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NOTE ON THEPHALABORWA AND THEIRMORULA COMPLEXEILEEN JENSEN KRIGEPublished online: 31 Mar 2011.

To cite this article: EILEEN JENSEN KRIGE (1937) NOTE ON THE PHALABORWAAND THEIR MORULA COMPLEX, Bantu Studies, 11:1, 357-366, DOI:10.1080/02561751.1937.9676060

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NOTE ON THE PHALABORWA AND THEIRMORULA COMPLEXl

By EILEEN JENSEN KRIGE

On the western borders of the Kruger National Park, near thejunction of the Selati with the Olifants river, live the Phalaborwa, a peoplenot very numerous but one of the most interesting in the north-easternTransvaal. Though long renowned among Bantu tribes of the Lowveldas workers in iron and copper, they are but little-known to the Europeanfrom whose unwelcome attentions they have been spared by the unhealthyand undeveloped nature of their country. The first missionary activitiesamong them began only some twelve years ago when a church and 'schoolwere established. The Phalaborwa comprise the people of the co­terminous Makhushane and Maseke Reserves on the Selati river and thoseof Selwana's Reserve on the Great Letaba to the north, (see Map) whoshare with two or three other, unrelated tribes of the Lowveld the dialecticpeculiarity of using the for prefix se of the Sotho Iaaguage.s

1 In June and July, 1937, my husband and I made a tour ofthe tribes of the NorthernTransvaal, with the primary object of understanding the general setting ofLobedu culture and studying the relations and contacts between theLobedu and neighbouring tribes. The Phalaborwa showed so manyinteresting features and are so little known, that I have been tempted to writethis note on the more salient aspects of their culture in spite of the inaccuraciesand lack of adequate checking of material that a visit of only one week makesinevitable. One of the difficulties confronting the anthropologist in S. Africais that too little is known of the range of variation to be found amongdifferent tribes or tribal clusters. There are many aspects of Bantu culture,such as certain initiation schools and spirit possession, that form, probably, asingle culture complex and cannot be fully understood until they have beenstudied in a number of different tribes in all their various manifestations.But until more is known about the general customs of various tribes, thestudent does not know where to go for such a study. Obviously it is ofadvantage to know where, e.g., the byale school still functions fully andwhere it is all but dead. and very often puzzling features of the special tribeone is studying can be cleared up by a visit to another tribe having similarinstitutions, if one knows where to find such a tribe. For these generalreasons I feel that short notes such as this one on special features of interestin different tribes might be of value in bringing to the notice of thoseinterested in various aspects of primitive sociology the nature of the vastamount of matei ial that still awaits investization.

I Van Warmelo in his Preliminary Survey of the Bantu Tribes of South Africacalls the Moxoboya people of the Thabina valley also Phalaborwa. but thisis incorrect. Both Moxoboya and Phalaborwa deny any relationship whatever,saying that even their common totem 110M does not refer to the sameanimal, being a hedgehog in the case of the Thabina, a porcupine in that ofthe Phalaborwa,

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Origin and Dioisions of the Phalaboruia

