The BaKxatla baxaKxafêla belong to the Sotho cluster of Southern Bantu peoples. They lived originally in the Rustenberg district of the Transvaal, where many of them are still found; but in 1869 the main body of the tribe, owing to trouble with the local Dutch authorities, crossed the border into what is now Bechuanaland Protectorate. Here they are now settled in a proclaimed reserve approximately 3,600 sq. miles in extent. Much of their land, however, is arid, poorly watered, and of little practical value. Their population inside the Reserve may be estimated at about 12,000 souls. Two-thirds of them live in the large central town of Mochudi. The rest are distributed over nearly a dozen much smaller villages to the south and west, at distances of six to thirty miles from Mochudi.