Hlubi ka Mota Molife


The Batlokwa of Hlubi ka Mota Molife

Throughout the war in 1879 the British used an African auxiliary known as ‘Basutos’. These 'BaSuto' were drawn from a number of chiefdoms in the Colony of Natal, and only one troop of mounted warriors were Sotho in origin.

A group of Sotho-speakers living in Natal called the Batlokwa, were living to the east of South Africa’s modern Free State, on the western side of the Kahlamba (Drakensberg) mountains in the 1820s. After MaNthathisi’s death the main section of the baTlokwa remained in the high-veld under her son Sekonyela, but a section under Sekonyela’s brother, Mota, apparently crossed the mountains into Natal. In what became the Natal Midlands, as neighbours of the amaHlubi people. Mota had previously established a relationship with the amaHlubi, and his son - born about 1835 - was named Hlubi to commemorate this.

When Basotho attacked AmaZulu

In the 1850s Moshoeshoe's brothers and Moletsane's Bataung and others killed Sekonyela's son, allowing Moshoeshoe to absorb Batlokwa into the BaSotho identity but the followers of Chief Hlubi ka Mota Molife were independent. For the BaSotho the Batlokwa problem was solved yet their neighbors AmaZulu and AmaHlubi... 

Hlubi befriended both the colonialists and AmaHlubi which put him in a weird spot. Hlubi ka Mota and his forces were involved in the chase of King Langalibalele of AmaHlubi into Lesotho. Later they would participate in the Anglo Zulu war and other Zulu Natal wars. The Batlokwa were used by the British as an auxiliary.

BaTlokwa and AmaZulu

The conflicts victories led Hlubi Ka Mota to receive the first Partition of Zululand for one of the 13 Chiefs who ruled.


Sources:

The inherent limits of collaboration chief hlubi and Tlokoa sotho by Ian knight. 

Historical Dictionary of the Zulu Wars by John Laband. 

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