Royal Bafokeng Nation
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The Royal Bafokeng Nation is the ethnic homeland of the Bafokeng people. The nation covers 795 square miles in the North West Province of South Africa. Its population is 300,000. The administrative capital is Phokeng.
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[edit] History
The Bafokeng settled in the region more than 200 years ago. The Afrikaners arrived in the mid-19th Century and made the area part of the Transvaal Republic. To circumvent Afrikaner laws that restricted land ownership to whites, the Bafokeng employed German Lutheran missionaries to hold the titles to their land purchases in trust.
The region comprising the Royal Bafokeng Nation was part of the Bophuthatswana homeland during apartheid.
[edit] Natural Resources
Much of the terrain is rolling grassland. Farming was the primary occupation until the discovery of the Merensky Reef in 1925. The Merensky Reef, a foot-thick layer of plantinum-rich rock, is one of the richest platinum deposits in the world.
In 1999, the Bafokeng obtained a legal settlement that gave them a 22 percent royalty on all platinum taken from their territory and an ownership stake in Impala Mining Co., the second-largest platinum company in South Africa. The value of the Bafokeng's stake in Impala had tripled to more than $50 million by 2001. The Bafokeng receive annual royalties of approximately $63 million from platinum mining.
The Bafokeng have recruited several manufacturing companies to Phokeng as part of a drive to expand the nation's exports beyond raw materials. A 45,000-seat stadium and athletic complex was built in Phokeng in 2000.
[edit] Administration
King Leruo Molotlegi, the 36th recorded monarch of the Bafokeng people, was enthroned in August 2003. Molotlegi holds a bachelor's degree in architecture from the University of Natal. Molotlegi's predecessor was his elder brother, King Lebone II.
[edit] References
- Makuth, Andrew. (2001, April 17). In S. Africa, a dispute worth more than gold. The Philadelphia Inquirer
- News Release. (2002, October 22). King of the Royal Bafokeng Nation in South Africa to Speak at Brown University. Providence, R.I.: The Watson Institute for International Studies, Brown University
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