Throwing Down White Man Cape Rule and Misrule in Colonial Lesotho, 1871–1884

by Sanders, Peter

• ISBN13: 9780850366549
• ISBN10: 0850366542
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-11-01
• Publisher: Merlin Press

Summary

Surrounded by South Africa lies the small, independent kingdom of Lesotho, and this book explores how the Basotho people came to preserve this autonomy from powerful neighbors in the Gun War of 1880-81. One of several wars in southern Africa at the time, the Gun War was different in one, all-important respect: the whites were humiliatingly defeated, or at least decisively held at bay. Presenting oral traditions and archival sources with meticulous care, this history lays bare the narrower interests and conflicting perspectives among the Basotho chiefs and the local officials as well as the larger forces at work in the region. Compelling and absorbing, this study of the Gun War will interest historians and academics alike.

Author Biography

Peter Sanders is the former chief executive for the Commission for Racial Equality and the author of Medicine Murder in Colonial Lesotho: The Anatomy of a Moral Crisis.

Table of Contents

List of maps	p. iv
Note on illustrations	p. iv
Preface	p. v
Note on names, orthography and pronunciation	p. vii
Abbreviations	p. vii
Selective genealogy	p. viii
Introduction	p. 1
The Gun War	p. 1
Causes and consequences: the key questions	p. 3
The title and the praise poems: Throwing down White Man'	p. 6
Magistrates and Chiefs	p. 9
Moshoeshoe the Wise and Victoria the Good	p. 11
1868: the imperial annexation	p. 11
1871: annexation to the Cape	p. 16
Moshoeshoe's chiefdom, Letsie's inheritance	p. 18
Basutoland	p. 18
Moshoeshoe's chiefdom	p. 18
Letsie's inheritance	p. 20
The Cape government	p. 30
The policy	p. 30
The magistrates	p. 31
Peace and prosperity	p. 35
The attack on the chiefs	p. 39
The land	p. 39
The courts	p. 44
Stray stock and Sesotho custom	p. 49
'Success' and fear	p. 52
A record of 'success'	p. 52
The first alarms	p. 54
Further alarms	p. 59
The Moorosi War	p. 64
Moorosi's chiefdom and the Quthing magistracy	p. 64
The first crisis	p. 65
The second crisis	p. 66
The third crisis	p. 66
The fourth crisis	p. 68
The outbreak of war	p. 70
The Moorosi War (cont.)	p. 73
The first attack on Mount Moorosi	p. 73
The second attack	p. 75
Negotiations	p. 77
The third attack	p. 78
Conspiracy and confederation	p. 82
An African conspiracy?	p. 82
Confederation, 'vigour' and disarmament	p. 83
Disarmament and the confiscation of Quthing	p. 92
Sprigg's mission	p. 92
The order to disarm	p. 94
The confiscation of Quthing	p. 96
The Peace Preservation Act	p. 97
The descent to war	p. 104
Divisions among the Basotho and the intimidation of the loyalists	p. 104
Colonial delays	p. 107
Letsie's initiative	p. 111
Sprigg's final mission	p. 113
Guns, chieftainship, land and drought	p. 117
The Gun War	p. 123
Predictions and prophecies	p. 125
Fears and expectations	p. 125
Organisation, resources, strategy and leadership: the Basotho	p. 128
Organisation, resources, strategy and leadership: the Cape	p. 134
The first phase of the war	p. 142
Introduction	p. 142
The war in the south	p. 142
The war in the centre	p. 146
The war in the north	p. 150
The second phase of the war	p. 153
The war in the south	p. 153
The war in the centre	p. 165
The war in the north	p. 166
Overtures for peace	p. 174
The third phase of the war	p. 176
Negotiations for peace	p. 176
The resumption of fighting	p. 181
Sir Hercules Robinson's award	p. 184
The Collapse of Cape Rule	p. 189
The mission of J.W. Sauer	p. 191
J.W. Sauer	p. 191
The talks at Morija	p. 192
The fine, 'disarmament' and compensation	p. 193
Masupha's 'submission'	p. 198
Joseph Millerd Orpen	p. 200
Orpen and his magistrates	p. 200
Trying to get justice for the Mateketoa	p. 202
The attempt to coerce Masupha	p. 209
From 'ultimatum' to 'expectation'	p. 215
æUltimatumÆ	p. 215
The campaign against Orpen	p. 218
The policy of 'expectation'	p. 220
General Gordon	p. 233
Gordon's appointment	p. 223
Gordon's policy	p. 224
Gordon goes to Basutoland	p. 226
Gordon's departure	p. 233
The making of a myth	p. 235
Retreat and despair	p. 238
Picking up the threads	p. 238
Civil war in the house of Molapo: Jonathan and Joel (1)	p. 239
A further retreat	p. 242
Civil war in the house of Molapo: Jonathan and Joel (2)	p. 247
Preparing for the last retreat	p. 250
The final retreat	p. 251
Merriman's mission to London	p. 251
Marking time in Basutoland	p. 252
The Basotho are called upon to decide	p. 254
The final decision	p. 255
The end of colonial rule	p. 257
Imperial rule and the triumph of the chiefs	p. 258
More of the same	p. 258
The submission of Masupha	p. 262
The consolidation of imperial rule and the paramountcy	p. 264
Conclusion	p. 266
Sources	p. 272
Index	p. 291
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