What has caused these names to change mahikeng to mafikeng?

Answer 1

The City of Mahikeng and its surrounds are occupied by the Ratshidi clan of the Barolong tribe. The Barolong tribe, as part of the greater Batswana nation shares its language, creed and culture with other Batswana. However, differences exist though these are minor. One the main differences is the pronounciation of words that have "f" as "h". Across the related Sotho and Pedi cultures, which are originally Batswana (four Sotho tribes and the core Pedi group trace their descent to the Bakgatla tribe, with the remainder of each group tracing the lineages to other Batswana tribes) the use of "f" predominates. The major Batswana tribe of Bahurutshe mainly uses an "f" while the Barolong and other tribes veer towards the utilization of an "h".

When the British annexed Barolong-ba-Ratshidi's area arond 1899, they could not pronounce the name of the place, Mahikeng, properly. Attempts to change the name of the place to an Anglo-Saxon name failed dismally. Correspondence across the British offices in South Africa meant that Batswana, Basotho and Bapedi pronounced Mahikeng as Mafikeng. Eventually, the Anglo-Saxon occupiers called the place Mafeking, as this how one would pronounce Mafikeng in English.

The name Mafeking stuck until the area was incorporated into Bophuthatswana, the Bantustan led by Lucas Mangope. Mangope, an Apartheid-backed minor Bahurutshe royal who imposed his autocratic rule on the Barolong and other South African Batswana, restored the proper name of the place - but being a Mohurutshe, he insisted on the place being Mafikeng, meaning a place of stones. Mangope also established a new town adjacent to the Barolong-ba-Ratshidi royals seat of power, and called it Mmabatho. Throwing his weight around, he elevated the name Mmabatho to be the name of the area and the city. Mafikeng then referred to the core settlement of Anglo-Saxons colonials.

The advent of the democratic dispensation in 1994 resulted in the toppling of Mangope, and later the Barolong-ba-Ratshidi royals campaigned for the proper name of the area to be restored. As such, the whole city and surrounds was then called Mafikeng, with Mmabatho referring now to only the new town commissioned by Mangope. This also had something to do with the people mandating the ruling ANC to reclaim their heritage and remove the memory of Apartheid from place name and other monuments. But this was not enough as the name Mafikeng alluded to a Bahurutshe influence in a Barolong area, although both tribes are Batswana with the Bahurutshe being the most senior Batswana tribe. Also, the Bahurutshe were under Barolong rule in earlier times, so there was an element of imperial pride at work. And hence the later change of the name Mafikeng to Mahikeng. Both words mean the same thing anyway, with the main difference being just semantics.