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Province: Limpopo Province
Attraction: Venda Myths and Legends

Venda Myths & Legends 
Venda is truly the Land of Legends as there are so many beliefs and stories about the supernatural that is may take a long visit to discover them all. 

The traditional deity of the vhaVenda is Raluvimba, a birdlike being. He travels like a shooting star and his voice is heard in thunder, lightning, droughts, floods and earthquakes, in fact all natural phenomena that has an influence on the ordinary man. 
At the same time take note of the zwidutwane that live in the Phiphidi Falls and in Gubukhuvo, the pool into which the water flow below the falls. Although these water sprites can trap their own meat, they cannot grow grain under water and therefore beer and grain are left on a sacred stone near the top of the falls to foster good relations with the ancestral spirits.

Perhaps the best know of sacred places in Venda is the mysterious Lake Fundudzi in the Mutale River. This is the only true lake in South Africa and was formed in ancient times by a landslide. However vhaTavhatsinde people under Chief Netshiavho settled around the lake and he became the keeper of the lake. 

There are numerous legends surrounding the lake. One such a legend is that a leper begged for food at one of the villages where the lake is now. He was refused food and then he cursed the village, which was then suddenly covered by water and one can still see the people living at the bottom of the lake. 

Another legend has it that this is the home of the God of Fertility, the python, and that at the begging of Spring millet beer must be offered to the ancestral spirits in the water to determine whether it is going to be a good season or not. Sending a maiden with a pot of beer into the lake does this, she must then pour the beer into the water and if the water and beer mixes it is going to be a good season. If not, then other measures must be employed to enlist the help of the ancestral spirits to have a good season. 

No one is allowed to look at the lake directly – one must look through your legs at the lake – and no one is allowed to touch the water – your skin will break out in sores if you do so. 
Close by Lake Fundudzi in the mountain is the Thathe Vondo forest where a sacred white lion haunts the forest to protect the graves of the chiefs buried in the sacred forest and south of the sacred forest is Lwamondo Hill where the sacred baboons live, who warned the Lwamondo people of the approaching Swazi raiders, thus saving their lives. 

Anglo-Boer War 
The Centenary commemorating the 3 years of strife between Great Britain and the Boer Republics started already in 1999 and will continue until 2002 and forts, memorials and memorabilia are on display throughout the province. The main commemoration festivities will take place from 26 April 2001 to 1 May 2001 as part of the province's Arts & Culture Festival. 
But what did really happen in the Limpopo? 
War was declared on 10 October 1899 and had former English and Afrikaans neighbours inevitably join the forces of opposite sides. 

The Soutpansberg and Waterberg were grouped together to form the "Noordelike Hooflaer" (the northern chief laager) under the command of the newly appointed Assistant0Commandant General FA Grobler. After failing to cut communications in Bechuanaland (presently Botswana) and Rhodesia (presently Zimbabwe) and with the early part of the war being fought mostly in Natal and the Northern Cape many burghers lost interest and went home. A few Field cornet units did however heed the call and join the many great battles being fought further south. 

Early in 1900 the Republican forces were beginning to yield to the might of the British Empire and one after another stronghold fell. In March the British occupied the Free State capital and on 5 June Lord Roberts triumphantly entered Pretoria. The Boer forces were driven back along the Pretoria-Delagoa Bay railway line until the British had subjected the present day Mpumalanga. After that the present day Limpopo remained the only unoccupied part of the Transvaal. 

In August 1900 the British advance began from Pretoria to the Limpopo. General Grobler and his Waterberg and Soutpansberg Commandos made a stand at Pienaars River to defend the Polokwane railway line. Although General Grobler was driven back as far as Nylstroom, the British forces withdrew, as occupying the Limpopo was not a priority, and they were more urgently needed elsewhere.

Assistant-Commandant General Christiaan Frederik Beyers was appointed the new leader of the Noordelike Hooflaer and suspended Grobler. General Beyers, having to deal with many disillusioned men, re-organised the commandos and replaced many officers and appointed new ones. During September and October 1900 the situation for the Boer Republic was critical and the Boer leaders from Eastern Transvaal (Mpumalanga) decided to use Polokwane as their base and headquarters. Had the Northern Transvaal (Northern Province) been in British hands at this stage, the leaders might have conceded defeat, however they now still had a strong base to continue fighting from. 

The British dominated the southerly parts of the country and for a time Polokwane fulfilled the role of capital of the Boer Republics. 

The British military authorities ordered General Plumer to begin his advance to the north in March 1901. Attempts to check Plumer was unsuccessful and he rode into Polokwane on 8 April. The Boers retreated to Haenertsburg taking the last of their famous Long Tom cannons with them. After a long fight, and running out of cannon ammunition, Commandant Neethling surrendered, but not before the Long Tom was destroyed. Most burghers succeeded in evading capture and fled into the mountains and the Lowveld. The British took the Boer strongholds in the north one after the other, right up to Louis Trichardt. Conditions for the Burghers in the veldt became very difficult especially when the British brought in their Bushveld Carbineers and Lord Kitchener applied his "scorched earth" policy destroying farms and sending women and children into concentration camps. Towards the end of 1901 there were 3,860 women and children from the north in the camp at Polokwane. A total of 657 died. 

During this time world wide publicity was given to the infamous Lt "Breaker" Morant's war trail. Accused of a series of vicious events he was executed, along with Lt Handcock on 27 February 1902 for the murder of twelve Boer prisoners of war. 

Many more deadly skirmishes of great ferocity between British patrols and the Boer commandos were fought, with the Boers trying to regain some control and General Beyers regrouping and attacking relentlessly, but the commandos were clearly outnumbered. 

On 31 May 1902, after two weeks of deliberation and negotiation with the British representatives in Pretoria, the Peace of Vereeniging was proclaimed where the Boers had to sacrifice their independence for the same of the survival of the Afrikaner nation. The war took a heavy toll on the people of the Limpopo, together with the loss of life in the concentration camps, 1,350 Northern Transvalers died in the war, and most of those who survived had to start from scratch again. 
Many relics of this war can still be seen throughout the province.