Sekhukhune, eldest son of Sekwati, succeeded his father in 1861. His accession to power heralded a shift in Pedi attitude to the Boers and they agreed on peaceful coexistence and military co-operation.
The establishment of Potgieter’s trekker community at Ohrigstad, east of the Steelpoort River, in 1845 introduced a new dimension to the balance of power in the eastern Transvaal. Some African communities – such as the Pedi, the Kopa under Boleu and the Ndzundza under Mabhogo – cautiously welcomed these trekkers, who were the followers of Andries Hendrik Potgieter and J.J. Burger. They hoped that the trekker presence, because of their possession of guns, would discourage any attacks by the Swazi, the Zulu and the Gaza Nguni against the peoples of the region.
From the start the trekker settlement was riddled with dissension and disunity due to power and economic struggles between the Potgieter and Burger factions. To legitimise his claims to power and authority over the trekker community, Potgieter negotiated with Sekwati in 1845. Although the contents of that ‘agreement’ are not known, it was claimed by the trekkers that all rights to the land had been alienated to them through that ‘treaty’. The ‘agreement’, however, did not specify the precise extent of the land alleged to have been alienated to the trekkers. It seems likely that while the trekkers considered the ‘treaty’ valid, the Pedi viewed it differently. As other African chiefs in the region did, Sekwati probably allocated the trekkers land for their settlement and use, but considered such land as belonging to him and his people. As Sekwati refused to part with any of his land, the trekkers considered other altern atives to gain rights to land. In July 1846 they concluded a treaty with the Swaziking, Mswati, who claimed sovereignty over much of the northeastern Transvaal. In that treaty, parts of the Pedi, Ndzundza-Ndebele, Kopa and Koni chiefdoms – which were in fact beyond the Swazi sovereignty – were ceded to the trekkers. The Pedi and other chiefdoms in the area held the belief that they had merely ceded to the trekkers rights of occupation and use of the land, but not perpetual ownership or ultimate control over it, as the trekkers maintained. These contradictory perceptions would inevitably lead to conflict.
Lydenburg in the 1860s. The trekker community at Ohrigstad divided in 1856: Andries Potgieter moved to Schoemansdal in the Soutpansberg and the remainder moved southwards to Lydenburg.
Other sources of conflict emanated from trekker raids on African societies, and demands for their agricultural labour and other forms of tribute on the basis of their claim to land ownership. For a while, the trekkers had some success at growing wheat, maize and beans, but they faced problems of diseases such as malaria and tsetse fly, and the long distance from markets. These problems forced them to abandon Ohrigstad. In 1848 and 1849 some of the trekkers went north and founded the town of Schoemansdal, while others founded Lydenburg to the south. Unwilling to use family labour, the trekkers resorted to forcing Africans into, especially, agricultural labour service for them, under the inboekseling (‘apprentice’) system.
Alexander Merensky
African resistance to trekker demands for labour and tribute was enhanced by their possession of guns. Also, by the early 1850s many trekker families had moved away from Ohrigstad, leaving those smaller and scattered groups that remained more vulnerable to African attacks. The trekkers were thus unable to enforce their demands for labour and tribute because both the contract labourers and even the inboekselinge deserted their masters. These deserters were able to take refuge in some of the African chiefdoms in the region that were still independent and relatively powerful. Taking advantage of the vulnerability of the Boers, African groups such as the Koni stole Boer cattle. The Boers blamed Sekwati and Mabhogo, leaders of two of the strongest kingdoms in the region, for their misfortunes.
In 1852, alarmed that the balance of power now seemed to have tilted against them, the Boers launched an unsuccessful attack on the Pedi stronghold, Phiring. There followed a stalemate in which the Boers continued to complain about lack of labour. In 1857, a treaty between Sekwati and the Boers stated that the Steelpoort River was the boundary between the Pedi kingdom to the north and the Lydenburg Republic to the south. This agreement seemed to be an admission by the Lydenburg authorities that they had no jurisdiction over the Pedi kingdom. Communities to the south, on the other hand, such as the Kopa and Ndzundza-Ndebele, were considered to be under Boer authority.
Alexander Merensky (top) and Albert Nachtigal of the Berlin Mission Society were accepted by the Pedi and they started their fi rst mission at the Pedi capital, Thaba Mosega, in 1860.
