moshoeshoe essay grade 10 history

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King Moshoeshoe I

Also known as Moshesh, Mosheshwe or Mshweshwe. His name was allegedly changed from Lepoqo after a successful raid in which he had sheared the beards of his victims – the word ‘Moshoeshoe’ represented the sound of the shearing.

In 1820 Moshoeshoe succeeded his father, Mokhacane, as the chief of the Bamokoteli. His first settlement was at Butha Buthe, but he later built his stronghold at Thaba Bosiu (Mountain of the Night). He united various groups of refugees during the Shaka wars, a period known as the ‘mfecane’ or difaqane (1813-1830), into the Basotho nation. From his capital at Thaba Bosiu , he warded off attacks from many enemies, including Shaka’s Zulus and Mzilikazi’s Ndebele .

In 1833 he encouraged missionaries from the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society to come to his kingdom, and so brought the Basotho in contact with Christianity. Moshoeshoe himself is said to have converted to the faith at the end of his life. From 1836 he came into contact with the Voortrekkers who settled in what is today known as the Free State, and then reached several territorial agreements with the British, who had taken over possession of the Free State territory in 1848. Border disputes nevertheless led to battles between the Basotho and British forces in 1851 and 1852, both of which were won by the Basotho.

In 1854 the Orange Free State (OFS) became an independent Boer republic. As with the British, border conflict broke out soon afterwards. After a Basotho defeat in 1868, Moshoeshoe asked the British for protection. Basotholand became British territory, but Moshoeshoe still managed to preserve his kingdom and his people’s existence. After the British signed the Treaty of Aliwal North with the OFS, the border dispute was settled. Moshoeshoe died in 1870 and a year later Basotholand was integrated with the Cape Colony. However, in 1884, it became a separate British Protectorate.

In 1966, Basotholand gained its independence and was renamed Lesotho.

A great-great-grandson of Moshoeshoe, Archbishop Emmanuel Mbathoana (1904-1966), became the first Black bishop of the Roman Catholic Church in Southern Africa. He was the archbishop of Basotholand from 1952. Another great-great-grandson, Moshoeshoe II, became the king of Lesotho after independence.

Potgieter, J. (ed)(1972). Standard Encyclopaedia of Southern Africa, Vol. VII, Pretoria: HSRC, pp. 544-5.|(1999). Grolier Multimedia Encyclopedia Deluxe Edition, Keyword: Mosheshwe.9

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The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe Essay

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Introduction

• The 19th Century Sotho Kingdom

The Thaba Bosiu Experience

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Trade was the major economic activity that brought groups of people together during the time the Basotho people arrived in their present homeland. In fact, by the beginning of 19 th century, white traders, the Voortrekkers inhabited what is now called the Basutoland. With this conglomeration of different groups of people, there emerged extreme pressure on the environment for resettlement.

Meanwhile, the Zulu state, led by Shaka was expanding and with it a series of violence across the entire southern Africa. The violence that was witnessed throughout this region threatened the extinction of many groups of people but not the organized Sotho society.

The survival of this group of people is attributed to the strong leadership of their king Moshoeshoe the Great that was necessitated by frequent cattle raids. The paper investigates the validity of the postulate that the Basotho people survived because of cattle raids, which made their leader to seek refuge in Thaba Bosiu.

The 19 th Century Sotho Kingdom

In the 19 th century, a violent explosion erupted annihilating the South African chiefdoms border today’s Lesotho. Those who did survive the annihilation either were dispersed or were incorporated into larger chiefdoms that were stronger and well reorganized.

The leaders of these new chiefdoms were capable of defending their subjects; and Moshoeshoe was one such leader. The political situation in the east of Drakensberg Mountains was characterized by increasing competition over trade links, arable land for cultivation, cattle raids, among other factors (Stokes 102).

Owing to the political and economic instability of the region courtesy of Shaka Zulu’s autocracy, food scarcity and famine struck the region thereby according dominant chiefdoms the opportunity to increase their wealth and power. Consequently, the leader who promised wealth and security obtained from agricultural and pastoral production as well as from trade commanded greater support and following.

Cattle raiding and agricultural production became the silver bullet to the peoples’ problems, a policy that was pursued religiously by leaders. It is little wonder then, that conflicts resulting from food shortage interrupted food production hindered economic growth, and starvation punctuated the disruptions caused by migrating chiefdoms that sought a place to settle (Eldredge 2).

