WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:02.220 I have to be honest with you. I opened the file 00:00:02.220 --> 00:00:04.940 for today's deep dive and my first reaction was 00:00:04.940 --> 00:00:08.320 Well, honestly just confusion I mean I'm looking 00:00:08.320 --> 00:00:11.619 at what appears to be a very standard very dry 00:00:11.619 --> 00:00:15.320 entry for a geographical location Yeah, it it 00:00:15.320 --> 00:00:16.960 really doesn't look like much at first glance. 00:00:17.019 --> 00:00:19.140 Does it? Not at all. It basically looks like 00:00:19.140 --> 00:00:20.899 census data. I mean, we're looking at a place 00:00:20.899 --> 00:00:23.699 called Gala Masamola. I see population statistics 00:00:23.699 --> 00:00:26.719 from 2011. I see rainfall patterns. I see a list 00:00:26.719 --> 00:00:29.379 of local schools. It feels like we're about to 00:00:29.379 --> 00:00:32.579 discuss municipal zoning laws in rural South 00:00:32.579 --> 00:00:36.079 Africa or something. So why exactly is this on 00:00:36.079 --> 00:00:38.460 our desk? Because that dry municipal exterior 00:00:38.460 --> 00:00:40.780 is actually exactly why this is so fascinating. 00:00:40.880 --> 00:00:42.380 You look at it and you think you're just looking 00:00:42.380 --> 00:00:44.039 at a map, right? Yeah. But the source material 00:00:44.039 --> 00:00:45.880 we're analyzing today, which is essentially a 00:00:45.880 --> 00:00:48.409 community edited history. is arguing that the 00:00:48.409 --> 00:00:51.210 map is a lie. Way to lie. Or at the very least, 00:00:51.210 --> 00:00:53.210 a crime scene. If you actually read the text, 00:00:53.289 --> 00:00:55.350 like really read the passionate, almost angry 00:00:55.350 --> 00:00:57.869 paragraphs tucked between those population stats, 00:00:58.030 --> 00:01:00.689 you realize this isn't just an encyclopedia entry. 00:01:00.890 --> 00:01:03.310 It's a manifesto. We aren't just talking about 00:01:03.310 --> 00:01:07.010 a village here. We are talking about a 12th century 00:01:07.010 --> 00:01:10.129 royal assassination. We're talking about a conspiracy 00:01:10.129 --> 00:01:14.540 involving six brothers. Well, a red wedding style 00:01:14.540 --> 00:01:17.959 betrayal and a colonial coup that happened roughly 00:01:17.959 --> 00:01:20.519 600 years later. OK, well, you definitely have 00:01:20.519 --> 00:01:23.299 my attention now. I saw the name Gamma Samola 00:01:23.299 --> 00:01:26.159 and just assumed it was named after a founder 00:01:26.159 --> 00:01:28.420 or a local mountain or something. But you're 00:01:28.420 --> 00:01:30.640 saying there is an actual battle over that name. 00:01:30.760 --> 00:01:33.359 A battle that has been raging for 800 years. 00:01:33.799 --> 00:01:36.560 The source material explicitly claims that the 00:01:36.560 --> 00:01:38.620 history of this community has been distorted. 00:01:39.069 --> 00:01:41.510 And the person writing this isn't just trying 00:01:41.510 --> 00:01:44.030 to correct a date or a typo. They're actively 00:01:44.030 --> 00:01:47.239 trying to restore a stolen kingdom. So our mission 00:01:47.239 --> 00:01:49.599 today is to essentially figure out what actually 00:01:49.599 --> 00:01:51.840 happened. Exactly. We need to peel back the layers. 