Kgatla, noun

/ˈɡa(ː)tɬa/
Forms:
Also Kxatla.
Plurals:
now usually unchanged, but also Bagatla, Bakatlas, Bakatlas, Ba-Katlha, Bakgatla, Bakhatla, Batklaka.
Origin:
SetswanaShow more Setswana (plural pref ba- +) kgatla monkey, ‘they of the monkey’.
A member of a clan of the Tswana people, living mainly in Botswana and around Pilanesberg, in the North West Province. Also attributive.
1835 A. Smith Diary (1940) II. 152Palanie, the chief of the Batklaka, has left his country.
1835 A. Smith Diary (1940) II. 184They were Bakatlas.
1857 D. Livingstone Missionary Trav. 13The different Bechuana tribes are named after certain animals...The term Bakatla means ‘they of the monkey’.
1881 E.L. Price Jrnls (1956) 457If the Bakhatla were to hear of this, they would be tempted to try their side of the battle — but as yet they keep very still.
1905 Native Tribes of Tvl 30Politically the most important tribe is the portion of the Bakhatla located in the Pilanesberg.
1928 E.H.L. Schwarz Kalahari & its Native Races 223As the nations grew, other sections hived off, under separate seretos; the Ba-Kwena, the crocodile people; the Ba-Katlha, the monkey people, and so on.
1930 S.T. Plaatje Mhudi (1975) 125The allies were joined en route by large numbers of Bakwena, Bakhatla and Bahurutshe who lived in the neighbourhood through which they marched.
1943 ‘J. Burger’ Black Man’s Burden 217Bechuanaland contains a number of tribes, such as the Bamangwato, the Bakhatla, the Barolong, and the Bakwena.
1948 E. Hellmann Rooiyard 123Christine, an attractive and bright young Kxatla woman,..married early — before she was twenty — a Kxatla from a neighbouring kraal.
1986 P. Maylam Hist. of Afr. People 42The Kwena and the Kgatla..became dominant in the sixteenth century. Most of the later Sotho-Tswana chiefdoms can trace their origins back to the Kwena or Kgatla.
1989 Reader’s Digest Illust. Hist. of S. Afr. 66The principal group among the northern Sotho were the Pedi, a branch of the iron-working Kgatla people.
A member of a clan of the Tswana people, living mainly in Botswana and around Pilanesberg, in the North West Province. Also attributive.
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