the debate between tradition and modernity. One major part of contribution is centered on visual culture and performance. Di- turupa is primarily a performance of drills, dances and songs by participants. By looking at the military drills and songs, we are able to get a sense of the military and cultural context that influ- ences it. The proliferation of photographic material on Diturupa in this digital age means that visual narratives can be constructed from Diturupa and add to the meanings and cultural consciousness it embodies. 43 Theoretical Framework The Afrocentric paradigm informs the theoretical conceptualisation of this research project. It fo- cuses on an African centred knowledge base and respect for this knowledge.1 Afrocentricity is explained as: A frame of reference wherein phenomena are viewed from the perspective of the African person. It centres on placing people of African origin in control of their lives and attitudes about the world. This means that we examine every aspect of the dislocation of African people; culture, economics, psychology, health and religion. . . . As an intellectual theory, Afrocentricity is the study of the ideas and events from the standpoint of Africans as the key players rather than victims. This theory becomes, by virtue of an authentic relationship to the centrality of our own reality, a fundamentally empirical project . . . it is Africa assert- ing itself intellectually and psychologically, breaking the bonds of Western domination in the mind as an analogue for breaking those bonds in every other field.2 This framework is an African centred perspective of history. It acknowledges and uses other per- spectives such as social history but emphasises analysis and interpretation in an African centred perspective and meaning. History, like most subjects in the humanities and social sciences, was used as a tool of empire and colonialism.3 In South Africa, our history was based on the historio- graphical models of British and Dutch colonialism. Afrocentric scholarship seeks to ensure that African voices in their different ways are represented in the historiography of South Africa without excluding or being hegemonic at the expense of other people.4 This approach is not unique to 1Mazama, A. (2003). The Afrocentric Paradigm. Africa World Press: Trenton. 22. 2 Ibid. 15. 3 Keto, The Africa Centred Perspective of History, 72 4Ibid. 117. Lekgotla laga Ramoupi, N. (2012). Imperative of African-Centred Curriculum in South Africa. Book, No. 16. Pretoria. Africa Institute of South Africa. https://www.academia.edu/12365968/ https://www.academia.edu/12365968/ 44 Afrocentric scholarship and is used by other approaches to South African historiography such as social history scholarship. Afrocentricity caused a lot of controversy and consternation in the academic world in the early 1980s and 1990s during the so-called culture wars centred on multiculturalism in the American academy. The debates inside and outside of Afrocentricity prove that it is a diverse scholarly pur- suit. Some scholars saw Afrocentricity as an academic movement and not necessarily a political movement. The tensions within Afrocentric scholarship involves the different strands of thought in it. Some Afrocentric scholars focus on the African American experience and fail to make links with African societies on the continent and make reference solely to ancient Egyptian society and culture.5 Another strand of the Afrocentric tradition involves a Pan African strand that sees schol- ars trying to combine the African continent and the African diaspora to bring them into conversa- tion and debate with each other.6 Afrocentricity is the guiding framework for the theoretical and methodological conceptualisations of this research on Diturupa carnival. It is precisely chosen because it is about putting African people at the centre of scholarship and creating a consciousness of victory and not of victimization and sustained engagement with scholarly topics. It is also about recognising indigenous knowledge systems and how they are as valid as any intellectual source from the archive. It is also about recognising that one is not there to merely do research but enter into a lifelong collaboration with the community and work on other projects together. Afrocentric scholarship also recognises that 5 Asante, M. (1990). Kemet, Afrocentricity and knowledge. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press. Karenga, M. (2010). Introduction to Black Studies (4th Ed.). Los Angeles: University of Sankore Press. 6 Keto, The African Centered Perspective, 25. Dei, G. (1996). “The role of Afrocentricity in the inclusive curriculum in Canadian schools.’ Canadian Journal of Education, 21(2), 170. Marimba, A. (1985). Yurugu: An African-Cen- tered Critique of European Cultural Thought and Behavior. Trenton: Africa World Press. Rodney, W. (1972). How Europe underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications. 