00:01:51.920 --> 00:01:54.140 We need to understand who the Baotou people are, 00:01:54.319 --> 00:01:57.099 what happened in that royal bedroom in the 1200s, 00:01:57.099 --> 00:02:00.019 and how allegedly at least Dutch settlers in 00:02:00.019 --> 00:02:02.359 the 19th century got involved in a tribal succession 00:02:02.359 --> 00:02:04.400 crisis. All right, let's start with the basics 00:02:04.400 --> 00:02:06.579 then. I'm looking at the map. Where exactly are 00:02:06.579 --> 00:02:09.219 we in the world? We are in South Africa, specifically 00:02:09.219 --> 00:02:11.800 the Limpopo province. But to give you a better 00:02:11.800 --> 00:02:13.919 sense of place, this is about 180 kilometers 00:02:13.919 --> 00:02:17.629 northeast of Pretoria. Or Tishwan. We're talking 00:02:17.629 --> 00:02:19.550 about the Sikakun district. And for listeners 00:02:19.550 --> 00:02:21.370 who aren't familiar with South African geography, 00:02:21.689 --> 00:02:24.009 paint the picture a bit. Are we talking city 00:02:24.009 --> 00:02:27.210 desert mountains? Think rugged, beautiful, harsh 00:02:27.210 --> 00:02:30.389 terrain. This is the Bushveld. It's ancient mountains, 00:02:30.629 --> 00:02:34.150 granite rocks, thorny acacia trees. It's the 00:02:34.150 --> 00:02:35.729 kind of landscape that just feels permanent. 00:02:36.860 --> 00:02:39.039 The community itself is significant. It has about 00:02:39.039 --> 00:02:42.580 150 ,000 people as of the last major count. It's 00:02:42.580 --> 00:02:44.900 almost entirely black African and northern Sotho 00:02:44.900 --> 00:02:47.199 -speaking. Okay, so very solid established community. 00:02:47.500 --> 00:02:50.259 But the source material takes us way back, right? 00:02:50.319 --> 00:02:53.060 Long before there was a South Africa or a Limpopo 00:02:53.060 --> 00:02:55.219 province. Right. We have to go back to the origins 00:02:55.219 --> 00:02:57.960 of the Batao clan. The text traces their lineage 00:02:57.960 --> 00:03:00.240 all the way back to the Swazi people. And there's 00:03:00.240 --> 00:03:02.280 a migration story involved here. There always 00:03:02.280 --> 00:03:05.289 is. The source describes a massive movement north 00:03:05.289 --> 00:03:09.030 to Lake Crissy, which is locally known as Siokotibang, 00:03:09.169 --> 00:03:11.789 and eventually to the Mogwina River. Which is 00:03:11.789 --> 00:03:14.370 known today as the Crocodile River, right? Precisely. 00:03:14.430 --> 00:03:16.990 And this is where we hit our first major plot 00:03:16.990 --> 00:03:20.909 point. The Batao didn't just pass through this 00:03:20.909 --> 00:03:23.449 area. The source says they established themselves 00:03:23.449 --> 00:03:26.169 at the Mogwina River and lived there for a period 00:03:26.169 --> 00:03:29.199 of 200 years. 200 years. I want to just pause 00:03:29.199 --> 00:03:30.939 on that for a second because it's so easy to 00:03:30.939 --> 00:03:34.520 gloss over big numbers. In modern history, 200 00:03:34.520 --> 00:03:36.900 years is the entire history of some nations. 00:03:37.139 --> 00:03:38.680 I mean, the United States has only been a proper 00:03:38.680 --> 00:03:40.520 country for a little bit longer than that. It 00:03:40.520 --> 00:03:42.479 is a massive amount of time. So when the source 00:03:42.479 --> 00:03:45.400 says they live there in relative peace and stability 00:03:45.400 --> 00:03:47.759 for two centuries, that implies a golden age, 00:03:47.860 --> 00:03:50.840 doesn't it? That's generations of culture and 00:03:50.840 --> 00:03:53.379 law and agriculture and identity being built 00:03:53.379 --> 00:03:56.099 up without major conflict. It absolutely suggests 00:03:56.099 --> 00:03:58.520 a highly organized society. You just don't get 00:03:58.520 --> 00:04:02.030 200 years of peace by accident. The source credits 00:04:02.030 --> 00:04:04.990 this era to the founding king, King Mukwena II. 00:04:05.550 --> 00:04:08.250 He was the firstborn son of King Madeljane II. 