Life in a time of witchcraft: Excavating Sekgôbôkgôbô and Mpengwa narratives about the pre-colonial occupations at Leokwe and Nyindi hills in the Limpopo valley, South Africa.

Archaeological texts about pre-colonial society in the Limpopo province of South Africa tend to project twentieth century imaginings of homogenous and bounded groups into the past. Much of this knowledge rests on narratives obtained by male researchers from male informants, many of them elders/royals. Very few accounts about pre-colonial farming communities in southern Africa contain information about women’s understanding/s of these societies. The histories told by two Limpopo women - Sekgôbôkgôbô and Mpengwa - and published by N.J. van Warmelo are important exceptions. Archaeological excavations of the sites mentioned by the two women create the opportunity to start viewing the nineteenth century Limpopo valley from their perspective. Their life histories narrate a range of experiences of identity and social belonging. The social mutability and fluidity suggested by these narratives stand in stark contrast to the concept of bounded groups and places that informed most previous archaeological accounts of this time. This paper explores the dissonances and congruencies between previous archaeological interpretations and Sekgôbôkgôbô and Mpengwaâ’s narratives.