Sekwati died in September 1861 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Sekhukhune. His accession to power heralded a temporary shift in Pedi attitude to the Boers. Sekhukhune was from a relatively junior house and his position was insecure due to internal rivalry from his brothers, Mampuru and Mojaledi. In the early 1860s his brothers sought refuge among the Ndzundza-Ndebele, also competitors for power in the region.
Moreover, the long-standing threat of Swazi interference and attacks on the Pedi had not subsided. Sekhukhune feared that the disaffected Mampuru might link up with the Swazi army to attack the Pedi kingdom in order to overthrow him.In response to thesethreats, Sekhukhune agreed to peaceful co-existence and co-operation with the trekkers, including military co-operation. Thus, on 3 November 1863, Sekhukhune sent the Pedi army to assist Boer commandos in attempting to dislodge the Ndzundza-Ndebele from their fortified stronghold. But the Pedi gave up when they realised that the Boers made them do all the fighting, while the Boers only provided covering fire.
In the late 1860s, ZAR authority over much of the north and northeastern Transvaal was at its lowest; it was resisted not only by the Pedi but also by other groups, such as the Venda. That is why in 1867 the Boers abandoned Schoemansdal and much of the area between the Olifants and the Limpopo rivers. Meanwhile, those few whites who remained had to pay tribute to the local African chiefs. The balance of power was later to tilt again in favour of the Boers. In the meantime, however, the Pedi had another factor to deal with: the missionaries.
Like many post-Difaqane societies, the Pedi accepted missionaries – in this case Alexander Merensky and Albert Nachtigal of the Berlin Mission Society (BMS) from Germany. Their first mission station was opened in 1860 at the capital, Thaba Mosega. Four years later, three more stations were opened at Khalatlou, Phatametsane and GaRatau.
Sekhukhune himself never became a Christian. He disliked the missionaries’ attitudes to traditional rituals and the support given by Christians to his rival Mampuru. Nonetheless he continued to protect the Christians from the more extreme traditionalists who called for more drastic action than just tolerance. Like the Paris Evangelical Mission Society (PEMS) missionaries among the Sotho to the south, the BMS missionaries provided the Pedi king with political and diplomatic guidance and advice.
But, unlike the PEMS missionaries who openly and consistently supported Moshoeshoe, the BMS missionaries formally undertook to support the ZAR government interests and even to ‘maintain law and order’ among the Pedi. The BMS missionaries were well aware that the ZAR claim to authority over the Pedi was in fact dubious. At the same time, they recognised that their long-term interests lay with the Boer authorities.Indeed, in 1863, the ZAR government officially appointed Merensky as its representative among the Pedi.
Following an attempt by Sekhukhune to enforce compliance from the Christian elements, relations deteriorated. The Christians were ordered to leave Thaba Mosega. Pleas to the king to reverse his decision were ignored and Merensky left with his followers in 1865 to found a new mission station, aptly named Botshabelo, or place of refuge.
Fort Wilhelm and Botshabelo in 1867. When Sekhukune ordered the Christians to leave in 1865, Merensky and his followers founded a new station called Botshabelo – place of refuge.
Another important consequence of white settlement and economic activity in the Transvaal and elsewhere was the onset of migrant labour among the Pedi, which dated back to the 1840s. By the early 1860s, as in other African chiefdoms, hundreds of Pedi men each year travelled to the Cape Colony. From 1869, when diamond mining at Kimberley opened up a new market for labour, the Pedi and Tsonga were the major sources of labour. On their return home, the migrants purchased guns, with which they were able to defend themselves against the Swazi, the Zulu and the trekkers, and to hunt for skins, horns and ivory. By 1862 thousands of guns were brought into the northeastern Transvaal. On arrival at home, they also bought cattle.
Initially, it was mainly refugees and rootless individuals impoverished by the ravages of the Difaqane that became migrant labourers. But by the 1870s, most young men went into migrant labour simply for economic reasons, irrespective of social status. The Pedi king received as tribute £1 from the earnings of every returning migrant, a common practice among other African royals, such as Mokgatle of the Fokeng and Moshoeshoe of the Sotho. By the late 1860s the Pedi had emerged as a relatively powerful kingdom, and could keep the ambitions of the Boers in the Transvaal at bay. They were to face a more determined challenge to this independence in the next decade.
