18/06/2005 20:56 - (SA)
Rain Queen's short reign hits kingdom hard
THE impressive setting of ancient trees and the breathtaking mountain ranges in the lush lowveld of Limpopo compliments well the land of Modjadji. The revered queen of the Balobedu people.
History says that Modjadji is a direct descendant of the kingdom of Monomotapa who ruled over the Karanga people in Zimbabwe in the 15th Century.
After a scandal in the royal house, the king's daughter, Princess Dzugungini and her son fled south.
She carried a potion and secrets of making rain, and after many years of travelling, she finally settled at what is now Ga-Modjadji in Bolobedu.
The powers of making rain were later passed to her granddaughter, Maselekewane Modjadji, who was crowned the first Rain Queen in 1800. It is also said that Modjadji was revered far beyond the boundaries of her kingdom.
Many great kings, including the then Zulu king, Shaka, did not attempt to annex her tiny kingdom but often called on the Rain Queen for her rain-making powers.
The powers were passed down the family line to people such as Masalanabo Modjadji II (1854-1895), Khetoane Modjadji III (1896-1959), Makoma Modjadji IV (1960-1980) and Mokope Modjadji V (1981-2001).
When Mokope Modjadji V died in 2001, a regent ruled for two years until her granddaughter, Makobo Modjadji, was crowned as the sixth Rain Queen in 2003.
It rained when Makobo Modjadji VI was crowned on a Friday in April 2003. At the age of 25, she was the youngest Rain Queen in the history of the Balobedu people.
The rain was regarded as a good omen for the new queen, since legend has it that the drought that plagued most parts of the southern Africa region then started when Queen Mokope Modjadji V died.
The Balobedu people are again in mourning for a rain queen after the death of Modjadji V1 just two years after her crowning. She passed away after an undisclosed illness at Polokwane Hospital last weekend.
That the tiny kingdom of Modjadji is respected even within political circles is seen through, among others, the dedication of a museum to the ancestors of the Rain Queen.
The museum is situated in the Modjadji Cycad Reserve, 28 kilometres north of Duiwelskloof, where it is believed the ancestors live.
The reserve is also the home of the largest concentration of cycads in the world, which date back 60 million years.
It is also one of the sites that attract many local and international tourists for an insight into the Modjadji kingdom and able to visit the royal kraal in Ga-Modjadji.
Makobo Modjadji VI had the shortest reign in the history of the kingdom, yet not without controversy.
But some in the deeply divided royal family believe that defying long-standing customs and traditions may have been behind her short reign.
Custom and tradition dictate that the Rain Queen should not be married nor have children with a man who has not been "approved" by the royal inner circle. Yet Makobo Modjadji VI defied this and had an affair with David Mogale, the former municipal manager of Greater Letaba Municipality.
It is rumoured that Mogale fathered the Rain Queen's second child, and he once moved into the royal kraal.
It is also said that custom and tradition dictate that the Rain Queen was not supposed to have been admitted in hospital but treated at home. Despite all this, she found support from some of the members of the royal family, and this perhaps explains the deep division which has now come to the surface in the royal kraal.
Nevertheless, Makobo Modjadji VI is no more, leaving a void in the tiny kingdom which is still revered beyond the boundaries of South Africa.
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