The Impact of Xhosa Leaders on the Life of Moshoeshoe

 The Impact Impact of Xhosa Leaders on the Life of Moshoeshoe. 

In 1828 Moshoeshoe with Moorosi took a journey into the cape. It was a cattle raid on The Thembu under King Ngubencuka. The Basotho succeeded stealing the Thembu cattle.

In 1830 Ngubencuka was succeeded by his son Mtirara.

In 1835 Moshoeshoe tried to raid the AbeThembu again but it ended in failure with the capture of Moshoeshoe's Mvundla/Mutla relative Mafa Mili. 


In 1838 Mafa Mili of Mvundla/Mutla clan was returned to Moshoeshoe, he thought Mafa was long dead killed by the Thembu. Moshoeshoe's attitude towards the Thembu changed and envoys were sent to the AbeThembu of Mtirara. An exchange of goods occurred between the two parties. Mtirara gave Moshoeshoe the opportunity to study the political situation of Xhosa speaking clans. Moshoeshoe further encouraged inter-marriage of the Thembu & Sotho.

  • The origin of the Sotho ndlamo song "Ke Hopotse Mantombazane" which means I remember the girls of AbeThembu.

A Rharhabe Chief Nzwane Danster gave Moshoeshoe his first firearm. Moshoeshoe was so excited he gave Nzwane a piece of land now called Danster's Nek.

Faku of AmaMpondo allowed some of Moshoeshoe followers to settle down at a place called ''no man's land" now Matatiele.


In 1852 Moshoeshoe favored the Gcaleka clan house, he always was in contact with King Sarhili/Kreli. Its thought that the information exchange between the Xhosa and Sotho helped Moshoeshoe against the British & Dutch. Or Moshoeshoe was using a powerful muti/charm against the colonialists.


Rharhabe & Gcaleka envoys in Lesotho: Matomela, Cata and Xoxo, who requested muti/charms that the Basotho used against the colonialists. 
The battle of Senekal tells us how some Basotho used the dead bodies of white people with parts chopped off to supply the making of Muti/charms.


From the works of Peter Seboni from the University of the Free State.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tau ya Moletsane

Image
 previously: History of Bataung Bataung are from the House of Rolong Makgothi Moletsane Abraham - Tau wa Mophethe Makgothi/Makhothi, son of Mophethe (clan BaMophethe le Thulo) was born about 1788 who became a famous chief (should be called King of Bataung). Makgothi's mother, Modiha'me/Moliha'me who had children before Makgothi but dead in infancy, they believed cause of death was spirits. In order to escape the evil spirits Modiha'me sent the infant Makgothi to an outlying cattle-post to be reared by the Bushmen herders of his father. The Bushmen were happy that chief Mophethe trusted them with his heir, they took great care of the boy. They showed him much affection and made him a girdle of shells of ostriches eggs called moletsa. The name Moletsane was a nickname for Makgothi wa Mophethe. Makgothi, now Moletsane was circumcised on the plain of Motloangtloang in 1803 during a famine. Chief Mokgele of the second family (clan BaMokgele-Rampai le Sobi) used to send men ...
Read more

A Brief Look at Stokvel, Taxi Association & Black Tax.

Image
Stokvels, Burial Societies and Black Tax in the South African context all have one purpose upliftment. Self-help organizations that are community driven and designed for a deprived class of citizens previously excluded from economically participation. They developed and adapted the informal financial structures to overcome the inaccessibility of formal structures of apartheid.  The origin of stokvel comes from the English settlers performing cattle auctions called stock fairs in the Eastern Cape during the early 1900s. The mutual financial assistance pooling clubs also known as stokvels, stokies, estokini, gegoois, gooi-goois, doodsgenootskap, burial society, mahodisana, mogodiso or kuholisana. Clan Commonwealth Financial structures like black Tax and stokvels have been in existence for thousands of years under different names in different languages like in Botswana: Poor members of the community were assisted by more affluent members through systems such as Mafisa (a financial sch...
Read more

Empire of the South: Ucalanga

Image
"Ucalanga"   “Obusa Bakalanga naBakwa, wakabusa xango sawoku: Wakabe ebvila kuDzimbabwe kanoti kumunya [“at the salt”= Makgadikgadi]; kunta yobuVenda eme ngeHuri [Limpopo]; kunta yoBurwa eme ngePalapye; kunta yoBunanzwa eme ngeZambezi. Kabusa yose odan’wa Chibundule.” "Ucalanga, it is very vast and includes many large cities, not to mention numerous villages; the city of Sofala itself is part of it, as is the entire coast. And the king who currently reigns over Ucalanga, Sire, is the son of Mocomba, who was also king of this realm. He is called Quesarymgo Menamotapa." - by  António da Conceição. The emergence of modern Bakalanga as a distinctive community can be traced to the abandonment of Great Zimbabwe in the 15th century. Due to politics some population of Great Zimbabwe moved north to found the Mwenemutapa state. At about the same time some Ikalanga traditions trace the formation of the Butwa state under Bakalanga Kingdom to the south-west migration of people f...
Read more