00:04:08.830 --> 00:04:11.270 And because of him, the area was known as Gawena 00:04:11.270 --> 00:04:14.469 from the late 1200s. Okay, so listener note that 00:04:14.469 --> 00:04:17.769 name, Ga Mukwena, named after the eldest son. 00:04:17.949 --> 00:04:19.769 But the place we are looking at today on the 00:04:19.769 --> 00:04:23.009 map is called Ga Masamala. And that discrepancy 00:04:23.009 --> 00:04:26.790 is the engine of this entire story. Masamala 00:04:26.790 --> 00:04:29.720 was not the first son. He was the fifth. So how 00:04:29.720 --> 00:04:31.259 do we get from the first son to the fifth son? 00:04:31.339 --> 00:04:33.060 I'm guessing the whole peace and stability thing 00:04:33.060 --> 00:04:35.139 didn't last forever. No, it did not. It ended 00:04:35.139 --> 00:04:38.060 in blood. The source gives us a very detailed 00:04:38.060 --> 00:04:40.779 account of the family dynamic of King Mataljain 00:04:40.779 --> 00:04:45.160 II. He had six sons, and the birth order is crucial 00:04:45.160 --> 00:04:47.240 here. Walk me through the lineup. Okay, so first 00:04:47.240 --> 00:04:51.139 born is Mokwena, second is Saloni, third is Mogeshola, 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:54.720 fourth is Fala, fifth is Masamola, and the sixth, 00:04:54.839 --> 00:04:56.779 the absolute youngest, was a boy named Foto. 00:04:57.180 --> 00:05:00.060 Six sons. That is a lot of potential heirs and, 00:05:00.120 --> 00:05:02.459 quite frankly, a lot of potential rivalry. And 00:05:02.459 --> 00:05:04.360 according to the oral history preserved in this 00:05:04.360 --> 00:05:07.379 text, the rivalry turned into a full -blown conspiracy. 00:05:08.060 --> 00:05:10.959 The brothers, or at least most of them, decided 00:05:10.959 --> 00:05:13.040 that it was time for the king to die. I mean, 00:05:13.040 --> 00:05:16.740 that's patricide. Regicide and patricide. The 00:05:16.740 --> 00:05:19.120 plan was brutal in its simplicity, but it was 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:21.800 also incredibly cowardly. They conspired to kill 00:05:21.800 --> 00:05:24.420 their father in his resting place. But here is 00:05:24.420 --> 00:05:26.930 the catch. They didn't want any single brother 00:05:26.930 --> 00:05:29.370 to bear the guilt alone. They wanted collective 00:05:29.370 --> 00:05:32.850 responsibility, like a blood pact. So they all 00:05:32.850 --> 00:05:34.970 agreed to just stab him together. That was the 00:05:34.970 --> 00:05:39.009 plan on paper. But there was a twist, a deception 00:05:39.009 --> 00:05:42.370 within the deception. The older brothers tricked 00:05:42.370 --> 00:05:45.310 the youngest one, Foto. Tricked him how? The 00:05:45.310 --> 00:05:47.490 source says they deliberately blunted their spears. 00:05:47.550 --> 00:05:49.990 They turned the tips or ground them down so they 00:05:49.990 --> 00:05:53.209 wouldn't penetrate deep. But for Foto, they left 00:05:53.209 --> 00:05:56.660 his spear razor sharp. Wow. That is psychological 00:05:56.660 --> 00:05:58.980 warfare right there. It's chilling, isn't it? 00:05:59.040 --> 00:06:00.759 So they basically set him up. They all go into 00:06:00.759 --> 00:06:02.620 the room. They all make the motion of stabbing 00:06:02.620 --> 00:06:04.439 the king. But because their spears are blunt, 00:06:04.600 --> 00:06:07.220 they only cause bruising or really minor wounds. 