Abstract

This paper investigates the Sesotho verbal root -rwa- and its possible semantic extensions across several domains of human experience, material culture, indigenous identity, geography and natural phenomena.

The investigation originates from an observation that a number of Sesotho expressions containing the phonological sequence rwa appear to share conceptual associations with carrying, bearing, placing, gathering, accumulating and consolidating separate objects or elements into a collective whole.

Expressions such as rwala (to put on or carry),
rwalla (to gather or accumulate),
morwalo (a load or burden),
morwallo (a flood), and rola (to remove or unload) provide the starting point for examining whether these expressions reflect a broader semantic structure.

The paper further explores the relationship between Morwa and Barwa, historically associated with indigenous hunter-gatherer populations of Southern Africa, commonly identified in contemporary literature as San peoples.

It considers whether the designation Barwa may preserve an indigenous linguistic description associated with the activities of carrying, gathering and mobility. It also examines the proposed relationship between Borwa, the Sesotho designation for the southern direction, and the ethnonym Barwa.

The central proposition is that the root -rwa- may preserve an interconnected conceptual framework through which early Sesotho-speaking communities understood human activity, their indigenous neighbours and the natural environment.

The paper presents these connections as research hypotheses rather than established historical etymologies, advocating
further comparative Sotho-Tswana linguistics, oral history, archaeology and indigenous knowledge research.

Keywords: Sesotho, Barwa, Morwa, Rwa, Borwa, Indigenous Knowledge Systems, San, Ethnolinguistics, African Heritage, Morphology.

1. Introduction

Language constitutes one of the most enduring repositories of indigenous knowledge. Beyond its function as a medium
of communication, language preserves historical experiences, environmental observations, social relationships and cultural classifications.

In African indigenous societies, the meanings of words frequently extend beyond their immediate literal definitions. A single linguistic root may generate expressions associated with physical activities, social relationships, natural phenomena and collective identities.

This investigation examines the Sesotho root -rwa- as a possible example of such semantic interconnectedness.

The starting observation is that several Sesotho expressions containing this root appear to revolve around a common
conceptual field involving the placement, bearing, carrying or accumulation of objects.

The investigation raises an important question:

Could the Sesotho root –RWA- preserve an ancient conceptual association between carrying, gathering, indigenous material culture and the historical identity of the Barwa?

This question is particularly relevant to indigenous knowledge research because it invites reconsideration of how African languages preserve memories of interactions between communities that occupied the same geographical spaces over extended historical periods.

2. Methodological Approach

This paper adopts an exploratory morphological and semantic approach. It examines the meanings attributed to selected Sesotho words and considers their possible relationships within a broader conceptual framework.

The methodology involves four principal areas:

1. Morphological examination: Identifying recurring linguistic elements, including roots, prefixes and verbal extensions.
2. Semantic examination: Comparing the meanings of words that appear to share the root -rwa-.
3. Ethnolinguistic interpretation: Exploring possible relationships between linguistic expressions and historical indigenous populations.
4. Environmental interpretation: Examining how expressions associated with gathering, carrying and accumulation may describe natural phenomena.

The study is exploratory rather than conclusive. The identification of similar sounds and meanings does not, by itself, establish a common historical etymology. Such relationships require verification through comparative linguistic evidence, historical attestations and dialectal documentation.

3. The Semantic Structure of the Root -RWA-

The principal observation concerns the apparent relationship between several Sesotho expressions associated with the root –rwa-.

3.1 Rwala: Carrying and Putting On

The verb rwala is associated with putting on or carrying something. Its application includes wearing shoes, socks, hats and gloves, as well as carrying objects on the head.

The underlying physical action involves bringing an object into contact with the body, placing it upon a particular bodily extremity or assuming the responsibility of carrying it.

The word therefore introduces two related conceptual dimensions:

• The placement of an object upon the body.
• The bearing or transportation of an object.

3.2 Rwalla: Gathering and Accumulation

The expression rwalla is associated with collecting materials, particularly firewood and other substances required to establish and sustain a fire.

It is also associated, in the linguistic observations under consideration, with separate clouds gathering together to form a larger cloud formation.

