Dinokana is a town on the N4 road in

Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality The Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality (), formerly the Central District Municipality, is one of the four districts of the North West province of South Africa. Its capital is Mafikeng, which is also the capital of the province. It was nam ...

in the

North West The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A ''compass rose'' is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each ...

province of

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

Early settlement

The area became the main town of the Bahurutshe in 1849, when Kgosi Moiloa I settled it with about 1,500 people, who had been displaced following the

Difaqane The Mfecane, also known by the Sesotho names Difaqane or Lifaqane (all meaning "crushing," "scattering," "forced dispersal," or "forced migration"), was a historical period of heightened military conflict and migration associated with state fo ...

war. Moiloa was accompanied by the Reverend

Walter Inglis Walter may refer to: People and fictional characters * Walter (name), including a list of people and fictional and mythical characters with the given name or surname * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–19 ...

of the

London Missionary Society The London Missionary Society was an interdenominational evangelical missionary society formed in England in 1795 at the instigation of Welsh Congregationalist minister Edward Williams. It was largely Reformed tradition, Reformed in outlook, with ...

. In 1875, a succession dispute in the aftermath of Moiloa's death led to the displacement of many BaHurutshe, and nearly half of the population moved to Gopane.

Anti-apartheid history

Dinokana was the centre of the Bahurutshe resistance of the 1950s. Kgosi Abram Ramotshere Moiloa was banished by the

Apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

Government in 1957 after he refused to enforce the carrying of passbooks by Hurutshe women as obliged by apartheid law. The women of Dinokana had largely refused to carry the passbooks, and Kgosi Moiloa had supported their decision. At the first meeting held by the native commissioner, 1000 women gathered but only 70 passbooks were taken out, Kgosi Moiloa was deposed a week later. Better known as the Zeerust uprising or the Hurutshe revolt, a popular uprising engulfed Lehurutshe in reaction to the punitive actions of the apartheid state, led particularly by the women of Lehurutse.

Bophuthatswana

In the 1980s, while the town was part of

Bophuthatswana Bophuthatswana (, ), officially the Republic of Bophuthatswana (; ), and colloquially referred to as the Bop and by outsiders as Jigsawland (In reference to its enclave-ridden borders) was a Bantustan (also known as "Homeland", an area set asid ...

, a number of agricultural schemes were started close to Dinokana, and the town of

Lehurutshe Lehurutshe (formerly known as Welbedacht) is a town in Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality in the North West province of South Africa. The town has within its vicinity the Lehurutshe campus of Taletso TVET, a fire station and numerous school ...

was built about away to resettle some of the villagers. Dinokana has primary schools and high schools.

References

Populated places in the Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality Populated places established in 1849 1849 establishments in South Africa {{NorthWestZA-geo-stub