Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 January 2009
This paper examines the reasons why the small African state of Thaba Nchu was annexed by the Orange Free State after more than a decade of nominal independence within Free State borders. For some years before 1884 Thaba Nchu had existed in a situation not unlike that of a modern ‘Bantustan’; this was disrupted when a coup was staged against the ruler, Tshipinare, who had relied on Free State support. Fearing instability if the new ruler, Samuel Moroka, became firmly established, Free State forces invaded Thaba Nchu, captured Samuel Moroka, and incorporated the land in the Free State.
1 For example, Thompson, Leonard, Survival in Two Worlds (Oxford, 1975), 189Google Scholar. Barlow, T. B., in President Brand and His Times (Cape Town, 1972), 224–6,Google Scholar treats the annexation in more detail, though entirely from the point of view of the Free State.
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