User:Johannes ntshontsi

Malepe Hills
From the Village of Mahalapye in the Central district of Botswana, traveling westwards on the old gravel road which was once an important road linking the village of Kalamare and Mahalapye from the old days, you will pass through two hills just 6km out of Mahalapye, in fact the old road passes between them, these two hills are really of one kind, they are completely different in structure and form, the other one on the south side of the road rises gently from the ground to its summit, however the other hill on the south side of the road is quite unique, it appears as if it has been designed by the old giants themselves, it has got huge boulders which seem to be ready to tumble down at any time. This is the very hill which I am much interested in because, we used to explore its caves and dungeons every time we felt like doing something Mischievous, it was our favorite sports especially on Friday afternoons when got home from Frederick Maharero Primary School in Mahalapye,(a beautiful memorial school named after the famous Herero chief of Namibia,It was where we escaped from endless chores, we were children by then, mind you I have never seen anyone climbing to the very top of the hill,because really it is impossible, somewhere near the top, there is a narrow long passage between two huge long boulders which can allow you to cross to the west side of the hill, from there you can see the village of Kalamare roof tops shining in the hot sun almost 30kms away, you can also see the famous Kutswe hills. On the eastern side, there is a place where it is somehow a little bit flat, plenty of tall grasses grows here, then you can see the Tswapong hills hills many kilometres to the east.

Malepe hills do really need to be protected as a world heritage site, before further destruction wipes out the traces of items of archaeological importance, as children we explored the scary caves, one day we found a very ancient short spear, similar to those used by the Zulu people, which we gave it to our father who then was very excited to use it to mix his traditional medicines, There are countless of broken bits of well decorated pottery, and you can clearly see that these hills were once used as shelters by some ancient forgotten tribes, There are also some more evidence of settlements on the hills because some of the rocks have been carefully placed on top of the other to make some sort of platforms, that’s where you will come across flat areas which have stood the test of time and they are there to be explored and to discover unwritten history of old Botswana.

At the very foot of the hill on the eastern side, you will come across very porous dusty kind of grey soil, and it has been a home of the spring hares for years unknown, the small creatures makes burrows all over the place, they look like small kangaroos, with strong hind legs and short front legs. This place where the spring hares dwell is for sure an old grave yard, old folks mentioned that they used to find human remains such as hairs and skulls, which they would rebury so that kids would not come across such things, even today you can still see one or two old bones which have been dug out by these small creatures as they still inhabit the area. On the western side of this very hill, there you will find morabaraba, an old traditional game with 24 holes or 32 holes where by two small stones will be placed on each hole, then players will start moving the stones along the holes.

Many old Inhabitants of the Malepe lands have tales to tell about the mysterious hills, like a huge snake which doesn’t move like an ordinary snake, but moves by making huge humps and then stretching again. The tales are numerous as paranormal activities have been witnessed by some, village activities are sometimes heard on the northern side of the hill. However most of the old residents of the Malepe lands Like Twadimpe, Titiela, Jacob Tlhake, Mpepu, and Rasenonyane have passed on.

Malepe hills are not the only hills which are unexplored, there is another hill further in the North known as kainangwe hill, An old man by the name of Sefako from Mahalapye, have a wonderful story to tell about the relation of Kainangwe hill and Tshekedi Kgama, as he pointed towards the old road which has been used by the Great Tshekedi, the road also passes not far from the Malepe hills too. 34 kilometres west of Mahalapye,in the village of Kalamare also lies a very old huge cemetery just outside the village when you follow the road to Moholwane lands, it appears that these were the graves of the fallen soldiers from a warring tribe, no one could really tell about the graves, but looking at their vastness, one tribe was wiped out for sure, these can be the remains of Bangwato, Batlokwa ba Manthatisi, Matebele a Mzilikazi or Makololo a Sebitwane only thorough investigation, then we can unearth these mysterious graves. Someone may really want to know where the Malepe hills people came from,what happened to them,how did they manage to live in caves, what were they afraid of, did they leave any descendants, where did they get their water supply as Mahalapye river is several kilometres away, were they the result of the difaqane, we knew that Sebitoane and the Makololo migrated from Lesotho area to Zambia,and Mzilikazi wrecked havoc all over the country, from Bulawayo to Shoshong and 640 kms from bulawayo to Molapowabojang near Lobatse,there is a hill named after Mzilikazi king of Matabele locals call it Mosenekatsi so many questions are left unanswered. It is not only the Malepe hills which hold the history, just less than 2kms from the hills, there is an evidence of a More older well organised settlement, rather more like an ancient lost City, the long mounds of white soil and large bone remains scattered all over,what happened to old lost city will probably be lost in mystery.

Compiled by J.Ntshontsi email kofijoentshontsi@yahoo.com J.Ntshontsi is a Music lecturer at Tlokweng College of Education. He has strong passion on the History of Southern Africa, Photography, Music and Archaeology and has done Ethnography and Video Documentation (UKZN).