These meanings introduce an additional semantic dimension: the consolidation of separate elements into a collective mass.

The relationship between carrying and gathering may be conceptualised through the accumulation of individual objects into a collective load.

3.3 Rwesa and Rwetse: The Application and Achievement of an Action

The expression rwesa is associated with placing or putting something onto another person’s head or body, including shoes, socks, gloves and headwear.

The related expression rwetse is identified as describing the achievement or completed state of that action.

These forms invite further morphological investigation into the contribution of verbal extensions and grammatical structure to the development of meaning.

3.4 Morwalo: The Burden or Load

The noun morwalo refers to a load or burden.

It may describe a physical object carried by an individual or, metaphorically, a responsibility, difficulty or problem borne by a person.

This expression is particularly important because it connects the physical action of carrying with the broader social and psychological experience of bearing responsibility.

3.5 Morwallo: The Accumulation of Water

The expression morwallo refers to flooding or a flood.

The proposed semantic relationship is that a flood represents an accumulation of water that gathers, expands and moves as a collective mass.

This interpretation suggests an environmental application of the accumulation concept associated with rwalla.

The proposed relationship between morwalo and morwallo deserves particular attention because it presents an interesting distinction between a carried load and an accumulated natural force.

3.6 Rola: The Opposing Action

The verb rola provides an interesting contrast to rwala.

Where rwala describes putting on, carrying or assuming a load, rola describes removing, taking off or unloading.

Examples include:

• Rola katiba: Remove a hat.
• Rola dihlako: Remove shoes.
• Rola morwalo: Put down or unload a burden.

This opposition provides an opportunity to investigate how Sesotho expresses the relationship between assuming and relinquishing a physical or metaphorical burden.

The precise morphological relationship between rwa and rola, however, requires comparative grammatical analysis and
should not automatically be interpreted as a regular reversive suffix transformation.

4. Morwa and Barwa: An Ethnolinguistic Investigation

One of the most significant questions emerging from this investigation concerns the words Morwa and Barwa.

In Northern Sesotho, morwa refers to a son, while morwadi refers to a daughter. In Southern Sesotho, the corresponding expressions are generally mora and moradi.

The distinction raises questions about historical phonological development, dialectal variation and the possible preservation
of older linguistic forms.

4.1 The Ethnonym Barwa

The designation Barwa is of particular interest in the context of historical relationships between Sesotho-speaking communities and the indigenous hunter-gatherer populations of Southern Africa.

These populations are commonly referred to in contemporary scholarship as San peoples, although the historical terminology used to describe them has varied considerably.

This study proposes that the relationship between Morwa, Barwa and the root -rwa- warrants systematic investigation.

One possible hypothesis is that the designation may have originated from a descriptive linguistic association with carrying, gathering or bearing.

If such a relationship can be established, the ethnonym may preserve an indigenous description of a particular way of life.

However, the available linguistic observations do not independently establish that Barwa derives from –rwa-, nor that the name specifically referred to the wearing of particular garments.

Establishing this relationship would require historical attestations of the ethnonym, comparative evidence from related indigenous Southern African languages and investigation of the historical forms used by the communities concerned.

4.2 Material Culture and the Concept of Rwala

The investigation also raises an important archaeological and anthropological question:

What did the ancient indigenous populations of Southern Africa wear, carry or place upon their heads, hands and feet?

Historical accounts and archaeological investigations of San material culture document the use of animal skins, leather coverings,
ornaments, ostrich eggshell beads, hunting equipment and other practical objects.

These material objects were associated with protection, mobility, hunting, gathering and cultural expression.

The conceptual relationship between rwala and the wearing or carrying of such objects offers an interesting research direction.

Nevertheless, it would be premature to conclude that the name Barwa originated from a particular form of clothing or footwear without independent historical and linguistic evidence.

5. Rwalla and the Hunter-Gatherer Economy

The proposed relationship between rwalla and gathering deserves further consideration within the historical context of hunter-gatherer societies.

The San populations of Southern Africa developed sophisticated systems of survival based on hunting, gathering, environmental
knowledge and seasonal mobility.