45 the politics of knowledge production are at play and that one cannot merely act like a neo-colonial scholar only interested in taking knowledge from a community and not give back in an equal part- nership; not of subject and master relations. It is about making sure that voices of ordinary people are heard and taken seriously just as one would do with archival documents. Methodology This research used an oral history qualitative approach. Using oral history and archival texts to analyse and probe the history of the BaKgatlha ba Mosetlha. Oral history does not only cover interviews but focuses on a plethora of phenomena in the BaKgatlha Ba Mosetlha world. This includes spirituality, material culture, oral tradition, praise poetry and place names. The archival material is important because ethnologists such as Breutz and Van Warmelo often got the infor- mation from African informants and used educated Africans as interlocutors.7 This work cannot be discarded as it contains vital fragments of information that has been erased from public memory and remembrance. These scholars’ work is controversial and problematic and needs to be read against the grain and to see what is often emphasised and what is silenced and how this creates a linear history of BaKgatlha Ba Mosetlha and legitimises some while delegitimizing others at the same time.8 Asante speaks about the importance of locating a text and it is important to locate the texts of government ethnologists who were writing these texts with a particular purpose to serve the grand apartheid agenda of separate development and the creation of ethnic Bantustan states.9 As part of contextualising the Afrocentric paradigm, I will be borrowing from Indigenous 7 Lekgoathi, S. (2009). “Colonial experts, local interlocutors, informants and the making of the archive of the “Transvaal Ndebele”, 1930-1989”. Journal of African History. 50(1), 63. 8See the article. Morton, F & Boeyens, J. (2019). “The Tswana’s Antiquarian: The Life and Work of State Ethnologist Paul-Lenert Breutz (1912–1999)”. Southern African Humanities 32: 109–34. 9Asante, M. (1998). The Afrocentric Idea. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 132. Mazama, The Afrocentric Paradigm, 15. 46 Knowledge systems to ensure that knowledges such as clan praises can be used as valid historical sources.10 I will also borrow from historian Yvette Abrahams who implores those of us working from an African perspective to rehumanise and give dignity to those we study who have been dehumanised.11 Sources Oral Interviews I have managed to interview 36 people for this project. The majority sample for the interviews focused on Diturupa leaders who are in touch with different dynamics and are experts on Diturupa in its different facets. I interviewed young Diturupa participants who are part of Diturupa groups to get a youth perspective. I interviewed middle-aged Diturupa experts and participants who are the ones making sure that Diturupa cultural commemorations happen. Community members were interviewed at Diturupa commemorations but the gist of the knowledge and information was col- lected from interviews conducted with expert participants who are at the forefront of Diturupa commemoration and its preservation. Some interviews were informal and brief while others were more formal and thus used up more time. Due to Covid-1912, social distancing measures were implemented during singular inter- views13 and where necessary some interviews were done through telephonic calls and or email communication. I used a snowball method and relied on interviewees to assist me with getting other participants. Many people are suspicious of researchers and might assume that I work for the 10Odora-Hoppers, C. (2002). Indigenous Knowledge and the integration of Knowledge Systems: Towards a Philoso- phy of Articulation. Claremont New Africa Books. 34. 11Abrahams, a scholar of Saartjie Bartmann, rehumanises her and studies her with dignity by clothing her and mov- ing away from the colonial obsession with objectifying her buttocks. See Abrahams, Y. (2004) “Ambiguity' is my middle name: a research diary”. In Mabokela, R and Magubane, Z (Eds). Hear Our Voices: Race, Gender and the Status of Black South African Women in the Academy. Pretoria: UNISA Press. 13. 12 Dhama K, Et al. (2020). “Coronavirus Disease 2019 – COVID-19”. Clinical Microbiology Review; 33(4):20. 13 It was not possible or feasible for me to conduct group interviews due to the Covid 19 pandemic. 