As far as the longevity of South African towns is concerned, Phalaborwa, the self-proclaimed tourist capital of Limpopo province, is the new kid on the block, having only been founded in 1958. As with many towns across the country, Phalaborwa was established to service the needs of a burgeoning mining operation and its community that rapidly mushroomed in a very remote corner of what was then the Northern Transvaal in the mid-1950s.

But for such a young town, it bears a very old name and one that, surprisingly, bears no association with the rich mineralised landscape it has always been synonymous with. In fact, the word phalaborwa is indicative of the history of the baPhalaborwa clan, which has inhabited the area for centuries and is far more descriptive of the nature and dangers of the South African lowveld than it is of the town itself.
Baphalaborwa is an old Sotho word that means “better than the south” and inherently refers to the great journey that the forefathers of the current baPhalaborwa tribe undertook in a bygone century and of how they came to settle in the hillock-strewn land of eastern Limpopo.

Owing to the lack of written records, one must rely on the stories handed down through generations, and local oral tradition asserts that the direct ancestors of the baPhalaborwa were of Zimbabwean origin. One version of the story suggests that, back in the recesses of time, the leader of a metalworking clan of the Bokhalaka area in present-day Zimbabwe by the name of Malatashi (alternatively spelt Malatji) led an exodus of his people southwards to search for new, richer mineral deposits from which they could manufacture their iron implements. It is also believed that that particular migration was spurred as a consequence of the broad social upheaval that occurred across Central and Southern Africa, with Malatashi’s people driven southwards by waves of hostile invaders from the north.

Oral tradition now holds that Malatashi was the Moses of the baPhalaborwa and led them on a great journey southwards, where they settled in the mountains of Mopapole, near the present-day town of Bushbuckridge, in south-eastern Limpopo.

However, this area of the Lowveld posed another form of danger that was as perilous as marauding tribes: malaria fever. The decimation of a large part of the tribe drove Malatashi to continue the search for a new home but, because the malaria-carrying mosquitoes thrived in the lands further south, the tribe was forced to turn northwards again to find a hillier region boasting more favourable conditions.

The first known area they settled in was Sealene, 3 km from the present town of Phalaborwa. Their new home proved so favourable that the tribe christened themselves and the district baPhalaborwa because it was, given their experiences, “better than the south”. The one feature of the new landscape that proved most favourable was the richly abundant and easily accessible deposits of iron-ore and copper.

It is not entirely certain if the baPhalaborwa were the first to mine the iron- and copper-rich conical hill, which they called Lolwe hill and which was later rechristened Loolekop by white settlers and is now better known as the Palabora mine. However, radiocarbon dating of a deposit of charcoal found in an ancient shaft, which was discovered during mining operations in 1965, suggests that indigenous populations were actively mining as early as 770 AD. Adjacent workings have been dated between 1000 and 1750. Archaeologists assert that the ancient and precolonial diggings follow the mineralised veins with great accuracy, and were small enough in diameter to indicate the use of child labour in many instances.

Interestingly, the mineralised deposit of Lolwe Hill, long since excavated into what is now Africa’s second-largest openpit mine, measuring some 20 km2, is among the most famous in the world for not only being incredibly rich but also hosting an entirely unique concentration of metals and minerals, including copper, vermiculite, phosphate, zir-conium, titanium, magnetite, apatite, uranium, gold, silver, nickel and even traces of platinum and palladium.

Regardless of whether the baPhalaborwa were the first to mine there, it is known that they proved to be an industrious metalworking clan manufacturing a variety of hoes, axes, spearheads and arrowheads and supplied these implements to neighbouring bushveld tribes. The sheer scale of their industry is evidenced by the fact that the Phalaborwa landscape is dotted with more than 50 defunct metalworking sites.

During the early sixteenth century, the existence of the copper and iron works at Phalaborwa became known to Portuguese and Arab traders operating along the East African coastline and it is believed that a viable trade was established with the foreign merchants.

However, by the time the Voortrekkers began settling in the land they christened the Transvaal in the mid-nineteenth century, the baPhalaborwa had stopped mining, smelting and manufacturing their own implements. This was largely because of the importation of European-manufactured iron goods into the Lowveld, which caused a drastic decline in the demand for locally manufactured implements. Consequently, they lost all their ancient metalworking skills and only the slag piles and collapsed furnaces now hint at the tribe’s rich, industrious history.

While the early white settlers knew that the baPhalaborwa had once been a great metalworking clan and that their land was metalliferous, not much energy was put into investigating exactly how rich and extensive that resource really was. It was only in the wake of increased mineral prospecting in the early twentieth century that Phalaborwa’s mineral treasure trove began to be investigated. While the first commercial operation was established in the 1930s, Phalaborwa had to wait for the hostilities of the Second World War to cease before the mining boom and urbanisation proper could start.

Sadly, the descendants of the metalworking clan were removed and resettled in townships, which still exist on the edge of the town today. But the continued presence of the baPhalaborwa is an ever-present reminder of the rich history of Phalaborwa.