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215 11 Seeking Sovereignty and the Rule of Law Contests over authority, policy, and the political dispensation in government were waged in colonial Lesotho by means of force and persuasion , involving guns, rhetoric, and a more encompassing discourse of colonialism that defined the parameters of the possible and the preferable. Within that colonial discourse about politics and authority colonial officials and BaSotho chiefs deployed their rhetorical skills to achieve their goals and, when that failed, resorted to forms of coercion and force. During the nineteenth century the BaSotho, under their chiefs, had used guns and military force as well as diplomacy in their efforts to ward off rule by white settlers, and they decided collectively in 1868 and again in 1884 to compromise their sovereignty to British overrule in order to retain their land and their culture. The effective use of military force, rhetoric , and manipulation of competing discourses by BaSotho chiefs and their people over the previous century finally won them in 1966 the recognition , by the British and the world, of their independent sovereignty and right to self-determination. The political dispensation meted out to Basutoland by the British came to follow the pattern they had established elsewhere, with the creation of a legislative council and the introduction of constitutional changes from the late 1950s, leading to full independence in 1966. A Resident Commissioner from South Africa, A. G. T. Chaplin, oversaw the initial process. Following the publication in 1954 of a report recommending administrative reforms, a commission headed by Sir Henry Moore was formed in 1956 to chart out the future of Basutoland. Since the British were still toying with the idea of transferring control of the country to South Africa, the issues were urgent for the BaSotho. The Constitutional Reform Committee’s recommendations were accepted in 1958, and under the new 1959 constitution the former Basutoland National Council, keeping the same name, became a legislative body, and a small executive council, which included colonial officials, was established . Half of the new eighty-member Basutoland National Council were elected from the nine District Councils, twenty-two were Principal chiefs, fourteen were nominated by the Paramount Chief, and four were official British representatives.1 Party politics were born as the country imagined independence even before the British conceded it was possible. Ntsu Mokhehle founded the Basutoland African Congress (BAC) in 1952, which changed its name to the Basutoland Congress Party (BCP) in 1960 just prior to the 1960 elections. The party had strong leadership with important international ties and support, but these included Communist Party links and participation and led it in a more radical direction than might otherwise have been the case. Although the BAC/BCP supported the position of the Paramount Chief, it did not take a similar stand for other chiefs at lower levels and wanted to restrict the role of the paramountcy to largely ceremonial functions. There was also a reaction against it prompted by fears, realistic if exaggerated, of the known communist influences in the BAC/BCP. As a result other parties emerged. In 1957 Chief Samuel Seepheephe Matete formed the Marema-Tlou Party, which strongly supported the future king, Moshoeshoe II, and in 1959 Chief Leabua Jonathan founded the Basutoland National Party in order to run more conservative candidates for office. In April 1961 Bennet M. Khaketla founded the Basutoland Freedom Party after leaving his position as Deputy President of the BCP, and this party merged with the MaremaTlou Party at the end of 1962. Although both party leaders involved in the merger, Matete and Khaketla, soon left the new party, the MaremaTlou Freedom Party survived under new leadership to win seats in future elections.2 The elections of 1960 under the new constitution revealed the political divides among parties and leaders that had been festering in the 1950s. Perhaps not surprisingly, it was the party that had been in existence the longest, the BCP, that won the most seats in the elections of 1960, giving it control over six of nine District Councils and therefore a majority of the indirectly elected seats in the National Council, but its lopsided victory masked weak organization and internal dissension, falsely conveying an image of mass popular support.3 Saddled with the problems of governance in the waning years of colonial rule, the BCP revealed a lack of preparation for the challenges of administration and rule that would be remembered by the electorate in the next elections. 216 Seeking Sovereignty and the Rule of Law...

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