47 government or their views will reach those in power. To ensure that evidence was corroborated, we spoke to different people instead of relying on one or two interviewees. Oral interviews were conducted in the language of Setswana which is the mother-tongue of the community; thereafter they were transcribed from Setswana into English through writing. The material that relates to the focus of the topic is used as evidence and analysed. One of the contro- versial things about oral history is how historians who mine for data often miss key idioms that can reveal other insights.14 Although academic history often presents us with a set of predeter- mined questions, it is important for researchers to realise that oral history can lead to different insights and these can throw a new perspective on the research undertaken.15 Portelli tells us that oral history is more about meaning than the event itself.16 Through oral history and memory, we can reinterpret events and change over time. Portelli notes that oral and documentary history are not mutually exclusive, and can and should be used alongside one another in order to help create a more vivid picture of history.17 Oral histories are not used to find facts, but rather to find indi- vidual life stories which can be placed alongside facts found from the archives. Oral sources main- tain a different credibility to that of archival sources, and Portelli argues that their importance is not based on their connection to the facts, but rather their “imagination, symbolism, and desire to emerge” and thus he believes that there is no ‘false’ oral sources as they still remain psychologi- cally ‘true’ to the interviewee.18 He goes on to argue the importance of oral sources when they are by people who were actually at an event, which is a problem with many written documents, as they 14 Rassool, C and Minkley, G. (1998). “Orality, History and Social History in South Africa”. In S. Nuttall and C. Coetzee. Negotiating the Past: The Making of Memory in South Africa. London: Oxford University Press. .92-3. 15 Vansina, J. (1981). “Oral tradition and its methodology”. In Ki-Zerbo, J. (Ed). General History of Africa: Method- ology and African Prehistory. London: Heinemann Publishing. 142. 16 Portelli, A. (2003). “What Makes Oral History Different”. In R. Perks & A. Thompson (Eds). The Oral History Reader. London: Taylor & Francis E-Library. 17 Ibid. 18 Ibid. 48 are usually written by people who were not there.19 Although the way the historian makes use of this information is their own discretion, there are still extracts of facts and the individual interpre- tation by people at specific events which can prove to be useful for research. Archival Sources Archival sources that will be used include those that have been deposited in the National Archives in Pretoria. These sources give a brief analysis of the interactions between Bakgatlha chiefs in the early 1900s and the colonial administration. These sources reveal insight into the relations between Nchaupe Makapan, Ntebeng Makapan and the “Native” Commissioner for Hammanskraal.20 The Dr NJ van Warmelo collection at the University of Pretoria will be used to understand the pre- colonial history of Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha alongside the research by other ethnologists such as Breutz21 and oral accounts about the pre-colonial history of Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha. The Van Warmelo archive has information about the origins of Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha and the war of 1900 between Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha and Bahwaduba.22 The North West Provincial Archives in Mafi- keng will be used to illuminate the historical context of the Bantustan of Bophuthatswana and its relationship with Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha. The information contained in the Mafikeng archive looks at the troubles for succession in Moema village and the succession of Thipe Malebye in Dikebu village.23 Using archival resources, like oral history interviews, requires careful sifting of relevant material and interrogating the silences and the emphasis by asking critical questions of a 19 Ibid. 52-54. Thompson, P. (2003). “The Voice of the Past: Oral History”. In R Perks & Al Thompson (Eds). The Oral History Reader. London: Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2003. 20 National Archives of South Africa. ]. (18/07/1900) Letter from Ntebeng Makapan to Native Affairs Department. TAB: NA57/01. 21 Mogorosi, B. (1940). “Short account of the Kgatla “tribes” (written in Tswana)”. Dr N.J. van Warmelo Collec- tion: University of Pretoria: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/64488; 22 Musi, G. (1938). “Ntwa ya bogosi Makapanstad - troubles of 1900”. University of Pretoria: Van Warmelo Collec- tion. Address: http://hdl.handle.net/2263/72496 23 North West Provincial Archives. (1990). “Headmanship of Moema Village: Bakgatla ba ga Mosetlha.” Bophu- thatswana Papers, Office of the President. 