Basotho 200: Product of one of Africa’s giants

MOSHOESHOE

Basotho 200: Product of one of Africa’s giants

The Basotho are celebrating their 200th anniversary this year, 1824 being the year when Moshoeshoe settled on the mountain fortress of Thaba Bosiu and began uniting people around him. Today there are far more Sotho speakers in South Africa than in Lesotho, writes MAX DU PREEZ, wondering why the father of the Basotho does not receive as much recognition as the father of the Zulu, Shaka.

ANGELA TUCK
ANGELA TUCK

ACCORDING to the Basotho’s origin myth, their earliest ancestors emerged from the ground at a flat hill named Ntsoanatsatsi, the Rising Sun, located between the present-day Free State towns of Vrede and Frankfort. This Sotho version of the biblical Garden of Eden is now known as Tafelkop.

Today, there is ample archaeological evidence that a Sotho-speaking clan, the Bafokeng, lived around Ntsoanatsatsi more than 500 years ago. They were part of a large migration of Bantu-speaking farmers and ironworkers from the Great Lakes region who crossed into what is now South Africa about a thousand years or earlier. These migrants split into two language or dialect groups: the Nguni along the east coast and the Sotho-Tswana in the interior.


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The San/Bushmen, of course, were the original inhabitants of the entire region.

Another dominant Sotho-speaking clan, the Bakoena, settled in the fertile Mohokare Valley – later known as the Caledon Valley – sometime in the late 1600s.

(The famous Bakoena chief of that time, Monaheng, established his royal kraal at Fothane, today’s Fouriesburg. He was originally known as Kali. As a young chief, a Bushman approached him and said: “U mphe matakoane Mosotho oa ke me ke tla u nea monaheng aoko o mole” – give me a plug of dagga, my Mosotho, and I will give you my beautiful land. Kali’s followers burst into laughter. The Bushman’s Sotho was a little faulty; instead of monaheng, he should have said monaha or naha. From that day forward, Kali’s name changed to Monaheng.)

Around 1720, a proud Monaheng welcomed a grandson into the world and named him Mohlomi, the Builder or Founder. Mohlomi later became a chief himself – a very unusual one – based at Ngoliloe in today’s Marquard district. He would play a significant role in the formation of the Basotho.

The troublemaker

Let’s shift our focus to a hamlet about 100 km northwest of Ngoliloe called Menkoaneng. It was here, in 1786, that the chief of the small Mokoteli clan, Mokhachane, and his wife Kholu, welcomed a baby boy. They soon nicknamed him Lepoqo, the troublemaker. Through both his mother and paternal grandmother, Lepoqo was related to Chief Kali/Monaheng of the Bakoena.

Shortly after his initiation, Lepoqo carried out a daring raid on a neighbouring chief, RaMonaheng. Upon returning home with the stolen cattle, the praise singer mimicked the sound of a razor on a beard: shwe, shwe, for Lepoqo had shaved off RaMonaheng’s beard, stripping him of his manhood. From that day, Lepoqo was known as Moshoeshoe.

Moshoeshoe’s grandfather, Peete, was concerned about his ambitious grandson and took him to Ngoliloe, where Mohlomi, by then the region’s most renowned sage and healer, ran a kind of leadership academy for aspiring chiefs. Peete asked Mohlomi to give the child medicine, but Mohlomi responded: The boy does not need medicine; he needs the wisdom of the Balimo, the ancestors.

(A quick note on nicknames: Peete, pronounced “pee-heh-the,” was actually named Motsuane, but he grew up among the Zulu-speaking Hlubi clan, which left his Sotho somewhat stammered, hence the nickname.)

‘Peace is my sister’

Mohlomi immediately recognised Moshoeshoe’s leadership potential and gave him special attention. According to tradition, he told the young man that he would one day become a great leader of many people and that the recipe for leadership was peace, tolerance, consultation, and inclusivity. “Peace is my sister" is a Mohlomi saying still remembered by older people.

At the end of his training, Mohlomi gave Moshoeshoe one of his earrings, a black cow, and a staff as symbols of the great work that lay ahead. He also asked him to take good care of his grandfather, Peete.

Read more about Mohlomi here.

At the age of 44, Moshoeshoe left his family and Menkoaneng to establish his own chieftaincy on a mountain at Botha-Bothe. Then came the violent upheaval triggered by Shaka's imperialism – the lifaqane, which cost hundreds of thousands of lives and caused severe famine. Moshoeshoe and his followers faced an attack by the forces of the great female warrior of the Batlokoa from the Harrismith area, Mantatisi.