The Phalaborwa had their origin in the north (Bokxalaka or Rhodesia),according to three independent accounts given by representative oldmen, including the rangoane (father's younger brother) of Chief Makhu­shane. Travelling south in a direction east of their present location butconsiderably west of the Thonga, they came to rest at the junction of theLetaba and Olifants rivers on the eastern edge of what is to-day theKruger National Park, from where they gradually spread west to occupythe land.between the Letaba and Olifants rivers as far as the vicinity ofGravelotte. They found the. country occupied by the Salane, aprimitive people without a chief, who did not know the use of fire andwhom the Phalaborwa were able easily to scatter and dispossess by settingfire to the bush. Descendants of the Salane are still to be found amongthe Phalaborwa to-day. An alternative account which I believe to be farless reliable was given by the local teacher, who is the younger brother ofChief Makhushane, and an old man to whom he took us. According tothis the Phalaborwa came to their present abode from the south wheretheir relatives the Kxatla still live. Leaving their brothers, theMakau, near Pretoria they moved north, changing their totem fromkxabo (monkey) to noko (porcupine) on their way; and on their arrival attheir new home they called it Phalaborwa because it excelled (phala) thesouth (borwa). Several factors combine to make this theory improbable.The two accounts of a southern origin do not agree in detail; theMakau under Chief Alfred Motsepe, whom we visited to verify the story,deny all knowledge of the Phalaborwa ; while the two supporters of thistheory both have had intimate connections. with people in the south.The brother of the chief is a young man who was educated at Kilnerton,near Pretoria and it is possible that his version, although he states it to bethat of his father (who also had lived in Sekukuniland for some time),represents an attempt at linking up with the people in the south. Theold man who corroborated his story of a southern origin was found oninvestigation to have lived many years in Sekukuniland, where he marrieda Pedi woman, a fact which helped to explain a number of similarities toPedi tradition given it) his account of the Phalaborwa.

The present divisions of the Phalaborwa tribe date from the reign ofMakegela when the Maseke section hived off and becamed independent.On the death of Makegela his chief son Majaji quarrelled with a youngerson Lebatho, who moved a little way off and gave rise to Makushanc'ssection of the Phalaborwa. On the death of Majaji in the beginning ofthe present century, his sons Madume and Selwana quarrelled.Madume, the rightful heir, after considerable fighting took refuge with

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THE l'HAl.ABORWA AND MORU1.A COMI'LEX 359

the Tsubye or Shai of Mashishimali, their immediate neighbours to thesouth, who had trekked north from the Steelpoort river in Sekukunilandand were occupying the land between the Selati and Olifants rivers.Here Madume's descendants live to this day. Selwana, the rival claimant,moved north and established himself on the banks of the Letaba river.The people of Mashishimali, though unrelated to the Phalaborwa, areindistinguishable from them in material culture and so similar in socialorganisation that this account of Phalaborwa culture can be taken asapplying equally to the Tsubye.!

Effect of Environment on Phalabortoa Food Habits and Daily Life

Thol'cih related in social organisation to what one may call theLobedu complex of Sotho-ised peoples occupying the greater portionof the Lowveld of the N.E. Transvaal, the Phalaberwa exhibit a number ofcharacteristic features worthy of special study. Many of the moretypical of these are associated with their environment. The low-lying,unhealthy bushveld which they occupy is an area where the rainfall ismost uncertain, crops generally poor and starvation an eventuality towhich the people have grown accustomed. Mealies do not thrive, thechief crops being various varieties of kaffir-corn, and the chief greenrelishes are leaves of the pwnpkin and of the Native bean. Even thecommon Blackjack weed does not grow here. Constant shortage ofcrops has combined with the unhealthiness of this fever-ridden area tokeep the population sparce, for not only is there little incentive to strangersto trek into the country but numbers of the people move away after everydrought to seek food in better-watered parts such as Modjadji's country.Some of these return when prospects improve, but many never comeback. The great need for grain has led also to a good deal of trade withneighbouring tribes, most important among which are the Mapulanapeoples south of the Olifunts river who exchange mealies with the Phalabo­rwa for cattle and to whose influence can be traced the growing use inhut-building of interwoven, horizontal lathes between the perpendicularpoles which form the frame-work of all their huts. To-day Europeansalso come into this area to exchange mealies for cattle at the rate usuallyof four to five bags per head.

in the absence of sufficient corn crops and many of those plantswhich in other areas Can be used as green relishes with porridge, themorula nut has assumed very great importance. The morulas as a food

1 The material for this paper was collected in the area on the banks of the Selati,Selwana's location was not visited but we were told that their mode of lifewas identical.