From 1822 throughout the century, raids were common phenomena in this region of southern Africa. For example, destitute immigrants crossed the Drakensberg Mountains from the east and executed their raids on the population around Highveld and upper Caledon River Valley to get crops and cattle (Eldredge 2).

These raids conjured up survival instincts of the young Sotho leader, Moshoeshoe l to forge alliances with their neighbors, the Sesotho group, and move to the mountains for protection. He, therefore, sent his scouts to find a good place in the mountains that could act as a fortress against their would-be raiders notwithstanding the risk that he was exposing them to. A large flat-topped mountain was located south of the territory.

In 1824, Moshoeshoe led his subjects in a three-day trek to occupy this new residence with natural bulwarks against the raiders. However, the weather was terribly cold and some people died as a result; and according to oral tradition, desperation led to their bodies being eaten up by the starving groups.

Nevertheless, the move proved to be an act of ingenuity of the Moshoeshoe l, thus earning him credit for having saved his people from extermination in the hands of marauding neighbors. This mountain fortress was called Thaba Bosiu, which literally translates to the “mountain of the night”. It was almost an invulnerable site for the Basotho people could now protect themselves, their cattle, and crops (McKenna 93).

Moshoeshoe l is hailed as a leader of remarkable political and diplomatic ace who expanded his hegemony by incorporating many chiefdoms into his own lineage. As a shrewd leader, he acknowledged the crucial role played by such skills as farming, hunting, adventuring, among others that his neighboring community in the south had mastered.

As a result, he welcomed missionaries to inform him about the events of the rest of the world and to import these skills into his chiefdom. Actually, that is how the Boer trekkers trickled into his kingdom to later wreck havoc.

After a protracted period of war occasioned by chronic hunger and frequent famine, the Basotho grew weary of being marooned in the Thaba Bosiu and wanted to resettle on their ancestral lands to expand agricultural production.

Eventually, they managed to resettle in these lands and built up their stores of food, which in turn expanded their economy so rapidly that they supplied their African and European neighbors with surplus food.

During this time, the Boers who resided in the Cape Colony were increasingly becoming frustrated with the British rule that had imposed strict policies on land tenure, prohibited slavery, and restricted continued expansion eastwards. Consequently, in the early 1830s this discontent caused the Great Boer Trek where about fifteen thousand Boers together with their households migrated across the Orange River.

Many of them settled “along the southwestern fringes of lands which had belonged to the forefathers of the Basotho” (Eldredge 3). The earliest settlers in this region did acknowledge the authority of Moshoeshoe over this territory and therefore, sought his permission to settle.

The events that shaped the survival mechanisms of the Basotho people such as economics and politics are best explained from the perspective of the pursuit of security. These dynamics of the 19 th century can only be interpreted within the context of security structures rather than blatant physical survival.

The reason being, security denotes recognition that extracting resources for purposes of satisfying peoples’ material needs was governed by social structure that puts a limit to the abilities of people to exploit others. Moreover, the pursuit of security expedites the explanation of the motivations underlying the acceptability of the authority of Moshoeshoe by subordinate groups (S.A.H.S. 113).

Such groups had a strong belief that physical survival presupposed the achievement of security in the political front, which guaranteed their protection and access to productive resources therewith.

Not surprisingly then, that individuals as well as groups that were weary of the regional politics sought clientship under Moshoeshoe, the Basotho leader, but not other chiefs in the region owing to their despotic bent and lamentable lack of generosity.

The Basotho was a dominant group in the southern African region in the 19 th century and unlike any other group of its caliber, it was shaped by the pursuit of holistic security.

With violent struggles reverberating across the region, beginning among Africans in the 1820s before Europeans followed suit, it will be a great misrepresentation of fact to reduce the motivation of this group to a craving for exploiting subordinate groups in their society.

Many chiefs within the neighborhood copied the leadership style of Moshoeshoe and endeavored to achieve security by attracting outsiders and consolidating their authorities over a greater population of subjects.

The key to this strategy was to accumulate vast resources and reallocating it to people in a way that would win their support. Briefly, dominant as well as subordinate groups strived to achieve a degree of security by midwifing clientship relations (Eldredge 4).

