We set off for the funeral of Amos Mageza in Mashamba at 7h45 from Tzaneen.It was NKateko,PIet Marivate and I.Mashamba is a place in today's Limpopo Province.My grand father,Amos Mageza,bought a farm there in 1923.In 1963,he died intestate.As all his children had left for better opportunities in the big cities,except for his eldest son Frederick with his Family,the farm remained neglected.In 2007,my brother,Nkateko bought it to keep it within the Family.That is why our cousin,Amos,could be buried at the farms cemetery together with his father,motherand two brothers. At the funeral in Mashamba I met many of our relatives that I had seen recently and most that I had not even met.These that I was seeing and meeting for the first time were the younger generation,children of the deceased and his brothers.Very few cousins of my generation were there as we recalled how many had already passed on. I hadn't been to the farm,in Mashamba,since my young days about 40 years ago.So,it was obvious I didn't know the place.There wasno time to explore so we ended up at the cemetery.There are a number of graves there that of my great grand mother,N'wa Mahuntsi,my grand mother Edith N'waMbhalati my grand father Amos my uncle Frederick,Frederick 's son Simon,Frederick's wife,Kaiser Mageza also Fredirick's son and now this one,that we are here about,Amos. After the burial at about 11h00 we set off for Giyani about 60kilometers away.Quite a distance considering that some time in the future the Family will have to visit the grave.I wonder if they will ever get back there;Its very rugged terrain. I discovered how little I knew my ancestral home.I know,asI grew up I thought whatever politics were taking place there(bantustan)'were stupid and not for me.So,I kept away.Today that place is completely new to me,completely.I cannot feel it. This morning I set off for my Johannesburg home.Upon arrival I went to see my eldest brother,Tsakane in Soweto to give a report of the funeral as due to I'll health he couldn't come along.As I related my observations of the burial site especially the graves that I identified there,including the unmarked ones of our other relatives,the Shingange's ,for instance,I realised how important he was to me with his depth of Family history and how certain people in our lives that are connected to those graves were related to me and how it was important to find out who they really are. I remember a man called Hatlane in Meadowlands once said to me:"you know what my boy,your late father did not leave you money,he left you people."I did not understand what he meant.Those graves came alive to me as my brother told me of how the Family members of the people in those graves at kokwane's burial plot,we're instrumental in making us the business people that our Family has become.These are the people that Hatlane said were left for us.I did not know them.My brother did and I was not aware for all these years.He knows the nuts and bolts of what we are made of and the tendency from us is to ignore him. Kitts Mageza