aSclerocarya caffra,

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and a -drink is used extensively all over the Northern Transvaal, but suchis its importance in the economic life of the Phalaborwa that theirs maywith justice be termed a morula culture. This tree, one of the commonestin the bushveld, provides yellow, plum-like fruits which ripen from theend of January to March just when the supply of com is running low.Consequently especially in lean years, mokhope, the drink made from thisfruit, comes as a welcome addition to the Native diet. This drink,consisting of the juice of the morula fruit to which some water is added,has when newly-made the taste of an ordinary fruit drink, but after a dayor two it ferments to form a cider, commonly known to Europeans asmorula beer, which has a very high anti-scorbutic value. An analysis ofthis drink, kindly undertaken by the S.A. Institute for Medical Researchshowed it to have a " very high vitamin C content, being twice as potentas average orange juice. A Native drinking this beer would only have toconsume one oz. per day to keep tree from scurvy." In winter thePhalaborwa subsist largely on the nuts found inside the morula pip whichmay be mixed with spinach, with meat or even, in summer, with greenmealies, and can be stamped to form a cake which is eaten alone. Thesenuts are very nutritious, containing high percentages of protein, fat andcarbohydrate'. The skins of the fruit are used for snuff, being burnt toashes and mixed with the ground tobacco.

The importance of the morula can be seen by special developments inconnection with it here, which are not to be found in other tribes. ThePhalaborwa have, far example, a special implement known as modukulofor extracting the morula nut from the pip after it has been cracked openbetween two stones. It consists of a flattened piece of iron or copper,about three inches long and one-third of an inch in width, pointed at oneend, bent over at the other to form a loop, which enables itto be worn roundthe neck, suspended from a piece of plaited string. Women spend dayscracking morula pips, just as, in other tribes, they stamp or grind comfor meals, and every woman wears her modukulo. After the nuts havebeen extracted, they are placed in fiat baskets and. winnowed to get rid ofthe dry inner covering of the nuts, after which they may be put in a closedcalabash where they will keep fresh for some days. Another peculiarfeature of Phalaborwa culture is the hammock-like receptacle made ofstrings of bark lined with grass and supported by four poles, in which themorula pips are stored. These are to be found in every kraal. Commonalso are net bags of Native string used for carrying marula fruits, but

1 An analysis of morula nut kindly given by Dr. Fox of the S. A. Institute for. Medical Research is as follows;-

Moillture 5.0 Fats 33.1 Mineralsslts 3.4 Magnesium 0.007 Protein 22.(Carbohydrate and Fibre 36.4 Calcium 0.14 Iron 0.008 Phosphorus 0.69.

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these are also found in other areas. Reference to the morula is foundWen in tribal history. One of the old chiefs was wounded by the raidingMafote of Sekukuniland through the carelessness of a follower whogave away' hilt whereabouts by cracking morula pips when the enemy werenear, while on another occasion the Tsubye lost a considerable tractof country by delaying to eat morula nuts when they should have gone tomeet the Phalaborwa to decide on a boundary.

Niggardly in her supply of crops, nature has tried to make good notalone by a very plentiful supply of morula trees in the Phalaborwa areabut also by providing the modudu palm! which grows profusely along thebanks of the Lower Selati and forms a useful food. The inner portion ofthe fibrous stem of this palm is eaten either raw or cooked; in summer thefruits can be eaten, while in spring, when the sap is rising, wine is made ofthe juice. Sharpened sticks are stuck into the stem and along these thesap runs to be caught up into a receptacle placed underneath. Thejuice may be drunk at once or left for a day or two, when it becomes apotent and intoxicating drink.