It can be said with confidence that the survival of the Basotho people in the 19 th century was occasioned by the political and economic instability in the southern African region. The repercussions of this hapless situation bred a habit of cattle raiding by groups that were considered dominant.

In order to spare his group from this disastrous attack, Moshoeshoe mooted a security plan to whisk his people in a mountain fortress called Thaba Bosiu with virtually impenetrable frontiers. While safely marooned in their new residence, Basotho could cultivate their crops and keep their cattle undisturbed.

Moshoeshoe was also endowed with excellent diplomatic skills besides good leadership and this enabled him to have clientship relations with many individuals and groups that were incorporated in his society.

Eldredge, Elizabeth A. A South African Kingdom: The pursuit of security in nineteenth-century Lesotho. New York; NY: Cambridge University Press, 2002.

McKenna, Amy. The History of Southern Africa. New York, NY: The Rosen Publishing Group, 2011.

S.A.H.S. (South African Historical Society). South African historical journal, Issue 30. Cape Town, South African Historical Society, 1994.

Stokes, Jamie. Encyclopedia of the People of Africa and the Middle East, Volume 1. New York, NY: InfoBase Publishing, 2009.

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IvyPanda. (2019, April 30). The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/

"The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe." IvyPanda , 30 Apr. 2019, ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/.

IvyPanda . (2019) 'The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe'. 30 April.

IvyPanda . 2019. "The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe." April 30, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe." April 30, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/.

Bibliography

IvyPanda . "The Survival of the Sotho Under Moshoeshoe." April 30, 2019. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-survival-of-the-sotho-under-moshoeshoe-essay/.

Legend of Africa: King Moshoeshoe I, wise & brave warrior who founded Lesotho

• The African History
• January 2, 2022
• History , Kingdom , Personality Profile

Moshoeshoe I, the founder and king of the Basotho Kingdom (current-day LESOTHO), was known for his military superiority and diplomatic capabilities. He was a key figure in defending Lesotho against European colonization and helping the country’s independence.

Moshoeshoe was the son of a Koena chief, and his original name was Lepoqo.

Moshoeshoe earned a reputation as a leader as a young adult by conducting daring cattle raids.

Despite this, he was impatient and irritable, and often killed followers for minor infractions. A local wise man told him that being just and humane would make him a more successful leader.

This piece of advice convinced Moshoeshoe that peace, not violence, would earn him more loyal supporters. By the early 1830s, he had successfully united many minor clans to form the Basotho kingdom.

Moshoeshoe observed the complicated relations between African and European populations throughout this time and learnt to deal with them positively.

Moshoeshoe acquired the respect of other African leaders and colonial officials by demonstrating that he was a powerful and knowledgeable leader, which would prove to be crucial in his efforts to keep the Basotho people independent.

Attempts by European invaders to conquer the Basotho people and steal their land posed the greatest threat to Moshoeshoe during his reign.

Initially, Britain supported the settlers. Lesotho was invaded by a British force in 1852, but Moshoeshoe defeated them. Over the next 15 years, the settlers attempted but failed to defeat Moshoeshoe and his followers.

Moshoeshoe gained the respect of colonial officials and won the support of the British administration through his diplomatic skills.

He helped protect the Basotho from European rule by making an alliance with Britain and winning its protection. As a result, the people of Lesotho regard Moshoeshoe as the country’s father.

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King Moshoeshoe: The living testimony of his life as the first Pan-African

  A Model of Pre-Colonial African Leadership  

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The Sotho kingdom (1824–69)

Basutoland (1871–1966).

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The violent upheavals of the early 19th century among the chiefdoms of Southern Africa intensified in Lesotho in the 1820s. During this turbulent period, known as the Difaqane (also spelled Lifaqane; Sotho: “crushing”), the members of many chiefdoms were annihilated , dispersed, or incorporated into stronger, reorganized, and larger chiefdoms positioned in strategically advantageous areas. ( See Mfecane .)

