Why Modjadji royal children never carry their father’s name

By Celani Sikhakhane

• Balobedu senior royal Prof Mathole Motshekga says the Rain Queen’s children are traditionally barred from taking their father’s surname, to protect the Modjadji dynasty.

• Queen Masalanabo Modjadji VII, whose throne is being challenged by her brother Prince Lekukela in court, was fathered by David Mogale, partner of the late Queen Makobo Modjadji VI.

Children born to the Balobedu Rain Queen are not permitted to take their father’s surname, a long-standing custom intended to protect the royal dynasty, according to senior Balobedu royal Prof Mathole Motshekga.

Motshekga told Scrolla.Africa on Monday that the Rain Queen is allowed to have children within her nation, describing the custom as similar to succession practices within Britain’s royal family.

He said apartheid, along with some within the royal family, have since distorted the custom to suit their own narratives in court.

“The past rain Queens had children with the Mogales and the Mokobos. This is not a secret, and the children know their father, but they cannot take his surname. Instead, they keep the Modjadji name to protect the dynasty,” Motshekga said.

This means Queen Masalanabo Modjadji VII, whose throne is currently being challenged at the Pretoria High Court by her brother, Prince Lekukela, can have children of her own, but they would not carry their father’s surname either. Her mother, the late Queen Makobo Modjadji VI, had Masalanabo with David Mogale, a local man from a nearby township. Makobo died in 2005 at just 27, leaving Masalanabo, then three months old, as heir to a throne she could not yet take up.

The custom of hiding paternity behind the Modjadji name runs deep in the dynasty’s history. For generations, Rain Queens lived in seclusion and were traditionally barred from marrying at all, instead bearing children with selected men from within the kingdom, in order to keep the royal bloodline entirely their own. Queen Makoma Modjadji IV, born in 1905, was the first to break with that rule entirely, marrying Andreas Maake, whose son later became the fifth Rain Queen’s father.

The Balobedu dynasty traces back over two centuries, to Maselekwane Modjadji I, who took the throne in 1800 and began the tradition of exclusive female succession that has continued, largely unbroken, ever since.

Pictured above: The late Balobedu Rain Queen Modjadji VI had two children, who were not permitted to take their father’s surname, to protect the Modjadji dynasty.

Image source: Limpopo Government