Though the Phalaborwa arc rich in cattle, for the country which theyoccupy is better suited to stock-raising than agriculture, milk plays asurprisingly small role in their diet, being used (thick or in liquid form)mainly by herd-boys. Nor do these people show any greater readinessto kill their cattle for meat than other Bantu tribes. It would seem thatuncertainty in their food supply has tended towards increased careless­ness rather than frugality and foresight. When crops are good, as theywere last year, people will be so busy converting this abundance into beerthat they may not trouble to do their planting when the first rains fall,and as a result of last year's abundance, therefore, most people did notplant till February this year, too late for an adequate harvest. Phalabo­rwa women are proverbially irregular in their cooking. In theory cook­ing is done once a day, in the evening, but in practice, in time of plentywhen there is beer no less than in times of scarcity, there may be no cookingfor days, the children' subsisting on palm stems or anything they mightfind in the veld. A few people even to-day still obtain salt at certainspots in the Lower Selati, Letaha and Makale rivers by the old process ofputting the salt-containing earth in large grass-lined filters (called ditjo),into which water is poured to dissolve the salt, caught up in pots placedunder the filter and then boiled away. Most people, however, buy theirsalt at the store which has been put up in the area."

1 Probably Phoenix reclinata : wild date palm.I There is one store in Makhushane's area which supplies the need of three

contiguous reserves on the Selati, and one in Selwana's location.

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362 EILEEN JENSEN KRIGE-

The nights and days in Phalaborwa are so quiet and free from wind,even in winter, that most people sleep outside all the year round, insummer to keep cool and in winter for warmth round the courtyard fires.Consequently the huts are little more than storehouses for people'spossessions and few wives have more than one hut. These huts areseldom plastered on the outside and are thatched as frequently with comstalks, reeds or modudu palm leaves as with .grass. All grain is storedabove ground in grass baskets, protected from the weather by roughly­built, unplastered huts. Villages are not large, varying in size from threeto twenty huts, and their most conspicuous features are the hammock-likestores of morula pips and the large numbers of sleeping mats and woodenplates to be found. In spite of the fact that matches can be obtained inthe store, fire-sticks are still to be found in every village and the Phalabo­rwa are adepts at producing fire in a few minutes.

Iron and Copper Work

Skilled smiths, the Phalaborwa in the old days supplied many of thetribes of the N.E. Transvaal with hoes, spears, arrow-heads and braceletsand neck-rings of iron and copper. To-day, however, little iron forgingis done owing, they say, to the fact that people no longer have access totheir supplies of raw material. Nevertheless, the large stocks of bowsand arrows and the presence of bracelets and other objects of Native­worked iron and copper still testify to their old craft.1

Latul Tenure

Phalaborwa is one of the few areas in South Africa where, owing to asparce population, one can see in full swing the old Bantu system of landtenure. There is no allocation of lands except as a formality to new­comers. Land is plentiful and can be taken up at will by anyone, but theinitial labour of clearing it is arduous and boundary disputes common.A field once cleared cannot be taken from its owner even in his absence,and for a chief to take away a field from a subject is tantamount to drivinghim out of his area. 'Freedom to take up new lands without let or hind­rance to-day extends even to areas outside the jurisdiction of one's ownchief and it is common, for example, for people living under Makhushaneto clear and cultivate fieldsin Mashishimali's location without any pteviouspermission, though the headman of that area might at times require a bagof corn in lieu of the beer which every man living under him brings as

I For an interesting account of various types of smelting ovens found in this area,together with a map showing localities in which old workings have beenfound, see C. M. Schwellnus, "Short Notes on the falaborwa SmeltingOvens," S.A. J.Sc., Vol. XXXIII, Pp. 9Q4-r:z. .. . .

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tribute. The rule that no one is to plough before the chief appears to bestrictly adhered to, for we heard many complaints that nowadays the chiefoften delays so long that people are unable to get their crops planted intime.