6/4/2 (231). http://hdl.handle.net/2263/64488 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/72496 49 source, its meaning and its intended consequences.24 Not every archival material on Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha will be useful, but can lead us to ask questions of what the archive holds and what the significance of that archive is.25 Material culture, oral tradition and indigenous knowledge systems are other sources that will be analysed to enrich and add an alternative voice to the usual interviews and archival texts and pho- tographs. Material culture includes objects in the built environment such as mountains and man- made objects such as cultural artefacts and clothing for Diturupa carnival worn by various troop participants. My analytical skills are still developing with regards to analysing these kinds of sources, and I will subject these alternative sources to the same rigorous standards of historical enquiry as oral history and archival texts. Another important source of evidence is praise poetry that can be used to help us decode historical narratives and events. As a Motswana, Setswana is my first language and provides me with translation skills that allow me to translate praise poems with ease from Setswana into English; and then look at them critically and use them as part of historical evidence alongside other sources. Positionality It is important for a researcher to critically understand how their own positionality affects and influences their interpretations, analysis and the way they do research from their literature review, framing of questions, methods of data collection and the ideologies and theoretical paradigms that they use.26 I am an insider in the research as I speak the same language as the majority of the participants – Setswana. However, I am also an outsider as I am not part of the community as I did 24 Mazama, The Afrocentric Paradigm, 34. 25 Hamilton, C. (2018). “The Long Southern African Past: Enfolded Time and the Challenges of an Archive. In Bam, J, Ntsebeza, L & Zinn, A. (2018). Whose History Counts: Decolonising African Precolonial Historiography. Cape Town: African Sun Media. 91. 26 Allen, M. (2017). The Sage Encyclopedia of Communication Research Methods (Vols. 1-4). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications. 34. 50 not grow up there. I am part of the Bafokeng Bakwena people of Phokeng. I have family in Maka- panstad which assists me with contacts and legitimacy as people are more likely to open up to you if you have family in the area. These positionalities can strengthen or weaken one’s research as one is likely to be influenced from these positionalities when doing research.27 It is important for one to be grounded in thorough historical research and not only pursue research with a narrow political or cultural agenda. As a male researcher, I held an advantage of being allowed access into spaces such as the royal meetings and being allowed to address the chief and his headmen. Limitations One limitation was the Covid 19 pandemic as it did not allow for as many interviews to be carried out.28 The Covid 19 protocols such as social distancing, sanitizing, wearing of masks and handling of documents were adhered to and respected by interviewees and interviewer alike. The focus of interviews in the Makapanstad region means that there are still narratives that have not yet been tapped into with regards to Diturupa. Diturupa is also prevalent and widespread in villages such as Marapyane, Lefiso, Phake, Tshikanoshi, Seabe sa Majatladi, Mmametlhake, Nokaneng, Masobe, Loding and Lefisoane in Mpumalanga Province. By understanding Diturupa and the con- tribution of these communities we can have a richer picture of Diturupa and what it entails and its contradictions. Another limitation was not having access to all the groups who participate in Di- turupa and hearing their views which could bring about other themes, questions and research di- rections. 27 Thompson, P. “The Voice of the Past”. 27. 28 Lupton, D. (editor) (2020) Doing fieldwork in a pandemic (crowd-sourced document). Available at: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clGjGABB2h2qbduTgfqribHmog9B6P0NvMgVuiHZCl8/edit?ts=5e88ae0a# https://docs.google.com/document/d/1clGjGABB2h2qbduTgfqribHmog9B6P0NvMgVuiHZCl8/edit?ts=5e88ae0a 51 Ethical Considerations Ethics in research is an important and vital aspect that allows the researcher to do research work without harming the dignity and personhood of participants. It also makes one to realise that re- search cannot be fabricated or used to suit a particular agenda.29 It is important for a researcher to understand the ethical issues regarding oral history. A project of this nature needs one to think about the ways in which interviews need to be conducted and the relationship between interviewer and interviewee.30 As an interviewer, I realised the power and privilege that I possessed and re- flected on the authorial voice and the ways in which I used the information in the interviews.31 How questions are framed using Setswana helped me as a researcher to level the relationship dy- namics with research participants. I applied for ethical clearance from the university and my ap- plication has already been approved. Interviewees had full anonymity and confidentiality in the interview process as they will not be asked about themselves and their life histories, instead the focus of the project will be on Diturupa commemoration and how it adds to the culture and identity of the community in Makapanstad. The names of participants have been changed to reflect their anonymity. Another ethical dilemma is interviewees expecting some form of compensation. I made it clear right at the beginning of the interviews that I did not compensate monetarily or otherwise as this goes against ethical research and compromises the fairness of research outcomes.32 As this is an Afrocentric project, it is not enough to just be a detached observer who comes into the community to mine raw data and use it in the academy without giving back to the community and realising 29 Ritchie, D. (2015). Doing Oral History. New York: Oxford University Press. 