“Paying off old scores, Sekukuni's natives driving the Boers of Viljoen's Commando out of their territory.”

Lithograph by W. T. Maud, after a sketch by Lionel James, South Africa, 1901.

The Pedi, also known as the Bapedi are a Northern Sotho people who established the Kingdom of Marota in northern South Africa. This was a once powerful kingdom that, by the 19th century, had become weakened as a result of the tumultuous Mfecane. 

The Pedi are a traditionally agro-pastoralist people who, like their southern Sotho kin of Basutoland (modern-day Lesotho), took a liking to horses after their introduction to the region by Europeans, and were thus able to field cavalry to face their enemies.   

On two occasions, in 1852 and 1876, the Boers had tried and failed to conquer the Pedi. The Pedi Kingdom was however finally conquered by the British in 1879, during the period of British administration in the Transvaal, which came to an end in 1881 as a result of the First Anglo–Boer War. The Pedi Kingdom was then occupied by the Boer South African Republic and Boer settlers started moving in. Sekhukhune, the Pedi king, was imprisoned, and following his release, assassinated by his own step brother, Mampuru II, in 1882, who coveted the throne for himself, but was himself arrested and hanged by the Boer South African Republic the following year. 

Sekhukhune’s grandson, Sekhukhune II, would succeed Mampuru, and rule the Bapedi Kingdom during the turbulent years of the Second Anglo-Boer War (1899 – 1902), during which the Pedi expelled the Boer settlers from their land and effectively regained their independence, for a short while. After the withdrawal of burghers from Pedi territory in June 1900, the remaining Boer officials were driven from the district, and during the guerrilla war Boer commando’s avoided moving into the region between the Olifants and Steelpoort rivers controlled by Sekhukhune II’s men. 

W. T. Maud’s illustration depicts a desperate Boer commando under Ben Viljoen making the mistake of retreating through Pedi territory after a confrontation with a British force under Sir Bindon Blood.

The original caption reads:

“When the Boers of Louis Botha’s command broke back in front of Sir Bindon Blood’s drive, they split up into three parties. The centre party, under Ben Viljoen, tried to take a short cut to the Zoutpansberg by crossing Sekukuni’s country. But Sekukuni’s impi had been waiting for this opportunity, and fell upon the advance guard of the Boers in the heavy bush. They claim to have killed thirty, ridden down and “knobkerried” in the narrow paths of the bush-veldt.”

After the war, the Pedi country, also known as Sekhukhuneland, was brought back under British rule and eventually became part of the Union of South Africa.

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