Other General Features of Phalabonoa Culture

In other aspects of their culture the Phalaborwa approximate to thegeneral culture pattern of the tribes around the Lobedu. Marriagenegotiations and ceremonies take an almost identical form, characteristicof which is the fact that cattle are not handed over as so much lobolo buteach beast has its special name and function in the long and involvedceremonial that is to bring the two families together and unite the indivi­duals concerned. We find among the Phalaborwa also what may betermed the logical conclusion of the lobolo system, whereby it is possiblefor a Woman who has daughters but no sons to " marry" a girl who willlive with and help her mother-in-law in the same way as she would have,had the son been her husband. This girl will have children by a youngman of the family of the non-existent husband or by private lovers, andthe position will be much the same as if she had had a husband who haddied, except that instead of being subject to the man who inherits thewidow she is subject to the woman who lobola'd her. Among the Phala­borwa only a woman whose husband is dead can so " marry" a woman,whereas among the Lobedu any woman of means can do so. A furtherdifference that is of interest is the absence of any virginity beast amongthe Phalaborwa.

Religious usages of the Phalaborwa bear a general resemblance tothose of the Lobedu. Beer offerings are the most usual, though abeast may on rare occasions be killed, and the khadi (father's sister orone's own eldest sister) is the priestess who usually officiates and holds animportant position in the family. Shrines vary within a general pattern.Makhushane's family shrine consisted of two river stones and a largepiece of antheap partially buried in the ground to the right-hand side ofthe entrance of the chief hut; that of Mashishimali had no visible charac­teristics, being merely a portion of the courtyard where a piece of antheapand a titikwane bulb had been buried. Ancestors on both the mother'sand the father's side are called upon at general offerings, while cattle, goatsor even fowls may be given the name of an ancestor and regarded assacred. Possession by spirits is as common a phenomenon here as amongother Lowveld tribes and is associated with special dancing to drums andthe heating of tambourines and rattles. Those possessed people whobecome doctors are the only class of doctor among these tribes thatobtains knowledge and guidance direct from the spirits.

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With this difference that women do not occupy any political positioneither as headmen or chiefs, Phalaborwa politicalorganisationapproximatesto that of the Lobedu, in general principle if not in detail. For thePhalaborwaare a simple society where headmen have no great powers andthe chief is able to come into contact with most of his subjects. Phala­borwa is the land of the ordeal, where even to-day people still sometimesdecide to settle difficultcases by dipping their hands in boiling, medicatedwater or throwing shells of a certain fruit into a plate of water to seewhether they float towards or away from one another. But here as else­where resort is more and more being had to the Shangaan smeller-out,especiallyin casesof witchcraft. Each party laysdown a wagerof a certainnumber of cattle that he is in the right, whereupon they proceed, witha man acting as " the ears of the chief," to a far-away smeller-out. Oftenthey go from one to another until both parties are satisfied. The guiltyparty is expected to pay his wager.

There is no ritual murder of the chief as in Bolobedu. The chief is,however, the rainmaker of the tribe, who in time of drought is approachedwith gifts and special dancing by each headman in turn to beg for rain in amanner common among the Lowveld Sotho tribes. The great dithokolaor sacred objects of chieftainship in Makhushane's tribe include a spearwith head, shaft and imitation attachment all in iron, a very broad-bladedspear with short wooden handle and attachment of Native wire, and acleverly-wrought all-iron battle-axe. An ostrich egg-shell accompaniesthe rain charms. Most important of aU these objects, however, is thesmallest of the four Komana drums (called Ngutltwane) which may notbe taken out of the chief's hut except on very special occasions and whichis so peculiarly bound up with the life of the chief that should he haveoccasion to flee it must accompany him. It contains some hard object,said to be the head of a child killed when the drum is made. Of the otherthree less sacred Komana drums, tlJanka, bohlolo and boretho, the last­mentioned, a fine specimen nearly fivefeet in height, can be heard withina radius of twenty miles.

Beads do not appear to form part of the sacred paraphernalia of thechief, but they are nevertheless regarded as a valuable link with theancestors who wore them and capable of enlisting their aid in cases ofillness or distress. Within the short time at our disposal we were able toidentify the following, though many others, no doubt, are to be found :-­the royal blue and bluisn-grecn varieties of what is generally known byits Venda name vhulu"ga ha madi,. yellow opaque canes (Venda mushoshi)white canes comparable with the tshifha/Ja of the Venda; small Indianred opaque canes on translucent green cores (Venda mokuvhiln'u),· small.

