Heritage Day: BaPedi South Africans
South Africa celebrates National Heritage Day on 24 September 2015. We are a proud Rainbow Nation with 11 official languages across our beautiful country, and today we take a look at all our unique cultures that make us one of the most diverse countries in the world.
Pedi (also known as Bapedi, Bamaroteng, Marota, Northern Sotho – in its broadest sense), has been a cultural/linguistic term – previously used to describe the entire set of people speaking various dialects of the Sotho language who live in Limpopo. More recently, the term “Northern Sotho” has replaced “Pedi” to characterise this collectively of groups.
Population: 4 782 576 (2011 Census)
Languages: Northern Sotho
Regions where Pedi people live: Polokwane but some may also be found in Zimbabwe and Botswana.
Famous BaPedi people: Julius Malema, Mamphela Ramphele and Caster Semenya
Traditional attire: Pedi teenage girls and adult women, wore their hair worked into a circular matted cap. Their coiffures are tribally specific, allowing for easy identification of old photographs, paintings and figurative sculpture.
In the early 19th century Pedi women wore unbeaded leather aprons called Thetho which were worn under cotton smocks. Neck and body rings were also worn.
Thetho aprons were made of goat skin, while rear aprons called mosese, were of ox hide. Over time, Pedi smocks came to be used as traditional wedding attire.
Watch these videos on the Pedi South African culture:
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 072 435 7717.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.
- We have exciting news! We’re offering a free alert to help you always be in the loop. Send an email with the word ‘Subscribe’ to breakingnews@rekord.co.za to receive your free daily breaking news update.