75. 30 Ibid. 146. 31 Thompson, “The Voice of the Past. 26. 32. Denis, P. “The Ethics of Oral History”. In Phillipe Denis & Radikobo Ntsimane (Eds) (2008). Oral History in a Wounded Country: Interactive Interviewing in South Africa. Pietermaritzburg: UKZN Press. 72. 52 that scholarship needs to play a transformative role in society and needs to be shared with the community and not gather dust in the basement of the archival depository.33 Ethical clearance also involved getting informed consent from participants and making sure that they understand what the project entailed. This was done in accordance with University regulations on ethics. Chapter Outlines The focus of chapter one is to introduce the topic and the key arguments contained in this disser- tation. This chapter introduces Diturupa as an identity negotiation and construction amongst Bakgatlha Ba Mosetlha community in Makapanstad. It adds to the discourse about the diversity in rural areas and challenges the dominant discourse about rural areas as sites of ethnocentrism. The chapter outlines the rationale for Diturupa as an important research topic. It critically exam- ines the literature on performance, identity, rural communities, chieftaincy and carnivals around the world. This chapter looks at the contributions of Diturupa to scholarship on performance, identity, material culture and world war cultural studies. The theoretical lens taken by this thesis focuses on Afrocentricity and informs the thinking and conceptualization of Diturupa as an Afri- can centered performances appropriating from European military drills and using African cul- tural symbols. The methodological section deals with how research was carried out using oral history interviews, ethnographic participation, archival material and data from the internet and social media. The ethical considerations section focuses on obtaining clearance, keeping the con- fidentiality of the participants and doing the research with ethical integrity. Chapter Two focuses on the historical context of the Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha. The community is noted for having had a split with the Bakgatlha ba Kgafela in the 1700s. It looks at how 33Asante, The Afrocentric Idea, 173. Rassool & Minkley, Orality, History and Social History in South Africa, 93. 53 Bakgatlha interacted with other African communities such as the amaNdebele, missionaries and colonial administrations and the impact this had on their identity and social structure. It also fo- cuses on how diverse ethnic identities shape Diturupa. Diturupa has a historical context and does not emerge out of a vacuum. This chapter is about how Bakgatlha ba Mosetlha identity has changed over time to include Diturupa as a unique cultural feature of the identity. Chapter Three focuses on the origins of Diturupa cultural commemoration. It locates Diturupa as originating from the participation and involvement of black soldiers in WWI (1914-1918) and subsequently WWII (1939-1945). Diturupa is linked to the tragic SS Mendi disaster that saw over 600 black soldiers die at sea as they were about to participate in the war in France as part of the South African Native Labour Contingency. The history of and its change over time is dis- cussed and it is found that Diturupa has gone through a host of changes but it tried to keep to its heritage and cultural traditions. The chapter also discusses the ways in which Diturupa is a coun- ter-memory and counter-commemoration of the world wars as it did not receive official support or recognition by the colonial and apartheid administrations. Chapter Four focuses on material culture and performance in Diturupa. Material culture is the instruments and equipment of Diturupa. The materiality of Diturupa is traditional and western in orientation. Traditional instruments and drums which were used in the formative years of the cul- tural performance are now used by a diminishing number of participants while the European ket- tle drum and the Scottish kilts enjoy wide acclaim from Diturupa participants. The wearing of military uniforms infused with African decorations shows the hybridity of the material culture as it blends both cultures and does not lean exclusively to one side. Performance in Diturupa fo- cuses on