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Know your nation: Sekhukhune - the warrior king who was murdered by his half-brother

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Sekhukhune was the king of Marota, the Pedi empire. Subjects paid him tribute from the Limpopo to the Vaal River. He succeeded his father Sekwati, who defeated the Boers in 1838 and 1846, to the throne in 1861.


And the Boers went on making trouble in Marota. In 1876 President Thomas Francois Burgers marched on Thaba Mosega, Sekhukhune’s capital. He came with field guns and 18 000 men. But they turned and fled from the Pedi warriors, and Burgers was shamed.

In 1878 the British Captain Clarke invaded. His men were defeated by Sekhukhune’s forces. But the British came back in 1879, allied with the Boers and the Swazis. A vastly superior force besieged Thaba Mosega, and the last king of Marota was taken captive and led to Pretoria, but the proud warrior held his head high. At 65, he had just suffered his first and last defeat.

He came out of prison in 1881. By then, white men were ruling the Pedi lands.

The warrior king died in 1882 by the hand of his jealous half-brother Mampuru, who was found guilty and hanged in Pretoria.

And the glory of Marota was gone.

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