00:06:07.980 --> 00:06:10.279 Foto thinking he is just doing exactly what his 00:06:10.279 --> 00:06:12.180 older brothers are doing, strikes with a sharp 00:06:12.180 --> 00:06:14.399 weapon. He ends up delivering the fatal blow. 00:06:14.540 --> 00:06:17.379 And in the morning. In the morning, the brothers 00:06:17.379 --> 00:06:20.439 inspect the weapons. And of course, only Foto's 00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:22.420 spear is covered in blood. And the brothers just 00:06:22.420 --> 00:06:25.379 completely turn on him. Immediately. The text 00:06:25.379 --> 00:06:28.019 literally says they cried aloud hysterically 00:06:28.019 --> 00:06:31.339 with painful voices. They performed this massive 00:06:31.339 --> 00:06:34.500 show of grief. They pointed at the bloody spear 00:06:34.500 --> 00:06:37.959 and said, look, Foto has killed our father. That 00:06:37.959 --> 00:06:39.839 is the perfect crime. I mean, they get the king 00:06:39.839 --> 00:06:41.879 dead, which is what they wanted all along. But 00:06:41.879 --> 00:06:44.060 they also remove a competitor for the throne 00:06:44.060 --> 00:06:46.740 by completely framing him. And they destroy his 00:06:46.740 --> 00:06:49.639 reputation forever. The source says Foto was 00:06:49.639 --> 00:06:52.620 despised and rejected by the people. He became 00:06:52.620 --> 00:06:55.290 an absolute pariah. You know, when you read history 00:06:55.290 --> 00:06:57.709 books, you usually just get dates and maybe battle 00:06:57.709 --> 00:07:00.970 locations. You so rarely get this level of specific 00:07:00.970 --> 00:07:03.930 narrative detail. The blunt spears the fake crying. 00:07:04.230 --> 00:07:06.490 It genuinely feels like a movie script. Well, 00:07:06.569 --> 00:07:08.930 that is the power of oral history. And this is 00:07:08.930 --> 00:07:10.769 actually a really important point for us to dig 00:07:10.769 --> 00:07:13.990 into. How do we know this happened in the 1200s? 00:07:13.990 --> 00:07:16.069 There were no court stenographers hanging around. 00:07:16.269 --> 00:07:17.730 Right. It's not like there's a police report 00:07:17.730 --> 00:07:21.209 filed in 1250 that we can pull up. Exactly. But 00:07:21.209 --> 00:07:22.970 there is something much more durable than paper. 00:07:23.480 --> 00:07:27.379 Language. The source explicitly cites idioms, 00:07:27.379 --> 00:07:30.759 actual sayings, people still use in that region 00:07:30.759 --> 00:07:33.500 today that were born directly from this murder. 00:07:33.740 --> 00:07:36.319 Give me an example. One of them is matobjain 00:07:36.319 --> 00:07:38.899 ob baleil ketswala. Which means what exactly? 00:07:39.220 --> 00:07:41.399 Roughly, it translates to being killed by your 00:07:41.399 --> 00:07:45.240 own kin or birth killed matobjain. It's a saying 00:07:45.240 --> 00:07:47.720 you would use today when someone very close to 00:07:47.720 --> 00:07:50.259 you betrays you. So every time someone uses that 00:07:50.259 --> 00:07:52.420 phrase in the modern day, they are essentially 00:07:52.420 --> 00:07:55.560 referencing that exact murder from the 1200s. 00:07:55.560 --> 00:07:57.420 Exactly. It's an archive that lives in the mouth. 00:07:57.759 --> 00:08:04.420 Another one is, It means I nurtured a tree and 00:08:04.420 --> 00:08:07.019 when it grew, it pierced me. Referring to the 00:08:07.019 --> 00:08:09.500 father raising the sons who eventually killed 00:08:09.500 --> 00:08:11.740 him. Right. That is incredibly poignant. It's 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:14.019 like the trauma of that specific night was so 00:08:14.019 --> 00:08:15.959 deep, it permanently altered the language of 00:08:15.959 --> 00:08:17.879 the people. And it serves as a cultural warning. 