Home › Clan names › Sotho › Bakhatla
Bakhatla Clan — History & Meaning
Sotho clan · Sesotho
Totem Monkey / ape (kgabo) — and the blue-grey vervet monkey; the Bakgatla are 'people of the monkey'
History & origin
The Bakgatla (Bakhatla) are a major Sotho-Tswana clan whose totem is the monkey (kgabo). The best-known polity is the Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela, today centred on Moruleng/Saulspoort in North West Province (South Africa) and Mochudi in Botswana, the chieftainship straddling the modern border. The Bakgatla split from the broader Kgatla/Hurutshe-related Tswana lineages and dispersed across the western highveld, with sections such as ba-Kgafela, ba-Mmakau, ba-Mosetlha and others. I am confident on the Bakgatla identity, the monkey totem, and the Kgafela polity's location in North West and Botswana.
Associated surnames
Surnames that share this clan: Kgatla, Bakgatla-ba-Kgafela, Kgafela, Kgabo.
We publish the full diboko (clan praises) only once we can verify them against documented tradition — for this clan they are still being confirmed. If you can share an authoritative version, corrections are warmly welcomed.