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Kaditshwene

Coordinates: 25°23′00″S 26°12′00″E / 25.3833°S 26.2000°E / -25.3833; 26.2000
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Kaditshwene aka Gaditshwene or Karechuenya, was a South African Iron Age settlement some 25 kilometers northeast of the present-day North West Province town of Zeerust.

It was the cultural capital of the Bahurutshe people, one of the principal Tswana tribes and a centre of manufacturing and trading. The missionary, John Campbell, came across this settlement in the Tshwenyane hills of the Marico in 1820, at which time its population of 20 000 exceeded that of Cape Town. Archaeologists estimate that it had been founded in the late 1400s.

In 1821, during the Mfecane, the town was sacked by the Batlokwa under the warrior queen, Mantatisi. The attack was followed round 1823 by another under Sebetwane and the Bafokeng tribe. The survivors fled west and sought sanctuary among the Bakwena and other Tswana tribes. Crumbling stone walls are the only evidence of the settlement's previous existence.

John Campbell referred to the town as “Kurreechane”, a name which has survived in Kurrichane thrush and Kurrichane buttonquail, species that were described from there by Andrew Smith. [1]

References

25°23′00″S 26°12′00″E / 25.3833°S 26.2000°E / -25.3833; 26.2000