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Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870–1960 Elizabeth A

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Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870–1960 Elizabeth A A D History, Politics, Culture Thomas Spear David Henige Michael Schatzberg A Hill among a Thousand: Transformations and Ruptures in Rural Rwanda Danielle de Lame Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870–1960 Elizabeth A. Eldredge Nachituti’s Gift: Economy, Society, and Environment in Central Africa David M. Gordon Intermediaries, Interpreters, and Clerks: African Employees in the Making of Colonial Africa Edited by Benjamin N. Lawrance, Emily Lynn Osborn, and Richard L. Roberts Antecedents to Modern Rwanda: The Nyiginya Kingdom Jan Vansina POWER IN COLONIAL AFRICA CONFLICT AND DISCOURSE IN LESOTHO, 1870–1960 Elizabeth A. Eldredge The University of Wisconsin Press 1930 Monroe Street, 3rd Floor Madison, Wisconsin 53711-2059 www.wisc.edu/wisconsinpress/ 3 Henrietta Street London WC2E 8LU, England Copyright © 2007 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System All rights reserved 13542 Printed in the United States of America Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Eldredge, Elizabeth A. Power in colonial Africa: conflict and discourse in Lesotho, 1870–1960 / Elizabeth A. Eldredge. p. cm.—(Africa and the diaspora. History, politics, culture) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-299-22370-1 (cloth: alk. paper) 1. Power (Social sciences)—Lesotho. 2. Lesotho—Politics and government—To 1966. 3. Lesotho—History—To 1966. 4. Sotho (African people)—Lesotho—History. I. Title. II. Series: Africa and the diaspora. DT2638.E43 2007 968.85´02—dc22 2007012905 Preface vii Names and Terms xi 1Power in Theory and Practice 3 2Transcripts of the Past: The BaSotho under Colonial Rule 25 3Prelude to Rebellion: Pitsos, Magistrates, and the Imposition of Colonial Rule 40 4The White Horse and the Jailhouse Key: Moorosi’s Rebellion 55 5 Guns, Diplomacy, and Discourse: The Gun War 71 6 Hidden Discourse in the Public Transcript: Ceremony and Subversion 90 7 Lerotholi and “Masopha’s War”: The Colonial/Civil War of 1898 118 8OfLaws, Courts, and Chiefs: The Twentieth Century 140 9OfParamente and Power: Terror in Basutoland 168 10 Discourse and Subterfuge: Responses to Medicine Murder 184 11 Seeking Sovereignty and the Rule of Law 215 Notes 227 Bibliography 249 Index 259 v Historians by definition are “time travelers,” traversing the presumed boundaries of differences in culture created by the passage of time. The project of writing history requires the ability to identify and take into account cultural difference in our interpretations of the past, whether that project involves a translation across time or across space and differ- ences of language and culture. The ability to generate the trust neces- sary to gain access to information as well as the sensitivity to nuances of representation in the information gathered shapes the interpretations of scholars and intellectuals who seek to represent the past of a people. Even if the conceptualization of them and the expressions of under- standing about them are mediated by culture, nevertheless the experi- ences of birth, hunger, pain, love, and death are irrefutable as truths that all humans experience in every cultural context. At the same time that we identify differences in how we understand and represent these common experiences, we also find and explore those elements of expe- rience that know no linguistic or cultural barriers. I first saw Lesotho from the window of a twin engine propeller plane flying in from Johannesburg in 1981. I spent the next eighteen months living and traveling among villages and small towns in every district of the country, interviewing more than eighty old people about their mem- ories of their childhood. My oldest interviewee had been born in 1873 and had lived his long life as a chief in the highest mountains of the Mokhotlong District; we were only able to reach his village by horse- back after a long, four-hour ride. Over the years I have returned many times and trudged along the packed-dirt paths of villages and of the uni- versity campus at Roma, where I was always welcomed by the friendly library staff on my way in and out of the archives. I have watched the children of my friends and colleagues be born and come of age, and vii viii Preface they in turn helped care for my children, who chased chickens and rode donkeys in villages as I carried out my research. I don’t have to tell the people of Lesotho that they have long since won my heart as well as my respect. When I first went to southern Africa I changed planes in Johannes- burg in the international section of Jan Smuts Airport, where passen- gers without visas or welcomes into then-apartheid South Africa could still travel in and out of the landlocked