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white oblates with bide longitudinal stripes; and light translucent blue~ant!~ similar to thagamoe of Modjadji's people. Of the larger types ofold bead we saw large, blue hexagonals with white cores, large blueannulars, large white opaque beads and a large, almost barrel-shapedbead of beautiful powder-blue which I have not before seen. Large andsmall metal beads of Iron and copper are also found.

The Phalaborwa have all the initiation schools found among otherSotho tribes of the N.E. Lowveld, For girls there is the khoba, a privateinitiation lasting a week at puberty, and the byale, a public initiation of allthe girls of the tribe, lasting about a year. For boys there is circumcision(hodika) followed by the komana at which the boys receive four semi­circular cuts on either cheek and are shown the sacred drums, while lastcomes the boseera, a school held at the same time as the girls byale, whenthe boys dance in elaborate grass skirts and are. shown what constitutesthe wonderful "bird," the greatest mystery of the byale. These" schools" are all so activelypursued that komana and byalelodges are keptas permanent structures near the chief's kraal. The beating of the komanadrums, accompanied among the Phalaborwa as elsewhere by the whistlingof didtvcajane or dajane, whom the initiated believe to be ancestral spiritsbut who are in reality old men hiding in the bush, plays a very real part inthe life of these people. Whereas among many tribes the komanadrums hardly function to-day, among the Phalaborwa they are smearedwith the first-fruits when the chief lema's (bites) the new green crops,given beer when the spirits are offered the first beer made of the new corn,and played on other joyous occasions when, it seems, the spirits are invitedto join in the festivities.! The real significance of these sacred drumsand the komana ritual is an anthropological problem that is still to besolved and Phalaborwa is probably the area in which such a study wouldyield the most fruitful results.

Phalaborwa initiation schools, komana ritual, their iron industry anddiet are all aspects of their culture that well deserve special study; butthe area also presents other interesting problems of culture contact,between Pedi and Phalaborwa, Sotho and Shangaan, Bantu and Europeanas well as of the differential acceptance of culture elements, which mightexplain such curious facts as the almost universal use of the three-leggediron pot for cooking in Phalaborwa, where the European has hardlypenetrated, when in tribes living within twenty miles of fair-sized Europeantowns the earthen pot has held its own.

1 For a short account of certain aspects of the Komana found among the Lobedu,where the institution has already fallen into disuse, see Krige, E.}.," Agricultural ceremonies and practices of the Balobedu," Bantu Studies 5,2°7-237.

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Extensive usc of the morula is not conned to Phalaborwa; and itseconomic value in the manufacture of wooden platters I spoons, stampingblocks, milk pails and drums is at least as great as its value as a food.That this value is recognised by the Native is shown by the fact that themorula is a protected tree. In most tribes there is a fine attached tocutting the morula without special permission from headman or chief, andcare is always taken to chop down only male trees. Known and usedwherever it grows.! it is only in the drier areas that the marula assumesimportance as a staple food. Hence one finds as one travels west towardsthe dry regions of the Magalakwena river west of Pietersburg, that theimportance of the morula increases. The Hananoa of Blaauwberg andtheir neighbours, the Matlala, may be said to have an attenuated morulaculture; but with storage in pots or on hut verandahs and the completeabsence of such things as the modukulo for extracting the nuts, theirs is amorula industry lacking many of the features typical of the Phalaborwa.

(The tour 011 which material for this article was collected was madepossible by a Fellowship from the International Institute of AfricanLanguages and Cultures for a study of the Lobedu, which we herebygratefully acknowledge.)

--------------- --_.1 The morula tree has a wide distribution. not onlv in the Transvaal and

Portuguese East Africa, but also in Swaziland and Zululand and it would beinteresting to compare its uses in other areas with those in the 'I'ransvaal,

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