00:08:18.300 --> 00:08:20.740 Don't trust those closest to you. But this is 00:08:20.740 --> 00:08:22.720 exactly where our detective work has to get a 00:08:22.720 --> 00:08:24.860 little more skeptical. How so? We have this dramatic 00:08:24.860 --> 00:08:28.120 story of the brothers killing the king. But the 00:08:28.120 --> 00:08:30.540 source material, this supposedly neutral entry, 00:08:30.759 --> 00:08:34.379 has a very specific agenda. Did you notice the 00:08:34.379 --> 00:08:36.539 contradiction regarding the eldest son, Maquena? 00:08:36.720 --> 00:08:39.419 Now that you mention it, yes. At first it says 00:08:39.419 --> 00:08:41.720 the brothers conspired. But then later, it goes 00:08:41.720 --> 00:08:44.080 completely out of its way to say Moquena, the 00:08:44.080 --> 00:08:46.500 firstborn, was innocent. It's a very sharp pivot 00:08:46.500 --> 00:08:49.600 in the text. It explicitly says, originally, 00:08:49.799 --> 00:08:52.759 when King Mataljain II was murdered, his firstborn 00:08:52.759 --> 00:08:54.720 son, Moquena, did not participate in the plot. 00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:57.399 It really clarifies that only the younger brothers 00:08:57.399 --> 00:08:59.620 conspired. Why does that matter so much, though? 00:08:59.700 --> 00:09:02.519 Why the sudden need to clear Moquena's name hundreds 00:09:02.519 --> 00:09:04.899 of years later? Think about the legitimacy of 00:09:04.899 --> 00:09:08.679 the throne. If Moquena killed his father, he's 00:09:08.679 --> 00:09:11.289 a usurper. He has blood on his hands. But if 00:09:11.289 --> 00:09:13.149 he was completely innocent, if he was asleep 00:09:13.149 --> 00:09:15.950 or away or just refused to participate, then 00:09:15.950 --> 00:09:18.750 he remains the rightful pure heir. The source 00:09:18.750 --> 00:09:21.490 is fighting very hard to establish Mokwina's 00:09:21.490 --> 00:09:23.990 moral superiority. Because the source believes 00:09:23.990 --> 00:09:26.929 the current rulers, the Masamola line, are illegitimate. 00:09:27.350 --> 00:09:30.610 Precisely. The source argues that Masamola, the 00:09:30.610 --> 00:09:33.029 fifth son, and his descendants were never kings. 00:09:33.309 --> 00:09:35.980 They were essentially middle management. The 00:09:35.980 --> 00:09:38.820 text claims they were made chiefs by King Mukwina 00:09:38.820 --> 00:09:41.220 as a token of brotherhood, but they were supposed 00:09:41.220 --> 00:09:43.539 to remain firmly under his authority. So the 00:09:43.539 --> 00:09:46.440 argument is Mukwina is the true king and Masamala 00:09:46.440 --> 00:09:48.539 is just a younger brother who got a promotion 00:09:48.539 --> 00:09:50.720 he didn't really deserve. Correct. But here is 00:09:50.720 --> 00:09:53.149 the core problem with that argument. We are looking 00:09:53.149 --> 00:09:56.250 at a modern map and the map doesn't say Ga Makwena. 00:09:56.350 --> 00:09:59.529 It clearly says Ga Masamola. So if Makwena was 00:09:59.529 --> 00:10:01.929 the rightful king and there were 200 years of 00:10:01.929 --> 00:10:04.169 peace under his name, what happened? We have 00:10:04.169 --> 00:10:06.950 a massive time jump here in the narrative. We 00:10:06.950 --> 00:10:09.330 go from the medieval era to suddenly the late 00:10:09.330 --> 00:10:12.309 19th century. Where is the middle of the movie? 00:10:12.710 --> 00:10:15.269 That missing middle is often where oral history 00:10:15.269 --> 00:10:18.259 gets hazy. But the source becomes laser focused 00:10:18.259 --> 00:10:20.980 again the second we hit the 1880s. And this is 00:10:20.980 --> 00:10:23.240 where the story shifts from a family tragedy 00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:25.919 to a straight up political thriller. This is 00:10:25.919 --> 00:10:28.899 the part that involves the Dutch. Yes. The source 00:10:28.899 --> 00:10:31.100 introduces a totally new cast of characters. 