Tlokwa Tribe - Classification

Classification

The Batlokwa chiefdoms form part of the larger group of Sotho-Tswana peoples, which itself is one of sub-divisions of the Bantu-speaking peoples. In addition to the Batswana or 'Western Sotho', the Sotho-Tswana group includes the Basotho of Lesotho and the Orange Free State, to whom the term 'Sotho' has come to be more specifically and almost exclusively applied. This group sometimes also is referred to as the 'Southern Sotho' in connection with linguistic distinctions. A third group comprises the Northern Sotho, a term sometimes incorrectly reduced to one prominent Northern Sotho people, the Bapedi. These different groups together are often classified for convenience as 'Sotho-Tswana'. From an early stage of their history, they shared a number of linguistic and cultural characteristics that distinguished them from other Bantu-speakers of southern Africa. Most prominent was mutually intelligible dialects. Other features included totemism, preferential marriage of maternal cousins, and an architectural style characterised by a round hut with a conical thatch roof supported by wooden pillars on the outside. Other commonalities included a style skin cloaks called dikobo, dense and close village settlements larger than those of 'Nguni' peoples, and a tradition of building in stone in less grassy or wooded regions.

The history of the Sotho-Tswana people is one of continual dissension and fission where disputes, sometimes over chieftain ascendancy, resulted in a section of the clan breaking away from the main clan, under the leadership of a dissatisfied chief's relative, and settling elsewhere. Often the name of the man who led the splinter group was taken as the new tribe's name. The traditions of the Sotho-Tswana people point to a northward origin, and indicate that their southward movement was part of the great migrations of the Bantu-speaking iron-age peoples. Usually the theory asserts that the Sotho-Tswana separated from other Bantu-speaking peoples in the vicinity of the Great Lakes of East Africa, and that they proceeded downwards along the western part of present-day Zimbabwe.