A pivotal figure in preserving the Pedi state was Sekwati I[11] (1827–1861), the paramount leader who introduced reforms in the military and internal administration and welcomed Christian missionaries.

Throughout history, the Pedi actively participated in the struggle against colonization and apartheid in South Africa, joining the broader movement of African peoples fighting for their rights and freedom.

According to Merensky, Sekhukhune's people were a fusion of various tribes, with the most significant group identifying as the "Bapedi" or "Baperi," meaning the "Family of the King."

This tribe had settled along the Steelpoort River nearly two centuries prior, and Merensky found the name of their kingdom, 'Biri,' on antique Portuguese maps.

[12] Proto-Sotho people are thought to have migrated south from eastern Africa (around the African Great Lakes) in successive waves spanning five centuries.

[13] They made their way along with modern-day western Zimbabwe, with the last group of Sotho speakers, the Hurutse, settling in the region west of Gauteng around the 16th century.

Only in the last half of the 18th century did they broaden their influence over the region, establishing the Pedi paramountcy by bringing smaller neighboring chiefdoms under their control.

[15] The Pedi polity under King Thulare (c. 1780–1820)[5] was made up of land that stretched from present-day Rustenburg to the lowveld in the west and as far south as the Vaal River.

[17] Sekwati succeeded Thulare as paramount chief of the Pedi in the northern Transvaal (Limpopo) and was frequently in conflict with the Matabele under Mzilikazi and plundered by the Zulu and the Swazi.

Sekwati has also engaged in numerous negotiations and struggles for control over land and labor with the Afrikaans-speaking farmers (Boers) who have since settled in the region.

The Pedi were well equipped to defend themselves, though, as Sekwati and his heir, Sekhukhune I were able to procure firearms, mostly through migrant labor to the Kimberley diamond fields and as far as Port Elizabeth.

The Pedi paramountcy's power was also cemented by the fact that chiefs of subordinate villages, or kgoro, took their principal wives from the ruling house.

The most widely used totems in Sepedi are as follows: In pre-conquest times, people settled on elevated sites in relatively large villages, divided into kgoro (pl.

Each consisted of a group of households in huts built around a central area that served as a meeting place, cattle byre, graveyard, and ancestral shrine.

Processes of forced and semi-voluntary relocation and an apartheid government planning scheme implemented in the name of "betterment", have meant that many newer settlements and the outskirts of many older ones consist of houses built in grid formation, occupied by individual families unrelated to their neighbors.

[citation needed] Kgoshi – a loose collection of kinsmen with related males at its core, was as much a jural unit as a kinship one, since membership was defined by acceptance of the kgoro-head's authority rather than primarily by descent.

Practiced by the ruling dynasty, during its period of dominance, it represented a system of political integration and control over the recycling of bridewealth (dikgomo di boela shakeng; returning of bride cattle).

Polygyny too is now rare, many marriages end in divorce or separation, and a large number of young women remain single and raise their children in small (and often very poor) female-headed households.

The peak of Pedi (and northern Sotho) musical expression is arguably the kiba genre, which has transcended its rural roots to become a migrant style.

Research shows that mmino wa bana can be examined for its musical elements, educational validity, and general social functions[31] The present-day Pedi area, Sekhukhuneland, is situated between the Olifants River (Lepelle) and its tributary, the Steelpoort River (Tubatse); bordered on the east by the Drakensberg range, and crossed by the Leolo mountains.

But at the height of its power, the Pedi polity under Thulare (about 1780–1820) included an area stretching from the site of present-day Rustenburg in the west to the Lowveld in the east, and ranging as far south as the Vaal River.

In terms of the government's plans to accommodate ethnic groups separated from each other, this was designed to act as a place of residence for all Northern Sotho speakers.

Women hoed and weeded, did pottery, built and decorated huts with mud; made sleeping mats and baskets, ground grain, cooked, brewed, and collected water and wood.

Men did some work in fields at peak times; they hunted and herded; they did woodwork, prepared hides, and were metal workers and smiths.

Despite increasingly long absences, male migrants nonetheless remained committed to the maintenance of their fields; plowing had now to be carried out during periods of leave or entrusted to professional plowmen or tractor owners.

Men, although subjected to increased controls in their lives as wage-laborers, fiercely resisted all direct attempts to interfere with the spheres of cattle-keeping and agriculture.

Between the 1930s and the 1960s, most Pedi men would spend a short period working on nearby white farms, followed by a move to employment in the mines or domestic service, and later, especially in more recent times, to factories or industry.

The pre-colonial system of communal or tribal tenure, which was broadly similar to that practiced throughout the southern African region, was crystallized but subtly altered, by the colonial administration.

Christian Pedi communities that owned freehold farms were removed to the reserve without compensation, but since 1994, many have now reoccupied their land or are preparing to do so, under restitution legislation.

Ancestors are viewed as intermediaries between humans and The Creator or God (Modimo/Mmopi) and are communicated to by calling on them using a process of burning incense, making an offering, and speaking to them (go phasa).