00:10:31.299 --> 00:10:34.220 President Paul Kruger and a man named Bolterus 00:10:34.220 --> 00:10:37.159 Dull. Dull as in Dullstrom. That's a really popular 00:10:37.159 --> 00:10:39.519 tourist town in that area today. Known for trout 00:10:39.519 --> 00:10:42.259 fishing and pancakes. The very same. The source 00:10:42.259 --> 00:10:44.600 details how Paul Kruger encouraged Dutch immigration 00:10:44.600 --> 00:10:47.700 to the South African Republic in the 1880s. A 00:10:47.700 --> 00:10:50.019 company was set up under Wolters Dull to bring 00:10:50.019 --> 00:10:52.559 settlers over, and they arrived between 1884 00:10:52.559 --> 00:10:56.460 and 1887. OK, so you have European settlers arriving 00:10:56.460 --> 00:10:58.779 in the Mpumalanga Highlands. How on earth does 00:10:58.779 --> 00:11:01.980 that connect to a centuries -old tribal feud 00:11:01.980 --> 00:11:04.720 between the descendants of Mokwiana and Massimila? 00:11:05.240 --> 00:11:07.440 The source makes a massive allegation here. It 00:11:07.440 --> 00:11:09.220 claims that the name of the area was changed 00:11:09.220 --> 00:11:12.220 from Gamaquena to Gama Semola only after, and 00:11:12.220 --> 00:11:14.879 I quote, the settlers colluded with Masmela to 00:11:14.879 --> 00:11:17.600 overthrow King Maquena. Collusion. That is a 00:11:17.600 --> 00:11:20.159 very loaded word. It implies a conspiracy, a 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:22.179 coup d 'etat. But wait a minute. Let's pause 00:11:22.179 --> 00:11:24.299 and just think about this critically for a second. 00:11:24.500 --> 00:11:26.679 Why would the Dutch government or these random 00:11:26.679 --> 00:11:28.840 settlers care which brother was in charge of 00:11:28.840 --> 00:11:31.000 the batau? Why would they intervene in a local 00:11:31.000 --> 00:11:33.240 succession dispute? That is the million -dollar 00:11:33.240 --> 00:11:35.320 question. The source doesn't give us the meeting 00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:38.220 minutes, obviously. But historically, colonial 00:11:38.220 --> 00:11:40.960 powers very often used a strategy of divide and 00:11:40.960 --> 00:11:44.200 rule. If the rightful King Makwena, in this case, 00:11:44.379 --> 00:11:48.659 was strong, independent, or maybe resistant to 00:11:48.659 --> 00:11:51.320 settler encroachment... Then it might be extremely 00:11:51.320 --> 00:11:54.299 useful to replace him. Exactly. If you have a 00:11:54.299 --> 00:11:57.220 younger brother line, like Masamola, who is ambitious, 00:11:57.360 --> 00:11:59.559 perhaps a bit jealous of the older line and maybe 00:11:59.559 --> 00:12:02.240 willing to cut a deal, you back him. You give 00:12:02.240 --> 00:12:05.840 him the guns or the legitimacy or the legal recognition 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:08.179 from the new colonial state. So the working theory 00:12:08.179 --> 00:12:10.519 is the settlers wanted a puppet or at least a 00:12:10.519 --> 00:12:12.559 cooperative partner and Masamola was their guy. 00:12:12.740 --> 00:12:15.669 That is the heavy implication. The source suggests 00:12:15.669 --> 00:12:17.590 that the renaming of the land wasn't just some 00:12:17.590 --> 00:12:20.269 clerical error by a cartographer. It was a reward. 