‘A Snake Cannot have Two Heads’: Understanding the Historical and Recent Politics of Succession as Evidenced in the Material and Oral Record of the Kekana Ndebele

This article focuses on the social dynamics of the mid-twentieth century that influenced the body of tradition championed by members of the royal family of Kekana Ndebele at Mošate, Limpopo Province South Africa. The material remains of the 1854 siege of the Kekana Ndebele under chief Mugombane I, provided a means of detecting old political alliances and contributed towards understanding variances in the narrative topography constructed by two senior members of the Royal Council, who related the history of the recovery of Mugombane II during the 1980s. While each adopted the same narrative technique to embellish the political influence of the old chiefdom, each mapped out a different set of relationships. The symbolic import of these different geographic interpretations begins to emerge when considered against the highly fractious local and regional politics of the 1960s and '70s. This article traces the history of the oral narrative and the two storytellers to reveal the political bent and intention of each author.