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Land, Politics, and Censorship: the Historiography of Nineteenth-Century Lesotho

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

Elizabeth A. Eldredge
Elizabeth A. Eldredge*
Affiliation:
York University
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Extract

Violent territorial competition is one of the dominant forces in the history of southern Africa, and all historiography with reference to land has significant political ramifications to this day. Nineteenth-century sources in the history of the BaSotho reflect these political considerations, which were as salient then as they are today.

In this paper I investigate the principal nineteenth-century sources for the history of land rights and land conflict affecting the BaSotho. On the basis of archival materials, I identify and assess the sources which early historians relied on. I also examine the background and orientations of these observers, in order to evaluate their interpretations of BaSotho history. The works with which I deal with are well-known to students of Lesotho history, and because they are so often used by modern scholars it is important that their origins, authenticity, and value be assessed.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 15 , 1988 , pp. 191 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1988

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References

Notes

1. Orpen, Joseph M., History of the Basutus of South Africa (Cape Town; 1857; reprinted Mazenod; 1979).Google Scholar

2. Theal, George McCall, Basutoland Records (3 vols.: Cape Town; 1883; reprinted 3 vols, in 4: Cape Town; 1964).Google Scholar

3. Stow, G.W., The Native Races of South Africa (London; 1905; reprinted Cape Town; 1964).Google Scholar

4. MacGregor, J.C., Basuto Traditions, being a record of the traditional history of the most important of the tribes which form the Basuto nation of today up to the time of their being absorbed: compiled from native sources (Cape Town; 1905).Google Scholar Sekese's historical work was published as articles in Leselinyana in various series spanning three decades. See below.

5. Ellenberger, D.F., History of the Basuto: Ancient and Modern, trans. MacGregor, J.C. (London; 1912).Google Scholar

6. Theal, G.M., “Basutoland Records”, vols. 4-6 unpub., Lesotho National Archives, National University of Lesotho, Roma, LesothoGoogle Scholar; Ellenberger Papers, Société des Missions Évangéliques de Paris (P.E.M.S.) Archives, Morija, Lesotho Evangelical Church). Orpen also published a series of of documents with commentary, which he presented to the Cape Parliament. Orpen, J.M., Some Principles of Native Government Illustrated and The Petitions of the Basuto Tribe Regarding Land, Law, Representation and Disarmament (Cape Town; 1880).Google Scholar

7. Brutsch, Albert, Appendix A, “How the History of the Basutus came to be written,“ in Orpen, , History of the Basutus [1979], 157–60.Google Scholar

8. Thompson, Leonard, Survival in Two Worlds: Moshoeshoe of Lesotho, 1786-1870 (Oxford, 1975), 224, 243.Google Scholar

9. Orpen, Joseph M., Reminiscences of Life in South Africa from 1846 to the Present Day (2 vols.: Durban, 1908Google Scholar; reprinted with articles from the Natal Advertiser, [1916] Cape Town, 1964), 215.Google Scholar

10. Sanders, Peter, Moshoeshoe: Chief of the Sotho (London, 1975), 220.Google Scholar

11. Reprinted in Brutsch, Appendix A. Emphasis in original.

12. Ibid.

13. Ibid; Sanders, , Moshoeshoe, 221.Google Scholar

14. Ellenberger Papers.

15. The vivid portrayal of Sir Harry Smith's words and actions at Winburg in September 1848 could have been provided by Dyke, Hoffman, Charles Orpen, or Frank Orpen. Only Hoffman could have provided the conversation from a private meeting with the British Comissioner Charles M. Owen, and the justification for his gift of gunpowder to Moshoeshoe. The eyewitness report of the confrontation between Sir Harry Smith and rebel Boers in September 1849 was probably from Arthur Orpen, another brother, who was present supplying British troops. Three Orpen brothers (Joseph, Henry, and Richard) participated in the 1850/51 war with the Xhosa and could have contributed to the description of those events. Orpen, , History, 53, 109, 126, 52-53, 86-92Google Scholar; Orpen, , Reminiscences, 39–40Google Scholar; Basutoland Records, 1:178.Google Scholar

16. Orpen, , Reminiscences, 172.Google Scholar

17. Basutoland Records, 1:533, 632–35Google Scholar; Sanders, , Moshoeshoe, 181, 186.Google Scholar

18. Basutoland Records, 1:241.Google Scholar

19 Orpen, , History, 54.Google Scholar

20 Orpen, Reminiscences.

21. Ibid, 153.

22. Ibid, 196.

23. Ibid, 209.

24. Ibid, 33.

25. Ibid, 15; Orpen, , History, 53.Google Scholar

26. Orpen, , Reminiscences, 138.Google Scholar

27. Orpen, , History, 138, 152.Google Scholar

28. Ibid, 141.

29. Ibid, 154.

30. Brutsch, Appendix A, 159.

31. Immelman, R.F.M., “George McCall Theal: A Biographical Sketch,” Basutoland Records, 1 (1964), 1–22.Google Scholar

32. J.M. Orpen to D.F. Ellenberger, 1 Jan. 1906, Ellenberger Papers.

33. Immelman, , “George McCall Theal,” 7.Google Scholar

34. The Lesotho National Archives, National University of Lesotho, Roma, Lesotho, has vols. 4-6. Immelman states that there is only a fourth volume which remains unpublished in the Cape Archives. Immelman, , “George McCall Theal,” 6.Google Scholar