00:12:20.570 --> 00:12:23.690 The village became Ga Masamola because Masamola 00:12:23.690 --> 00:12:26.090 won the political game with Dutch help. It really 00:12:26.090 --> 00:12:27.830 changes how you look at the map, doesn't it? 00:12:28.070 --> 00:12:30.889 Ga Masamola isn't just a name. It's a monument 00:12:30.889 --> 00:12:34.090 to a coup. And Dahlstrom is a monument to the 00:12:34.090 --> 00:12:37.190 man who organized those settlers. The source 00:12:37.190 --> 00:12:39.490 points out that Dahlstrom is named after Vulturus 00:12:39.490 --> 00:12:42.259 Dahl and the Crocodile River. But remember the 00:12:42.259 --> 00:12:45.200 Batao call that river the Moguena River. So even 00:12:45.200 --> 00:12:47.480 the river got renamed. Everything got renamed. 00:12:47.639 --> 00:12:50.299 The geography itself was literally overwritten 00:12:50.299 --> 00:12:53.279 by the winners of that 1880s conflict. This text 00:12:53.279 --> 00:12:55.700 is incredibly bitter about that fact. I mean, 00:12:55.720 --> 00:12:58.019 it's visceral. It literally says the history 00:12:58.019 --> 00:13:00.720 of Batau was distorted and is still distorted. 00:13:00.940 --> 00:13:03.740 It feels like the person writing this is shouting 00:13:03.740 --> 00:13:05.779 from the rooftops to anyone who will listen. 00:13:05.919 --> 00:13:07.879 It's an act of resistance. You really have to 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:09.899 understand for the official record, the census, 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:12.720 the municipality, the road signs you drive past 00:13:12.720 --> 00:13:15.820 the war is over. It's Gamla Samola. It's official. 00:13:16.200 --> 00:13:18.759 But for the person writing this text. The war 00:13:18.759 --> 00:13:21.340 is very much still happening. They're using this 00:13:21.340 --> 00:13:24.379 platform to try and undo the erasure of the Maquina 00:13:24.379 --> 00:13:26.419 Line. It's amazing, actually. We usually think 00:13:26.419 --> 00:13:28.620 of these reference sites as this neutral, boring, 00:13:28.679 --> 00:13:31.840 encyclopedic space. But here it's an active battlefield. 00:13:31.980 --> 00:13:34.080 It's a digital battlefield for an analog war. 00:13:34.299 --> 00:13:36.360 And it seems like the geography still heavily 00:13:36.360 --> 00:13:39.350 reflects those family fractures. The source mentions 00:13:39.350 --> 00:13:42.190 that Gamasemula actually surrounds another village 00:13:42.190 --> 00:13:44.570 called Gamahutha. Yes, Makutha was another brother. 00:13:44.710 --> 00:13:47.330 The landscape is literally carved up by these 00:13:47.330 --> 00:13:49.809 siblings. You can practically drive through the 00:13:49.809 --> 00:13:52.250 family tree. I'm curious, though, does the Magrina 00:13:52.250 --> 00:13:54.929 line still exist today or were they completely 00:13:54.929 --> 00:13:58.190 wiped out from power during this collusion? They 00:13:58.190 --> 00:14:00.610 do exist. In fact, if you look closely at the 00:14:00.610 --> 00:14:02.629 government section of the info box in the source 00:14:02.629 --> 00:14:06.210 material, it lists the current counselor as Kagoshi 00:14:06.210 --> 00:14:08.750 Mukwena. Oh, wow. I completely missed that. So 00:14:08.750 --> 00:14:10.889 Mukwena is currently in a position of leadership 00:14:10.889 --> 00:14:14.049 right now. Yes. Kagoshi means king or chief. 00:14:14.739 --> 00:14:17.620 So the lineage has absolutely survived. They 00:14:17.620 --> 00:14:19.279 might not have the name on the main map, but 00:14:19.279 --> 00:14:21.500 they seem to have retained some authority locally, 00:14:21.580 --> 00:14:23.919 or perhaps they've managed to claw it back over 00:14:23.919 --> 00:14:26.159 the years. That adds a whole new layer of tension 00:14:26.159 --> 00:14:29.440 to the place. You have a town officially called 00:14:29.440 --> 00:14:32.960 Gamasamola, but the local leader is a Mokwena. 