country of Lesotho. Years later, in the early months of 1994, my family watched South Africans struggle to attain a peaceful transition to a postapartheid era in which democ- racy was extended to every person across the country. I was there as a senior Fulbright scholar, and my children were enrolled in school in Durban. On election day we drove downtown to look at the long line of voters winding around city hall and then found other lines at other vot- ing places, the ones seen on the news around the world. On inaugura- tion day the following month we drove to Lesotho, our home away from home, celebrating the feeling of democracy arrived. But in Lesotho, which had enjoyed democratic elections the previous year, we found the moment had been used to foment turmoil there, and my children went to sleep to the sound of mortar fire a mile or two from where we slept. Guns and democracy do not mix well, and democracy is sustained only by the constant vigilance of everyone. Over twelve months in 1994 I traveled and conducted research and gave seminars and lectures in Lesotho, Swaziland, South Africa, and Mozambique, and it is to all the people of these countries that I dedicate my work. Theresearch for this book was supported by grants from York Uni- versity in Toronto, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Michigan State University, and the Social Science and Humanities Re- search Council of Canada. This work would not have been possible without the support of my many colleagues and friends at the National University of Lesotho and the communities of Roma and Mafefoane. Special thanks go to the staff of the library and archives and of the Insti- tute of Southern African Studies and to the faculty of the Department of History. I am especially grateful for the years of help and encourage- ment I have received from Burns Machobane and his family, Lois and Molapi Sebatane and their family, Roshan Fitter and the staff at the Roma Primary School, and David Ambrose and his family. Thanks to every archivist who has ever assisted me, especially Albert Brutsch and Steve Gill at the archives of the Lesotho Evangelical Church in Morija. I received invaluable assistance from the keepers of history who shared Preface ix with me the historical traditions, including James J. Machobane, Mo- sebi Damane, Patrick Lehloenya II, A. C. Manyeli, Charles Dube Mo- lapo, and Gerard Tlalinyane Ramoreboli, and from their families who assisted in arranging interviews. Many thanks to Patrick Malefetsane Marabe, who assisted me in conducting most of these and other inter- views in 1988 and 1989, and thanks to the people who spoke with us about their personal histories and memories, which enriched my under- standing of Lesotho in the twentieth century. I am grateful to David Plank, who accompanied me on so many research trips and interviews in 1981–82 and 1988 and valued with me the work and the people. Thanks to my many friends far and wide who rescued me in times of trouble, especially Steve Goldblatt in recent years. Finally, thanks to my family and especially Mike and Jim, who spent so much of their early lives in southern Africa as I pursued my work in the hope of helping to bring peace, justice, and freedom to the world. BaSotho people of the country of Lesotho or of SeSotho culture Basutoland British colonial name for Lesotho Bereng Griffith son of Paramount Chief Griffith, brother of Para- mount Chief Seeiso Griffith, Charles D. Governor’s Agent in Basutoland under Cape Col- ony rule, 1871–81 Lagden, Godfrey Assistant Resident Commissioner and Resident Commissioner in Lesotho, 1884–1901 LNA Lesotho National Archives Lesotho southern African country formed by SeSotho- speaking chiefdoms and other immigrants under Moshoeshoe in 1824, known as Basutoland under British colonial rule from 1868 to 1966; a modern kingdom since its independence in 1966 liretlo term for so-called medicine murders, committed to obtain human flesh for use in medicine horns MoSotho a person of the country of Lesotho or of SeSotho culture Paramount Chief Morena e Moholo, or highest central authority in Lesotho, designated “king” since independence in 1966. The country’s Paramount Chiefs and each man’s years as Paramount Chief, beginning with the founding morena e moholo, Moshoeshoe I, to independence, are the following: Moshoeshoe (Moshesh, Moshweshwe) (b. 1876), 1824–70 xi xii Names and Terms Letsie (I), son of Moshoeshoe, 1870–91 Lerotholi (Lerothodi), son of Letsie, 1891–1905 Letsie II, or Letsienyana, son of Lerotholi, 1905–13 Griffith, son of Lerotholi and brother of Letsie II (Letsienyana), 1913–39 Seeiso, son of Griffith, 1939–40 ’Mantsebo, senior wife of Paramount Chief Seeiso Griffith, who served as Regent Paramount Chief during the minority of the heir, Constantine Be- reng Seeiso, from 1940 to 1960 Constantine Bereng Seeiso, son of Seeiso,
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