Moshoeshoe heeded Mohlomi’s advice. He sought a mountain fortress from which he could fend off attacks and chose the flat mountain Thaba Bosiu, the Mountain at Night. In 1824, he moved there with all his followers and livestock. The mountain, situated near the Phuthiatsana River, was accessible only through seven difficult passes and had four strong springs.

Moshoeshoe’s sick sister, Mamila, two of his pregnant wives, and his grandfather Peete were in the rear, while Moshoeshoe and some of his warriors led the trek. A few days later, Moshoeshoe received disturbing news: A group of cannibals led by Rakotsoane had captured and eaten Peete and some others. (The cannibalism that occurred at the time was a result of the famine caused by the disruptions of the lifaqane.)

Moshoeshoe’s advisers recommended capturing and executing Rakotsoane and his band, but Moshoeshoe declared that the cannibals were the living graves of Peete and must not be dishonored. He captured the cannibals, stripped them, laid them in a row, and performed the traditional grave-cleansing ceremony on them. Then he released them with some cattle for provisions. (Rakotsoane and his group later settled on Thaba Bosiu.)

This was an extraordinary act by an extraordinary leader, what later became known as Mohlomism.

An island of stability

This approach defined Moshoeshoe’s style in the years to come. Throughout the bloodshed, he never attacked anyone, only defending Thaba Bosiu – and he never lost a battle. (When the British retreated after a failed attack, he sent a messenger with greetings to the queen. When Mzilikazi’s forces withdrew, he sent some cattle after them, saying: “You must be hungry; why else would you attack me?")

Thaba Bosiu became an island of stability and prosperity amidst a sea of suffering. It had large herds of cattle and extensive maize fields, and refugees from all over sought shelter there – Bushmen, Griquas, Korannas, and Zulu and Xhosa speakers. He not only welcomed them but allowed them to maintain their own cultures. He himself spoke fluent Zulu and Xhosa.

This was extraordinary in an era dominated by tribal chauvinism, as practiced by most African leaders.

It was during this time that Moshoeshoe began referring to his new people as the Basotho.

He incorporated a young French missionary who also spoke English and Dutch, Eugene Casalis, into his community and used him as his de facto foreign minister. Moshoeshoe was the first leader to establish a diplomatic service, complete with diplomatic immunity, and received recognition from the French king, who gifted him two silver pistols for his service to diplomacy.

Moshoeshoe believed in modernisation and encouraged education and debate about religion while warning against superstitions and witch hunts. His army was never on the offensive but was always prepared. When he saw a horse for the first time in 1833, he offered a Griqua hunter cattle to buy as many horses as possible. This was the beginning of a highly mobile cavalry, the largest on the continent at the time.

Allowed to criticise the king

Mohlomi’s saying was that a chief is only a leader by the grace of his people, and Moshoeshoe applied this principle by forming a government system resembling true democracy. Senior men formed a kgotla where important decisions were discussed and made, but matters of national interest were debated in a pitso or people's assembly. The Basotho (men only) were allowed to criticise the king and question his decisions.

Shaka built the Zulu nation through bloodshed and coercion; Moshoeshoe built the Basotho through persuasion, peace, and inclusion. By refusing to participate in the cycle of violence of the lifaqane, Moshoeshoe stabilised central South Africa and prevented further suffering and destruction.

When the threat from other black groups disappeared, new opponents emerged: the Voortrekkers and the British. Moshoeshoe spent the last 40 years of his life using all his diplomatic and negotiation skills to prevent the Boers from seizing his land and the British from sanctioning it.

The overwhelming force was too great. His territory, which once included almost the entire Free State, shrank to what is today Lesotho.

He believed he had no other choice but to ask for British protection. In 1871, Basutoland was annexed by the Cape Colony, and 13 years later it was governed as a protectorate by Britain.

Moshoeshoe did, however, prevent his subjects from being subjected to apartheid, but the price of surrendering territory was a very high one.

Lesotho became independent in 1966, but it was never truly a viable state and has been plagued by poverty and instability to this day. Besides the Vatican City and San Marino, Lesotho is the only state entirely surrounded by another state.

Letsie III, Moshoeshoe I's great-great grandchild, is the king of Lesotho. The royal family is called Bakoena ba ha Mokoteli.

Only about 2.1 million people live in Lesotho, while approximately 3.8 million Sesotho speakers live in South Africa. About two-thirds of the residents of the Free State speak Sesotho.

(I have written quite a lot about the history of the Basotho, including in my books Of Warriors, Lovers and Prophets, Pale Native and Of Tricksters, Tyrants and Turncoats. I also made a documentary film about Moshoeshoe, Morena.)

VWB


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