00:14:33.450 --> 00:14:35.309 That must make for some very interesting town 00:14:35.309 --> 00:14:38.190 hall meetings. I can only imagine. It means the 00:14:38.190 --> 00:14:40.970 dispute isn't just dusty history. It's daily 00:14:40.970 --> 00:14:44.210 politics. It's about who actually sits at the 00:14:44.210 --> 00:14:46.159 head of the table today. It really makes you 00:14:46.159 --> 00:14:48.379 realize that history isn't something that just 00:14:48.379 --> 00:14:50.600 happened and finished. It's something that people 00:14:50.600 --> 00:14:52.840 are actively maintaining or actively fighting 00:14:52.840 --> 00:14:55.500 over right now. Absolutely. And it brings up 00:14:55.500 --> 00:14:58.059 the whole issue of authoritative sources. Think 00:14:58.059 --> 00:15:00.279 about it. If you went to the South African government 00:15:00.279 --> 00:15:03.159 archives, you'd probably find a formal document 00:15:03.159 --> 00:15:06.240 from 1893 proclaiming the town of Dahlstrom and 00:15:06.240 --> 00:15:09.220 officially recognizing Chief Massimola. That 00:15:09.220 --> 00:15:11.360 is the written record. But the oral history, 00:15:11.500 --> 00:15:14.669 the story of the blunted. spears the idioms about 00:15:14.669 --> 00:15:17.230 betrayal that tells a completely different truth. 00:15:17.389 --> 00:15:19.409 And usually we just trust the paper more than 00:15:19.409 --> 00:15:21.769 the story. We do. We are heavily biased toward 00:15:21.769 --> 00:15:24.149 the written word. We tend to think paper is fact 00:15:24.149 --> 00:15:26.710 and stories are just myths. But in this case, 00:15:26.730 --> 00:15:28.889 the paper was written by the very people who 00:15:28.889 --> 00:15:31.730 allegedly colluded to change the regime. So which 00:15:31.730 --> 00:15:34.129 one is the actual truth? That is a really heavy 00:15:34.129 --> 00:15:36.990 question. It is. The source is basically asking 00:15:36.990 --> 00:15:39.230 us to trust the memory of the people over the 00:15:39.230 --> 00:15:41.580 maps of the settlers. We have covered so much 00:15:41.580 --> 00:15:44.419 ground here today. We started with a sleepy -looking 00:15:44.419 --> 00:15:47.620 village in Limpopo. We found a 12th century migration, 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:51.360 a golden age of peace, a fratricidal conspiracy 00:15:51.360 --> 00:15:54.580 involving blunted... It's brutal, but I am so 00:15:54.580 --> 00:15:57.159 glad we stopped to read this file. It's a reminder 00:15:57.159 --> 00:15:59.980 that everyone's hometown has a ghost story. Indeed 00:15:59.980 --> 00:16:03.320 it does. And sometimes that ghost is still fighting 00:16:03.320 --> 00:16:06.120 for the throne. I want to leave you, the listener, 00:16:06.200 --> 00:16:08.220 with that thought. Next time you look at a map, 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:11.279 or even your own address... Ask yourself, is 00:16:11.279 --> 00:16:14.480 this the name of the hero or is this just the 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:16.659 name of the guy who had the sharper spear or 00:16:16.659 --> 00:16:18.879 maybe the better political connections? A very 00:16:18.879 --> 00:16:21.120 provocative thought. Thanks for diving deep with 00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:23.480 us today. This was a really wild one. Always 00:16:23.480 --> 00:16:25.379 a pleasure. We'll catch you on the next deep 00:16:25.379 --> 00:16:25.659 dive.