RIP: Queen Modjadji VI

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Queen Modjadji VI, who has died aged 27, was the youngest of
South Africa's rain queens, one in a line of matriarchal monarchs stretching
back at least 200 years and probably beyond in the mists and myths of African
legends.

The rain queens, believed to have been bestowed with the powers
to control the rains and rivers, were immortalised by the 19th-century adventure
writer Rider Haggard in She, the classic novel about a beautiful, immortal queen
ruling a hidden kingdom with supernatural powers. The story gave rise to the
phrase still used today: "She who must be obeyed".

Queen Makobo Modjadji was the first of that line to receive a
formal education although she admitted in a rare interview that she had never
read Rider Haggard. She was enthroned two years ago after the death of her
grandmother Modjadji V, in an elaborate formal ceremony conducted in the royal
kraal deep in the forested mountains and valleys of the north-eastern province,
now named Limpopo.

The traditional drums beat far and wide for the ceremony which
was attended by royal families and dignitaries from all corners of southern
Africa though, for the Balobedu people of the 140 villages that make up the tiny
kingdom, the celebrations were clouded not by rain but by controversy and
scandal.

The new queen, being a thoroughly modern young miss who preferred
to visit discos in the nearby towns wearing tee-shirts and jeans, had a child -
a boy - by her long-standing boyfriend, a respectable young man with a good job
in local government. But he was a commoner of whom the Royal Council
disapproved.

By strict custom, the rain queen must remain unmarried, living a
mostly reclusive life in the royal kraal attended by a number of "wives" -
ladies-in-waiting who fulfil the household chores and functions on her behalf.
Should she wish for male companionship, a suitor of royal blood must be chosen
and thoroughly vetted and approved by the Royal Council. The tribe then prays
for a girl-child as the hereditary succession is matriarchal.

The origins of the Modjadji royal line stretch back to the
16th-century Karanga kingdom of Monomatapa in what is now south-eastern
Zimbabwe. Centred on what are now the renowned Zimbabwe Ruins, the Monomatapa
empire was known to have traded gold and ivory with India and China and to have
reached an astonishing level of civil order and development in the heart of
Africa.

Oral tradition holds that the son of a Monomatapa ruler had a
relationship with his sister, Dzugundini, and produced an heir. His
half-brothers plotted to kill the heir to prevent him succeeding to the throne.
The old king, anxious to avoid a civil war, gave Dzugundini a magic horn for
making rain and defending herself against enemies, advising her to take her
child and followers southwards to establish their own kingdom.

The resulting tribe, known as the Balobedu, settled in the
fertile Molotsi Valley in the north-eastern corner of what became South Africa
where the northernmost slopes of the Drakensberg mountains drop down towards the
low veld. In the early 19th century, the tribe was ruled by Mugudo, a descendant
of Dzugundini.

Warned by his ancestors of family rivalries, he killed his sons
and married his daughter, founding a dynasty of women. If the queen gave birth
to a son, that child was strangled. Her first daughter, Modjadji, started the
matrilineal tradition.

She remained in complete seclusion deep in the misty forests of
an area that normally has an above-average rainfall; but in periods of drought,
ambassadors and supplicants came from afar to consult and to beg her to use her
powers to summon the rains. So respected were the rain queen's powers that
warring tribes never troubled the Lobedu tribe or even Shaka, the Zulu warrior
king, but sent emissiaries to seek her blessings.

Christian missionaries sought to debunk the myths and reduce the
powers of the rain queen but South Africa's ruling National Party promoted the
role of traditional leaders, seeing their powers as a way of promoting
apartheid. The rain queen was visited by several Afrikaner leaders, and was
given a government salary. Her son was made a member of the Lebowa homeland
parliament specifically to represent her interests.

Queen Modjadji V, Mokobo's grandmother, was deeply suspicious of
the African National Congress (ANC) as it moved towards power. She viewed it as
a force that would mobilise the youth against traditional leaders and undermine
their authority. She even rebuffed the persuasive powers of Nelson Mandela (who,
being of Xhosa royal blood himself, was sympathetic to her views), turning her
back on him when he visited the royal kraal to seek her endorsement for the 1994
elections which saw him become South Africa's first black president.

When the ANC-controlled provincial government came to power, it
was sympathetic and supportive of the Modjadji royal household, not least
because it was keen to promote tourism to the scenically spectacular region
based around the myths and legends of the Rain Queen. The Balobedu area is rich
in cycads, the ancient tree ferns almost as mystic as the Queen herself. To
preserve the giant of the species, encephelartos transvenosus, the
Modjadji Nature Reserve was established with her blessing.

Mokobo Constance Modjadji was born in the royal village in 1978,
the daughter of Princess Makheala, who had been the heir to the throne until she
died two days before the old Queen in 2001.

Makobo, who had achieved matriculation level at the local high
school and enjoyed the life of a modern teenager, found herself the new
reluctant heir to the rain queen's throne, even though she secretly shared the
scorn and scepticism of her contemporaries in the supernatural powers that
supposedly came with the throne.

On ascending the throne, Queen Modjadji had to obey the demands
of the Royal Council to continue the line, and she attempted to do her best,
attending the many meetings of local tribal council and traditional leaders and
contributing what she could to promote their interests and those of the Balobedu
people. Her duties precluded her from taking up Nelson Mandela's offer to fund
her further education; and she was soon dogged with ill health.

Queen Modjadji VI died in the Polokwane Medi-Clinic on June 12.
Medical staff declined to discuss her illness, but local rumours abound that her
symptoms were those of the complications caused by the HIV/Aids virus which is
ravaging much of South Africa.

She is survived by her son, who is thought to be eight years old;
since he is the offspring of her commoner lover, the boy is not recognised by
the deeply-traditional Modjadji Royal Council.

(c) Daily Telegraph

Comments

Questions, questions

[albatross.livejournal.com]

The more one looks into the Modjadji Royal Family, the more questions one comes up with.

What killed Makhaela Maria Modjadji, the heir to the throne? What killed her daughter, Makobo Constance Modjadji? For that matter, what killed Makope Modjadji, the fifth Rain Queen and Makobo's grandmother?

What killed Masopha Edwin Modjadji in August of this year at the age of 40? And what killed Michael Modjadji in 1998?

Being a member of the Modjadji Royal Family is a very very risky business.

Then there's the issue of parentage. Getting a geneaology out of this family is very difficult.

Makope Modjadji was said to have had four children: Masopha Edwin, Makhaela Maria, Hecks, and... who? Hecks is still alive, the other two are dead... and was there a fourth? How old is Hecks?

Despite many errant news reports that placed her age of death at 20, Makhaela was likely 37 years old at the time of her death. Even given that she was 37 when she died, that would have made her... 14 when Makobo was born, and 16 when Mpapatla was born. Let's hope that 37 was also an incorrectly low number for her age.

Finally, who fathered Lekukena Modjadji, Makobo's son? Was it David Mohale, or someone else?

At last report (7/29/2005) Julia Mabale had custody of Princess Masalanabo . Who has custody of Prince Lekukena?

Peyton Place had nothing on this family...