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The leaders who headed the new chiefdoms had the ability to offer greater protection; one of these was Moshoeshoe I of the Moketeli, a minor lineage of the Kwena (Bakwena). In 1824 he occupied Thaba Bosiu (“Mountain at Night”), the defensive centre from which he incorporated many other individuals, lineages, and chiefdoms into what became the kingdom of the Sotho (subsequently also called Basutoland). Moshoeshoe was a man of remarkable political and diplomatic skill. By cooperating with other chiefdoms and extending the influence of his own lineage, he was able to create a Sotho identity and unity, both of which were used to repel the external forces that threatened their autonomy and independence. Moshoeshoe also acknowledged the importance of acquiring the skills of farmers, settlers, hunters, and adventurers, who increasingly moved across his borders from the south. He therefore welcomed the missionaries from the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society as a source of information about the rest of the world when they arrived at Thaba Bosiu in 1833. He placed them in strategically important parts of the kingdom, where they gave the Sotho their first experience with Christianity, literacy, and commodity production for long-distance trading.

Large numbers of Boer trekkers from the Cape Colony began to settle on the western margins of the kingdom in 1834 and to challenge the right of the Sotho to their land. The next 30 years were characterized by conflict and outbursts of warfare between the Sotho and the Boers. Ultimately, the Sotho lost most of their territory west of the Caledon River , from which the Boers formed the Orange Free State . The British , to whom Moshoeshoe appealed for intervention, were unable to resolve the dispute over where the boundary should be drawn.

Devastating wars in the late 1860s prompted Moshoeshoe to again appeal to the British for assistance, as he feared the dispersal and possible extinction of his people. Sir Philip Wodehouse, governor and high commissioner of the Cape Colony, concerned with the region’s stability and British interests in Southern Africa, annexed the kingdom to the British crown in 1868.

Basutoland remained a British protectorate until Moshoeshoe’s death in 1870 (he was buried on Thaba Bosiu). The next year the colony was annexed to the Cape Colony without the consent of Basutoland. The former independent African mountain kingdom lost much of its most productive land to the Boers and its political autonomy to the British. Nonetheless, the Sotho still retained some of their land and their social and cultural independence.

Attempts by the Cape Colony administration to disarm the Sotho led to the Gun War (1880–81). The Cape Colony relinquished Basutoland to British rule in 1884, when it became one of three British High Commission Territories in Southern Africa; Swaziland and Bechuanaland (now Botswana ) were the other two.

At the end of the 19th century, mineral discoveries were made; their enormous potential laid the foundation for the creation of the Union of South Africa (1910). In order to acquire cheap labour and to end competition from independent African agricultural producers, landowners and miners encouraged the adoption of policies that deprived the indigenous population of its social and political rights and most of its land. Sotho farmers took advantage of the markets for foodstuffs in the growing South African mining centres, however. They utilized new farming techniques to produce substantial surpluses of grain, which they sold on the South African markets. Sotho workers also traveled to the mines to sell their labour for cash and firearms.

Lesotho’s history in the 20th century was dominated by an increasing dependence on labour migration to South Africa, which was made necessary by taxation, population growth behind a closed border, the depletion of the soil, and the need for resources to supplement agricultural production. Sotho workers became an important element of the South African mining industry, and Basutoland became the classic example of the Southern African labour reserve, its people dependent on work in South Africa for their survival.

The British set up a system of dual rule and left considerable power in the hands of the paramount chiefs—Letsie (1870–91), Lerotholi (1891–1905), Letsie II (1905–13), Griffith (1913–39), Seeiso (1939–40), and the regent ’Mantsebo (1940–60)—all of whom were descendants of Moshoeshoe I. Under these leaders, authority was delegated through ranked regional chiefs drawn from the royal lineage and the most important chiefdoms. A system of customary law was adopted, with the land held in trust by the paramount chief for the people, while crucial aspects of local government were also left to the chiefs. The colonial government was headed by a resident commissioner and advised by the Basutoland National Council, which was led by the paramount chief and dominated by his nominated members.

The British administration was concerned primarily with balancing Basutoland’s budget, which it facilitated by ensuring that a substantial proportion of the population worked for wages in South Africa. The local chiefs could do little to halt the increasing social and economic deprivation within Basutoland. Education was left to the missionary societies, and there was little development of economic infrastructure or social services. Between 1929 and 1933 the Great Depression coincided with a massive drought, driving so many people into South Africa that the population in Basutoland hardly increased for a decade.

