Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870–1960

4. The White Horse and the Jailhouse Key: Moorosi’s Rebellion

55 4 The White Horse and the Jailhouse Key Moorosi’s Rebellion Colonial and BaSotho reactions to the jailhouse escape exposed the dynamics of colonial rule at various levels. The Cape Colony had hoped to wield power and administer the colony without the use of military force by means of the authority of the District Magistrates with the support of the chiefs. The District Magistrates, however, were aware that their authority was fragile because it lacked moral legitimacy among the chiefs and the population at large. The chiefs, in turn, were aware that colonial officials had the ability to call up military force from the Cape Colony in order to enforce administrative decisions, and their memory of sustaining military losses against colonial troops, resulting in the loss of land and independence, deterred them from resorting to violent rebellion . The exchange of communications between colonial officials and BaSotho chiefs at this time indicates a careful use of rhetoric by both sides in an effort to deploy moral suasion instead of armed forces to accomplish their conflicting goals. The stakes were high for everyone in Moorosi’s rebellion. The events were rather dramatic and have never been in dispute.1 Rebellions across the region had prompted the Cape Colony to pass the notorious Peace Preservation Act, which was enabling legislation for preemptive disarmament of any group where rebellion had occurred or was feared. On 3 January 1879 Charles Griffith reported to the Secretary for Native Affairs in Cape Town that he had received information from Major Bell, Resident Magistrate in the Leribe District, who had in turn received it from his Chief Constable, Jan Magadlani, that made “reference to a message said to have been sent by Letsie to Molapo to the effect that the people must not give up their arms.” Yet Griffith also noted that the informants were unknown, so he could not judge the reliability of the information , and he downplayed the legitimacy of the report with the comment that “Jan Mogadlani himself although a loyal trustworthy man is yet an alarmist and inclined to exaggerate any information which he may gather from other Basutos.” The desire of the British to believe their own rhetoric, their own discourses about loyal Africans, allowed them to be blindsided as confrontations approached. Thus Griffith, with no apparent awareness of the contradictions imbedded in his statements , concluded: The question of disarming the Basutos has caused & is still causing a good deal of discontent & many of the Chiefs think that we have an ulterior object in view and it was only yesterday that I was told that one of Letsie’s sons had been heard to say that after the Basutos were disarmed that then they would be made slaves of and oppressed in every way.2 The association of colonial rule with slavery was part of the BaSotho discourse of colonialism, and this was not the only time this characterization appeared in BaSotho statements, but its significance was lost on the British. Griffith was no wiser by the end of January, still insisting on BaSotho loyalty even as he presented evidence to the contrary: There are no symptoms of disaffection amongst the people—At the same time I am well aware that all eyes & ears are directed to Zululand and the operations going on there, and I have no doubt that the pulse of the people will be regulated by the reports which will be circulated in this country as to the success or otherwise of our troops.3 By the following week Griffith was worried that the “partial disaster” of the British, that is, their disastrous loss at the battle of Isandlwana in their invasion of Zululand, would give confidence to the BaSotho or perhaps frighten them into “Rebellion.”4 Griffith and Austen did not believe that Paramount Chief Letsie and his vassal Moorosi could agree and therefore disbelieved a report that Letsie’s own messenger was preaching disloyalty to the British “Government.”5 Griffith also began to see the possibility of his worst fears being played out, those of unified African resistance to the British, because of messengers traveling between the chiefs in Basutoland, Zululand, East Griqualand, Pondoland, and Herschel.6 56 The White Horse and the Jailhouse Key The British colonial officials in Basutoland were in a position to calculate the rebellious sentiments of the BaSotho in concert with their neighbors. In February 1879 Charles Maitin, a missionary’s son who...