Author: JPD

My Father was requested to go with the Boere Commando to Mapog to get Mampuru who murdered old Sekukuni. When they arrived there, the Boer officers with my Father went, with a white flag, to talk to Chief Mapog. My father told me that he felt very creepy going through a narrow poort with high… Continue reading Mapog

My father was exempted from military service because at the time he was a student in Berlin University, there was a law that any student who passed the high examination of the University would be exempted from conscription. My father could speak G European languages besides the Sesotho. He was very good in shorthand writing.… Continue reading Military service

We started from Delagoa Bay on the way back home. When we reached the high mountain where the road climbs up a very steep grade, my father ordered the wagon to go ahead and we came behind walking on foot. When we came to the steepest grade in the mountain we found our driver Helkia… Continue reading The return journey

About the year 1888 my father decided to take us all to Delagoa Bay to see the sea. How my father could afford the expense of a long trip with a salary of £90 per year, which was the salary of a married missionary paid by the Berlin Mission Society, is hard to believe. He… Continue reading First trip to Delagoa Bay

When my father came to Sekukuniland he built his first house at Fernkloof to the north of Dsjatte. The walls of the house were built with stones and clay, the roof was of clay and flat stones laid over timbers. My brother, Christian, who was still a baby, was sleeping in a cot in the… Continue reading Is it coincidence?

Dr. Wangemann (the Director of the Berlin Mission Society) came via Lydenburg and found the Steelpoort river in flood. My father went to meet him at Burgersfort. Native Aron Bolale with his sons, who were good swimmers, swam across the Steelpoort to bring Dr. Wangemann’s luggage. They went about 50 yards up river so that… Continue reading Dr. Wangemann’s (my grandfather) visit to Sekukuniland

Johannes August Winter (our father). (Pniël) l7th December, 1847, (Oorlede Mecklenburg 7 April 1921). Anna Maria Dorothea Elizabeth Dolorosa (born Wangemann) Winter (our mother) (Wollen, Pommere, Pruise) 3rd September 1848 (Oorlede Onverwacht, Sekukuniland 23.7.1929). Christian August Theodor Winter. (Botshabelo) 3rd March, 1880 (Oorlede Pretoria 23.11.1925). Anna Maria Dorothea Winter (Volgens aannemingsertifikaat Anna Dorothea Elizabeth –… Continue reading Birth days of the Winter Family

My father and his brother-in-law Revd. Knothe, went to visit old Sekukuni. (F.J.C. Knothe was getroud met Anna Magdalena Winter, suster van Johannes August Winter – Zöllner & Heese). They were received very kindly and invited to sleep at the kraal but refused because my mother was left alone at Hackney. Early in the morning… Continue reading Mampuru murders Sekukuni

The British army horses and oxen ate all the young sorghum in the hundreds of the Bapedi lands, the good rain which fell at that time made the sorghum grow again and it ripened into a bumper crop. My father organised the reaping and thrashing of the sorghum by the natives who came back after… Continue reading How my father became a great friend of old Sekukuni

After the death of Chief Sekwati, his son Sekukuni left with his people and resided at Tjate. The chief’s kraal was built in the corner, formed by the extension of the Leolo mountain like an elbow, the long point extended east to Modimolle and the short point to the north. Ntswaneng (Fighting Hill) is an… Continue reading Sekukuni war