Opposition to the colonial system grew, but no organizations were able to topple the colonial administration and its traditionalist allies. The Sotho were unified, however, in their opposition to Basutoland’s incorporation into South Africa and their fear that the British might cede the territory to South Africa without consulting them.

In the early 1930s the British attempted to reduce the number of chiefs, but after World War II (during which more than 20,000 Sotho served for the British in North Africa , Europe, and the Middle East) the development of nationalist parties pressing for independence outweighed the need for reform. Three major political parties emerged at this time: the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP; at independence the Basotho Congress Party ) in 1952, under Ntsu Mokhehle; the more conservative Basutoland National Party (BNP; at independence the Basotho National Party ) in 1958, under Chief Leabua Jonathan, which was supported by the South African government and was associated with chiefly power and the Roman Catholic Church; and the Marema-Tlou Freedom Party (1963), which was identified with the defense of the powers of the country’s principal chiefs.

The Basutoland Council, in existence since 1903, obtained the right to control the internal affairs of the territory in 1955. The region became self-governing in 1965, and general elections held in that year for a new legislative assembly were dominated by the BNP. On October 4, 1966, when Basutoland received its independence from Britain , it was renamed the Kingdom of Lesotho and headed by paramount chief Moshoeshoe II (named for the nation’s founder) as king and Chief Jonathan as prime minister . Executive power was given to the prime minister in 1967.

8 Facts about King Moshoeshoe I: The Razor of Southern Africa

Introduction: King Moshoeshoe I , founder of Lesotho, reigned from 1822 to his death in 1870, during a period of immense tumult in southern Africa. He waged one of the most effective resistance efforts to colonialism (from the Dutch Boer settlers and British Empire) over many decades, as well as to Shaka’s military consolidation of what became Zulu Kingdom in the 1820s.

His name was originally a nickname derived from a poem he wrote as a youth, a braggadocio-filled anthem to farm animal theft that could put most hip-hop moguls to shame. From the poorly sourced Wikipedia version of the story:

During his youth, he was very brave and once organised a cattle raid against Ramonaheng and captured several herds. As was the tradition, he composed a poem praising himself where, amongst the words he used to refer to himself, said he was “like a razor which has shaved all Ramonaheng’s beards”, referring to his successful raid. In Sesotho language, a razor makes a “shoe…shoe…” sound, and after that he was affectionately called Moshoeshoe: “the shaver”.

  He also wore an appropriately supreme tophat and cape, like the badass king he was.

King Moshoeshoe I with his ministers of state (Bensusan Museum, Johannesburg – Wikimedia )

Additional claims to fame include:

• He founded his own all-new clan at age 34. Presumably on the strength of his charisma, diplomatic flair, and cattle-rustling skills. This clan established a settlement in a location that could withstand Zulu assaults. His original clan eventually grew to be Lesotho and environs.
• He never lost a major battle!
• He ruled for 48 years against a colonial onslaught. Many native rulers in Africa were unable to maintain such a strong level of sovereignty and control in their domains during the period.
• He united the various Sotho people into a Basotho nation through a combination of battle followed by compassionate diplomacy (rather than subjugation through conquest).
• He was very willing to mess with the Boers as they tried to invade. He would give them fair conditions for maintaining peaceful coexistence and then beat them back when they rebelled. Eventually, of course, they took over much of the outlying territories of his realm (as they did in many places). But he never lost control of his home kingdom.
• He beat the British military and then threw them a bone so they could make peace with dignity.
• He manipulated various Europeans to get defensive weapons and surprisingly valid foreign policy advice to fight off the settlers. He also used them to help preserve local culture in written form for future generations.
• He successfully negotiated an intervention by Queen Victoria to preserve Lesotho against all attempts at settler seizure, via protectorate status...

While this did eventually make Lesotho into a colony, it remained separate and intact from British South Africa and Apartheid South Africa both during and after its colonial phase. The monarchy still survives to this day (now in constitutional form) and the Sotho culture endures. Compared to how many of the surrounding areas fared, the decision to pitch a deal to Queen Victoria makes King Moshoeshoe I look pretty insightful.

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Colonial expansion after 1750

Conflict on the highveld - moshoeshoe - source-based questions (solutions) conflict on the highveld - moshoeshoe - source-based questions (solutions).

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