BaTalaote are an ethnic group found in the central district of

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

and south-western parts of

Zimbabwe file:Zimbabwe, relief map.jpg, upright=1.22, Zimbabwe, relief map Zimbabwe, officially the Republic of Zimbabwe, is a landlocked country in Southeast Africa, between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, bordered by South Africa to the south, Bots ...

. They are part of a large group of ethnic groups called

Bakalanga The Kalanga or BaKalanga are a southern Bantu ethnic group mainly inhabiting Matebeleland in Zimbabwe, northern Botswana, and parts of the Limpopo Province in South Africa. The BaKalanga of Botswana are the second largest ethnic group in th ...

. Over the years the Batalaote lost their language and those in Zimbabwe adopted Kalanga while those in Botswana adopted Sengwato. The Talaunda and the Wadoma could share a common ancestor. Both tribes have significantly high cases of

ectrodactyly Ectrodactyly, split hand, or cleft hand () involves the deficiency or absence of one or more central Digit (anatomy), digits of the hand or foot and is also known as split hand/split foot malformation (SHFM). The hands and feet of people with ec ...

. BaTalaote (sometimes spelt "Talaunda") meaning glance back while trudging on, are a large tribe even though they are divided and live in various parts of Botswana and Western Zimbabwe. They are Rozvi/Lozi/Lozvi people and their totem is a heart/pelo/moyo and they do not pierce their ears. They are a peaceful tribe which migrated from

; they came from the same region in East Africa as the Shona. They fled Zimbabwe to Senyawe in Botswana because of the intertribal wars. They lived with the Bangwato when they settled in Botswana. Some of them accompanied Ratiltadi and Mpoengs who fled from Kgama into

Plumtree, Zimbabwe Plumtree is a town in Zimbabwe. Marula trees, wild plum trees (Ntungulu in tjiKalanga) grow abundantly in the area. The town was once called ''Getjenge'' by baKalanga. It is also often called ''Titji,'' meaning station, and referring to the ...

. The Rozvi are the people from where the Mambo dynasty emerged. It is now thought that these Kalanga/Rozvi/Lozi/Lozvi people built the Mapungubwe and

Great Zimbabwe Great Zimbabwe was a city in the south-eastern hills of the modern country of Zimbabwe, near Masvingo. It was settled from 1000 AD, and served as the capital of the Kingdom of Great Zimbabwe from the 13th century. It is the largest stone struc ...

ruins. The Gululu are a smaller family within the Talaunda; their origin dates back to the aftermath of a genocide attempt by King Mzilikazi after Kedikilwe, brother of Musemwe, misled the King on the whereabouts of herds of cattle that belonged to the Talaunda and the Bangwato in Botswana. The survivors of that attack adopted the name Gululu or Gwababa in Si Ndebele, as the king's warriors had unwittingly mistaken rustling noises in the bushes made by these Talaunda for creeping Monitor lizards (called Gululu in Kalanga). Their first settlement in Botswana was in a small village north-east of Botswana called Senyawe, where they lived on a hill. Batalaote are still in Senyawe village. They were divided due to the search for greener pastures, intertribal marriage and intertribal wars. That is why there are some Batalaote in Plumtree, Matopos,

Serowe Serowe (population approximately 60,000) is an urban village in Botswana's Botswana Central District, Central District. A trade and commercial centre, it is Botswana's third largest village. Serowe has played an important role in Botswana's histor ...

, Mmadinare, Makaleng,

Bobirwa The Bobirwa Subdistrict is a jurisdiction in Botswana. It is populated by the Babirwa (Ba-Birwa) people who came from Transvaal in present-day South Africa. History Before Moshoeshoe and his nation of Lesotho, the Basotho people populated ...

. Several of the Talaote/Talaunda people seek government-assisted repatriation from their current locations to locations that are governed by Talaote chiefs and tribal princes. Bakalanga-Banyai, just like any other African tribe has dialects; their dialects are *Badhalaunda/batalaote (they lived in Madzilogwe, Mazhoubgwe, up to Zhozhobgwe.) *BaNambya can be found in Hwange up to Gweta. *BaLilima ( BaWombe; Bayela. Are in the central district with Baperi *Baperi (live together with BaLilima as mentioned above) Dhalaunda was the leader of one of these Kalanga sub-tribes, and the clan was named after him, originally Badhalaunda, but then Bangwato changed it to Batalaote, as they changed Bakalanga to Bakalaka, maybe because of difficulty pronouncing the Kalanga words. They are found in the central district of Botswana and south-western parts of Zimbabwe. Over the years the Talaunda dialect was levelled to other Ikalanga dialects, just as the north-eastern Tjikalanga dialect is shifting to Tjililma. Some of them live in Serowe; former President of Botswana, Festus Mogae, is a member. These have completely lost their Ikalanga identity, and now just identify themselves as Talaote or Ngwato, with little knowledge of what Talaote really means. Most Talaote tribe who witnessed the conflicts between their rulers fled Botswana for South Africa. Most Batalaota are currently found in the Malebogo District in the Blouberg Municipality.

References

* http://www.gazettebw.com/timeout/the-hybrid-culture-of-the-ngwato-on-display.html * http://kamanakao.tripod.com/commissiona.pdf * http://www.ditshwanelo.org.bw/images/Reteng%202006%20Shadow%20Report.pdf {{authority control Ethnic groups in Botswana