Gathering involved the collection of edible plants, roots, bulbs, berries and other natural resources.

Firewood collection was also essential for maintaining communal fires, preparing food and providing warmth.

The expression ho rwalla, where used to describe collecting materials for fire, may therefore provide a useful
linguistic point of departure for examining the relationship between gathering and indigenous subsistence practices.

The broader hypothesis is that the root -rwa- may encode a conceptual association with bringing separate resources
together for collective use.

Such an interpretation would be particularly significant if comparative linguistic research were to establish that similar semantic
associations existed in neighbouring indigenous Southern African  languages.

6. Borwa: Geography and Indigenous Ethnolinguistic Memory

The Sesotho word Borwa designates the southern direction.

Its apparent phonological relationship with Barwa raises an intriguing ethnolinguistic question.

Could the designation of the southern direction preserve a historical geographical association with indigenous populations
known as the Barwa?

The hypothesis suggests that geographical orientation may have developed through historical encounters between communities
and the populations occupying particular territories.

Under this interpretation, Borwa could potentially preserve a geographical memory associated with the historical territories of the Barwa.

This is an important proposition for investigation, particularly in the context of indigenous territorial history.

However, phonological resemblance alone cannot establish that Borwa derives from Barwa. The possibility must be examined against historical geographical terminology, reconstructed Sesotho forms and cognates in related languages.

6.1 Weather, Clouds and the Gathering of Natural Elements

The environmental interpretation of rwalla provides another dimension to the investigation.

The gathering of separate clouds into larger formations can be understood as a process of accumulation and consolidation.

Similarly, rainfall over mountainous regions produces runoff that collects into streams, rivers and eventually
larger bodies of water.

These natural processes provide a conceptual context in which the vocabulary of gathering, accumulation and carrying
may be examined.

The possibility that indigenous language encodes detailed environmental observations is particularly relevant to the study
of African Indigenous Knowledge Systems.

7. Lerwana: The Microcosmic Dimension of Rwa

The expression lerwana, referring to a fire ant, presents another possible avenue of investigation.

Ants are widely recognised for their ability to transport food, building materials and other objects, sometimes many times their own body weight.

They also operate through collective systems of gathering, storage and resource transportation.

The possible relationship between lerwana and the semantic field of -rwa- therefore deserves examination.

The proposed interpretation is that the name may preserve an observation of the carrying or gathering behaviour
of these insects.

This remains a hypothesis requiring phonological and comparative lexical verification.

8. A Unified Conceptual Framework: The Semantic Dendrite of -RWA-

The preceding observations suggest a possible conceptual structure in which a single linguistic root generates or participates in several related semantic domains.

For purposes of this investigation, this structure is described as the Semantic Dendrite of -RWA-.

The term dendrite is used metaphorically to describe the branching of related meanings from a central conceptual
association.

The proposed framework can be represented as follows:

                    ROOT: -RWA-
                         |
          --------------------------------
          |              |               |
       CARRYING       GATHERING       PLACING
          |              |               |
        Rwala          Rwalla          Rwesa
          |              |               |
     Morwalo         Resources        Rwetse
          |
     Bearing a load
          |
  ----------------------------
  |             |            |
Human        Material      Social
burden       culture       identity


          ENVIRONMENTAL DIMENSION
                    |
          ----------------------
          |                    |
       Morwallo             Clouds
          |                    |
       Flooding            Accumulation
          |
     Collective force


          HISTORICAL DIMENSION
                    |
              Morwa / Barwa
                    |
          Indigenous identity
                    |
          Historical encounters
          and cultural memory

The diagram represents the proposed semantic relationships. It is not a reconstructed historical derivation of every word from
the root.

Its principal contribution is to provide a framework for investigating whether apparently separate expressions preserve
a common conceptual structure.

9. The Broader Significance for African Indigenous Knowledge Systems

The investigation has implications beyond the study of individual Sesotho words.

African indigenous languages are frequently examined through the grammatical and historical frameworks of established linguistic disciplines.

