Description

In the Southern African Sotho–Tswana languages (Sesotho, Setswana, and the Northern Sotho language) and the traditions of the clan speakers, different groups identify themselves with certain clans. The groups believe in the existence of the Modimo wa Kgale (God of the Old) or the "Invisible One." As legend has it, they came out of a marsh

Marsh

In geography, a marsh, or morass, is a type of wetland that is subject to frequent or continuous flood. Typically the water is shallow and features grasses, rushes, reeds, typhas, sedges, other herbaceous plants, and moss....

 called "Ntswanatsatsi" (the place from where the sun emerges) and each clan was assigned a totem

Totem

A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...

 where each totem is symbolized by a 'dignified' animal.

Explanation

The selection and assignment of these animals is based on either one of two things or both: the wildness of these animals and how dignified they seem to the group. This was done to symbolize the "Invisible One". It is because of this that these totems are sacred.

In the meditation of the spirits of the deceased are also believed to give guidance and direction in the groups' under takings and dangers. Unity in this group of people still exists, although the practicing of rituals is not as strict as it used to be. The practicing of different rituals is specific to a clan: all rituals - from marriages, to circumcision, to births and burials. This also happens to be one of the ways in which the clan names are preserved. Another is the naming of children after their predecessors as a way to make sure that the names of each clan are commemorated and kept within each family in each group, in effect keeping the clan intact. The Sesotho name for this is "theellano," naming a child after their grandparents or great-grandparents.

A further important way of keeping the clans intact was reciting the clan's Seboko (singular form of Diboko). Raletshabisa Motale, from the village Dikhelekeng, in Butha-Buthe

Butha-Buthe

Butha-Buthe is the capital city or camptown of the Butha-Buthe District in Lesotho. It has a population of approximately 10,000 . It is named for Butha-Buthe Mountain to the north of the town, which King Moshoeshoe I used as his a fortification and headquarters from 1821 to 1823, during his war...

, Lesotho

Lesotho

Lesotho , officially the Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The name...

, who has studied the Basotho

Basotho

The ancestors of the Sotho people have lived in southern Africa since around the fifth century. The Sotho nation emerged from the accomplished diplomacy of Moshoeshoe I who gathered together disparate clans of Sotho–Tswana origin that had dispersed across southern Africa in the early 19th century...

 culture, argued recitation of the Seboko (clan Name) means an identification of a person, a self-explanation according to the one's family from which one descends.

Switching from one Seboko to the other is not an easy task. It only occurred in extreme cases where, for example, a person had to change his identity because he had to flee into another family in a different clan. Another example is when a woman married. An offering had to be made to the Badimo (the spirits of the deceased) and then an acceptance by the Badimo would be given to the one who is switching families.

The reason there are so many clan names is because of the splitting up of groups. Some people wanted independence, and some violated the law so they were forced out. [1]

Clan names from totems

• Bakwena – Kwena (crocodile)
• Bafokeng – Phoka (dew), morara (wild vine), mmutla (rabbit)
• Batloung – Tlou (elephant)
• Batshweneng – Tshwene (baboon)
• Bakubung – Kubu (hippopotamus)
• Baphuthing – Phuthi (duiker), lejwe (stone)
• Bafula-kolobeng – Kolobe (wild pig)
• Bahlaping – Tlhapi (fish)
• Banareng – Nare (buffalo)
• Bataung
  Bataung
  Bataung is one of the three main Basotho tribes, who speak Sesotho, the other two being Batlokwa and Bakoena."Tau" is a Sesotho word meaning "lion", and this animal is their totem....
  
  – Tau (lion)
• Batlokwa

(cf. Matsela and Moletsane 1993:7)

External links

• Study South Africa