This week we discuss another theory of how Tzaneen got its name.
Initial investigations by M. Klapwijk, author of ‘Story of Tzaneen’s origin’, suggested that Tzaneen was named after an old Bantu chief that resided in the area.
Chief Mahupa, who resided South of Duiwelskloof between 1880-1900 was believed to also go by the name of Tsaneng Mahupa. Mahupa was part of a breakaway tribe of the original Bakoni tribe. They first settled near the present day farms of Hansfontein and Mayland, but later moved to Piesangkop, next to Westfalia estate.
Years later, Mazeven Modiba, an old Bantu of Mayland, remarked that Tsaneng (pronounced Tzanene in Bantu) was not the name of Mahupa but instead was the name of the place where Mahupa and all his forefathers had lived.
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The area around Piesangkop, Mayland, Hansfontein and South of Westfalia had been known as Tsaneng, long before any white settlers came to the district. Additionally, Modiba explained that people living there were called Batsanene.
Modiba suggested that Tsaneng means, ‘people getting together.’
A Government Experimental Station at Krabbefontein which was established on the farms bought by H. S. Altenroxel and C. Plange in 1903, was referred to as ‘Tzaneen Government Estate’. In his book, ‘Ich suchte Land in Afrika’, H. S. Altenroxel wrote that when he first got to the area in 1892, he met with a local chief named Captain Magoeba to find out information on the area. Magoeba told Altenroxel that Tsaneng means ‘the happy land’. Others describe it to mean, ‘a place where people come together’.
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Taking this into account, as well as Modiba’s and Magoeba’s meanings, it appears that Tsaneng means ‘a gathering place’ and that name gave rise to Tzaneen.
In Klapwijk’s book, he notes that by the late 1800’s, the Germans were far ahead of anybody else in the field of Bantu languages.
To Altenroxel’s German ear, ‘ts’ became ‘tz’. So the name ‘Tsaneng’, pronounced by the Bantu as Tsanene, evolved to become Tzaneen to the German Altenroxel.
Have any interesting stories about Tzaneen’s history?
Feel free to share them with us via email: bethc@herald.co.za
