Phuthadikobo Museum

Community museum on a hilltop, tracing the history of the Bakgatla people from migration to independence

The Phuthadikobo Museum sits at the top of Phuthadikobo Hill, reached by a short but steep climb from the village below. Vervet monkeys are a reliable part of the walk up. The museum occupies a distinctive old school building and covers the history of the Bakgatla ba Kgafela people — their migration from South Africa under pressure from Boer encroachment in 1871, their settlement at Mochudi, and their experience through the colonial period and independence.

The collection includes traditional weapons, metalworking tools, ox wagon equipment, and musical instruments, but it is the photographs that make the deepest impression — century-old images of the community that show how much and how little has changed. The museum also has a craft shop and a silk-screen printing workshop. It is small, easy to visit in an hour, and genuinely informative. Admission is minimal.

things to do museum
A story
The building was constructed in 1921–23 as the Isang Pilane School — the first attempt in all of Bechuanaland Protectorate to educate children beyond the most elementary level. The project was driven by Kgosi Isang Pilane, who funded it from tribal resources. The school later closed, and the building sat abandoned until 1975, when the district council converted it into a museum. The photographs on the walls — some from the 1890s — were taken by anthropologists and amateur photographers who visited the Bakgatla territory, and show a world that was already changing rapidly when they were shot.

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