My History

Originated

Dear Folks, my name is Tlou Samuel Raophala, I was born twenty something years ago, if I remember correctly it was in the heard of some place called Kromhoek(if I can still spelled it correctly), to be honest I never been to this place since I was three, I am going to tell you the full story now...

in those days I think it was still the apartheid days where lots families were removed away from their relatives and loving ones, the only people I remember there was only my two brothers(Mahlora and Kgalamadi), my two grannies(Nkhahliwa and Mamasilo), and my uncle called Masilu( also known as Vorsie).

From this plase the only things that can I remember are only those happened inside the yard since I never been outside the gate, at home they always telling me about a person called "Maemae who will take me away to kill me and eat me if I go outside, but what was älways amazing me was my brothers can disappear for the whole day and then come back at the end of the day without been eaten by the guy(Maemae).

...but anyway that was then and I think they were protecting me as I was too young and I might not remember my way back.

As I said I never revisited this place ever since I was 2 or 3 years old, I can't even tell anymore how was the houses structured but I only know it was Rondavels(a rounded figure building and  roofed with long grass and build from the mud ) , infect everything was just created from the mud, we had goats, sheep  and some poultries, and only my grannies were the people that I was very close to, more especially Nkhahliwa(I will never ever forget this women in my entire life).

It was very early in the morning, things happened in a very strange way, it was around June 1985 or somewhere there, from this point in time my memory was very good to remember most of the thingd that happened in my life up to this moment I’m writing this touching stories, we were just woke up when two or three big trucks stops by our place, there approaches a very old man and he carried me and instructed me to salute him to test if I was taught the way he wanted, I was just about to cry since he was totally stranger to me, my granny(Nkhahliwa) come over and she was smiling very openly and shouted ”lotsha… lotsha…” meaning that I must greet him, I soon realized that this is the person I should trust, and I clapped my two hand strongly and let him kiss them as it was the way we taught to greet old people, he surprisingly kissed them and commanded that I’m the one(but didn’t know which one), this guy infact was my very protecting grandfather. He was caming to take us back home, that is when I realized that I was not born at home but in exile, he instructed all people to demolish everything and start to pack in the trucks while carrying me telling me we are going home, “Where is home…?”... I was repeatedly asking myself! But anyway everything got packed in the trucks and everybody inside and we were on the way…

Wellcome to Botlokoa(Motlokoa ga ana yo montlokoana), this is who I call myself, people I am a 100% Motlokoa and I am very proud, I landed to the place in 1985 for the first time, this should be quite long back from today if we trace it back, it is a pity that I can’t locate this place on the geographic map but what I realy knows and sure about is that it is somewhere on earth,  all you need to do to locate it is that: you just have to rotate the sphere clockwise a little bit, and right point on African continent, you go down till you find the southern countries, so in South Africa, unfortunately you must go back to northeren province, I am talking about new Limpopo folks. in the heart of the province, then welcome to my home “O ka sehlakeng bjatse” means you are home, this is also called Matoks, you go to the westerly direction to find the very rich village called Letsatsana(Ledjadjana), this place is where my entire life developed since I was three years old, with a lots of people, a lots of events, and also a lot of funny stories that I’m about to tell you…

My childwood