However, indigenous knowledge research also requires attention to the ways in which communities themselves organise
and transmit knowledge through language.

The proposed semantic framework demonstrates the potential value of examining linguistic relationships across different domains of human experience.

Three particularly important areas emerge.

9.1 Language as a Repository of Historical Memory

Words may preserve historical relationships between communities, even where written records are limited.

The possible relationship between Barwa and other Sesotho expressions provides an opportunity to investigate whether indigenous ethnonyms preserve historical observations about neighbouring populations.

9.2 Language as an Environmental Knowledge System

Expressions associated with clouds, floods, gathering and accumulation may reveal how indigenous communities observed and classified environmental processes.

Such vocabulary deserves examination within the broader discipline of indigenous ecological knowledge.

9.3 Language as a Record of Material Culture

The relationship between carrying, wearing and bearing objects may provide clues for examining how historical communities interacted with their physical environments.

The study of words associated with clothing, tools, transport and subsistence may therefore contribute to archaeological and anthropological research.

10. Research Limitations and Areas Requiring Further Investigation

The propositions advanced in this paper are exploratory. Several important questions remain unresolved.

1. Comparative linguistics:
   Do related indigenous Southern African languages preserve cognates of -rwa- with similar meanings?
2. Historical phonology:
   Can the relationship between Morwa, Barwa and Borwa be explained through established sound changes?
3. Dialectal development:
   What historical linguistic processes account for the differences between morwa/morwadi and mora/moradi?
4. Historical ethnonyms:
   What are the earliest documented uses of the designation Barwa, and how did different communities use it?
5. Archaeological correlation:
   Can material evidence establish the historical practices of carrying, wearing and gathering that might be relevant to the proposed interpretation?
6. Semantic reconstruction:
   Can historical linguistic evidence demonstrate that the meanings associated with carrying and gathering originated from a common ancestral semantic root?

Addressing these questions will require collaboration between Sesotho-speaking linguists, historians, anthropologists, archaeologists and indigenous knowledge practitioners.

11. Conclusion

This investigation has examined the Sesotho root –rwa– as a possible conceptual foundation connecting the actions of carrying, gathering, placing and accumulating.

Through expressions such as rwala, rwalla, rwesa, morwalo and morwallo, the study identifies a potentially interconnected
semantic field extending from everyday human activity to environmental phenomena.

The investigation becomes particularly significant when it considers the possible relationship between Morwa, Barwa and the historical identity of indigenous hunter-gatherer populations of Southern Africa.

The proposed relationship between Borwa and Barwa further raises questions about the historical relationship between language, geographical orientation and indigenous territorial memory.

Although these connections have not yet been established through comparative historical linguistics, they provide a valuable research agenda for the study of indigenous African languages.

The central proposition of this paper is that language should be investigated not merely as a collection of words and grammatical rules, but also as a possible archive of indigenous knowledge, environmental observation and historical experience.

The Semantic Dendrite of -RWA- offers one possible framework for undertaking such an investigation.

The significance of an indigenous word may extend beyond what it describes in everyday speech. It may also preserve traces of how earlier generations understood their environment, organised their societies and interpreted the people with whom they shared the land.

For IKOSA, this investigation reinforces the importance of recovering, documenting and critically examining indigenous African knowledge systems as part of the broader intellectual and historical restoration of Southern Africa’s indigenous communities.

12. Proposed Future Research

IKOSA proposes that the investigation be developed into a broader comparative research project under the working title:

The Indigenous Linguistic Memory of Southern Africa: A Comparative Study of Sesotho Roots, Ethnonyms and Precolonial Knowledge Systems

The proposed research should investigate:

• Historical Sesotho and Sepedi lexical records.
• Comparative Sotho-Tswana and wider indigenous Southern African linguistic structures.
• Oral histories concerning the Barwa and other indigenous populations.
• Historical geographical terminology and indigenous territorial classifications.
• Archaeological evidence relating to material culture and subsistence practices.
• Indigenous environmental knowledge preserved through language.

The ultimate objective would be to establish a more comprehensive understanding of how indigenous African languages preserve
historical knowledge and relationships between communities.