The Pedi
South African Culture
Pedi initiates circle an elder.
Pedi was previously used to describe Sotho-speakers of Mpumalanga and Northern Province in South Africa. More recently, these groups have been renamed Northern Sotho. The Pedi, as more narrowly understood, are part of the Highveld Sotho who live on the plateau around Pietersburg. Other Northern Sotho subgroups, over many of whom the Pedi once held sway, are the Lowveld Sotho along and below the Drakensberg Escarpment, and the Eastern Sotho in the Mapulaneng district, towards Lydenburg.
Subsequent to their defeat at the hands of the British, the Pedi were relegated to a series of officially designated reserves. Foremost among these was the Pedi heartland, Sekhukhuneland....
morePedi culture traditionally distinguished sharply between the sexes at all levels. This affected every sphere of their lives, from the knots to tie their clothes with men using reef-knots and women granny-knots...
moreBy the height of their power the Pedi or Maroteng, under the leadership of Thulare (about 1790—1820), were launching frequent, successful raids on the surrounding peoples....
moreLike other Bantu-speaking peoples, a Pedi marriage (lenyalo) does not just legalize a relationship between individuals: it is a group concern, legalizing a relationship between families....
moreImportant Pedi crafts include pottery, house-painting, woodworking (especially making drums), metalsmithing and beadwork. Traditional music (mmino wa setso) has a six-note scale...
moreLike the Sotho and Tswana, the Pedi, in pre-conquest times, lived in large villages divided into kgoro groups centred on family clusters favouring the paternal line....
moreThe Pedi once held sway over most of the area flanked by the Limpopo, Vaal and Komati rivers. Their power centralized in what is today known as Sekhukhuneland...
moreOn the day the male Pedi bogwera initiation session ended, the byale (the girls' initiation) began. Only girls who had undergone a puberty ceremony were eligible to be initiated....
moreThe timing of initiation, which was (and is) always in midwinter, was dependent on the presence of a high-ranking son or grandson of a chief among the initiates....
moreAccording to oral tradition, the Pedi can be traced back to the Maroteng, an offshoot of the Kgatla, today an important component of the Tswana....
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