35. G.M. Theal to H.M. Dyke, 10 April 1883, P.E.M.S. Archives, Morija.

36. G.M. Theal to H.M. Dyke, 16 May 1883, P.E.M.S. Archives, Morija.

37. G.M. Theal to H.M. Dyke, 16 August 1883, P.E.M.S. Archives, Morija.

38. Saunders, Christopher, “The Missing Link in Theal's Career: The Historian as Labour Agent in the Western Cape,” HA, 7 (1980), 273–80Google Scholar; Saunders, C., “George McCall Theal and Lovedale,” HA, 8 (1981), 155–64.Google Scholar The evidence presented here again raises the question of when and why Theal's historical perspective changed. Certainly he was under great pressure in Cape Town to adopt the settler perspective, but he resisted this pressure for at least several years. In January 1884 he wrote again to Dyke that “passion runs still very high I find, and nothing short of calling the whole of the Basuto-Moshesh included-thieves and irreclaimable savages will satisfy some people…” G.M. Theal to H.M. Dyke, letter marked “Confidential,” 31 January 1884, P.E.M.S. Archives, Morija. Perhaps later, as Orpen suggests, Theal was unduly influenced by Stow. See below.

39. Personal research conducted in 1981.

40. Legassick, Martin, “The Sotho-Tswana Peoples Before 1800” in African Societies in Southern Africa, ed. Thompson, Leonard (London; 1969), 91Google Scholar; Maggs, T. M. O'C., Iron Age Communities of the Southern Highveld (Pietermaritzburg; 1976), 3–6.Google Scholar

41. J.M. Orpen to D.F. Ellenberger, 1 Jan. 1906, Ellenberger Papers.

42. J.M. Orpen to D.F. Ellenberger, 7 Feb. 1917, Ellenberger Papers. Emphasis in original.

43. Orpen, , Reminiscences, 25.Google Scholar

44. G.M. Theal, editor's preface in Stow, , Native Races, v–vii.Google Scholar

45. Stow, , Preface, Native Races, xii.Google Scholar

46. Legassick, , “Sotho-Tswana Peoples,” 91Google Scholar; Maggs, , Iron Age Communities, 3–6.Google Scholar

47. Progress in this area is encouraging. For example, Parkington, John and Hall, Martin, “Patterning in Recent Radiocarbon Dates from Southern Africa as a Reflection of Prehistoric Settlement and Interaction,” JAH, 28 (1987), 1–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

48. Sekese, A.M., Buka ea pokello ea mekhoa ea Basotho le maele le litsomo (Morija, 1893)Google Scholar; Mekhoa le Maele a Basotho (Morija, 1907)Google Scholar, reprinted 1968 and 1978; Mekhoa ea Basotho (Morija, 1953), reprinted 1979.Google Scholar See also Kunene, Daniel P., “Leselinyana la Lesotho and Sotho Historiography,” HA, 4 (1977), 149–61.Google Scholar

49. D.F. Ellenberger to J.M. Orpen, 15 August 1907, Ellenberger Papers.

50. J.C. Macgregor to D.F. Ellenberger, 8 June 1907, Ellenberger Papers.

51. J.C. Macgregor to D.F. Ellenberger, 10 August 1907, Ellenberger Papers.

52. Jacottet, E., The Treasury of Basuto Lore, vol. I (Morija, 1908).Google Scholar

53. Ibid, vii-x.

54. Franz, G. H., “The Literature of Lesotho,” Bantu Studies, 4 (1930), 174–75.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

55. A.M. Sekese to René Ellenberger, Leribe, 1 June 1917, 29 August 1917, 11 October 1917, P.E.M.S. Archives, Morija. In June Sekese wrote, “Ha ekaba, Maselinjaneng a mang ke buile joaleka ha u pheta, e tla ba ke fositse hampe.” (“If, in some of the issues of Leselinyana I have spoken as you repeat it, then I have erred badly.”) In October he wrote again: “Litaba tseo ke li ngotseng Maselinjaneng, ho na le tse ling tse fositsoeng.” (“Those things I wrote in the issues of Leselinyana, in them there are some things that are mistaken.”)

56. J.C. Macgregor, Basuto Traditions. See the comments in Willet, Shelagh M. and Ambrose, David P., Lesotho: A Comprehensive Bibliography (Oxford; 1980), 39.Google Scholar

57. J.M. Orpen to D.F. Ellenberger, 29 August 1905, Ellenberger Papers.

58. Ellenberger, D.F., Histori ea Basotho, Karolo I (Morija; 1917), 4th ed. 1956, reprinted 1975, 1981.Google Scholar See Willet, and Ambrose, , Lesotho, 37.Google Scholar

59. Correspondence between J.C. Macgregor and D.F. Ellenberger, Ellenberger Papers.

60. D.F. Ellenberger to J.M. Orpen, 11 may 1907, Ellenberger Papers.

61. In a future paper I plan to present a more detailed description of the Ellenberger papers at Morija, as well as other archival sources for the history of nineteenth-century Lesotho.

62. Legassick, , “Sotho-Tswana Peoples,” 92–93Google Scholar; Maggs, , Iron Age Communities, 4.Google Scholar

63. D.F. Ellenberger, “History of the Basuto”, Part III, Chapter I, Introduction (unpub.), P.E.M.S. Archives, Morija.