African Kingdoms

Basuto (Sotho / Tswana Clan State) (Africa)
Incorporating the Bafokeng, Baphuthi, & Maphetia

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The pre-history of Africa contains a far longer period of human habitation than any other area on Earth, thanks to it being the cradle of humankind's evolution. South Africa consists of a series of undulating plateaus which cover much of the region and extend northwards into Central Africa's Angola. The Kalahari desert forms a central depression in the Southern African plateau, while scrubland and grasslands cover much of the region's remainder.

Indigenous natives belong to one of two language families: Khoisan or Bantu. The former were first to be established, having inhabited the region for millennia. They were displaced in many areas around AD 1000 by Wasja-speaking Bantu tribes which were largely responsible for spreading the African Neolithic and which now dominate large areas of Central Africa and southwards of that.

Regional archaeological and historical enquiry has been extremely uneven, with Namibia being the least-intensively studied while South Africa is at the opposite end of that scale. Establishing a coherent historical framework of events is an often controversial process with little universal agreement.

The Basuto name roughly translates as the 'country of the Sesotho-speaking people'. The founders of this country were a mixture of Sotho (or Basotho) and Tswana people, Bantu-speaking groups which were entering the region into the nineteenth century (and likely from at least the seventeenth century). The origins of at least some of their clans could be traced back to the late 1700s, notably the Bakoteli clan which provided the basis for the Basuto foundation.

Unlike the nearby Swazi though, more recent Basuto migrations are likely to have been localised. Modern Lesotho traditions have the Basuto people emerging from the ground at Ntsoana-Tsatsi, a location which contains reeds and a good deal of water.

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(Information by Peter Kessler and the John De Cleene Archive, with additional information by Juan Fandos-Rius (base details), from Urban Africa; Histories in the Making (Africa's Urban Past), David M Anderson & Richard Rathbone (Eds), from Africana: The Encyclopaedia of the African and African American Experience, Anthony Appiah & Henry Louis Gates (Oxford University Press, 2005), from The New Atlas of African History, G S P Freeman-Grenville (Rex Collins, London, 1991), from Times Atlas of World History (Maplewood, 1979), from the BBC documentary series, Lost Kingdoms of Africa, first broadcast on 5 January 2010, and from External Links: Encyclopaedia Britannica, and Lesotho Genealogy, and Africa 101 Last Tribes.)

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Minor chief of the Bakoteli clan.

late 1700s

An originating core Swazi group migrates into an area of territory which today forms part of eSwatinti. They conquer the local inhabitants, most of whom are Basuto people. They themselves may only have been present in the region for no more than a century or so.

The Lubombo or Lebombo mountains form a north-south spine which reaches the River Limpopo and the intersection between the borders of South Africa, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe, while also providing today's eSwatini kingdom with its eastern border

These Basuto are a separate tribe from the one which soon forms the Basuto state, and may be related to, or part of, the Makololo who control territory which later forms part of Barotseland.

? - 1822

Son. Minor chief of the Bakoteli clan.

1804

The son of Mokhachane is Moshoeshoe. He now forms his own clan, the Bakwena, and becomes its first chief while his father continues to head the Bakoteli clan.

1804 - 1868

Son. Born circa 1780. First Basotho chief (& Basutoland).

1816 - 1832

In the space of twelve years Shaka turns the small Zulu chiefdom into an empire which surpasses anything his father or the neighbouring tribes had envisaged. He goes from settlement to settlement, persuading with his spear the northern Nguni chieftains to join the newfound empire.

This time of empire-building is called the Mfecane, or 'the crushing'. Those who refuse to cooperate can chose between death or exile, and the latter flee to the foothills of the Drakensburg Mountains (many of them Nguni, which also causes the Swazi to set up their own Nguni state in the same mountains).

This is a traditional Basuto house of the type which is to be found across the region, with this example being located in the Sani Pass, in the west of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa

Moshoeshoe and his followers settle around the Butha-Buthe Mountain. They find the hunter-gatherers who are known as the 'sand people' who record their arrival in rock paintings which survive to this day. They also join up with former adversaries in their resistance against the Lifaqane, a people who have associations with the Zulu.

The Basuto tribal state is founded by Moshoeshoe (officially from 1822), formed out of this alliance of small groups which are united in resistance. Moshoeshoe is termed by later generations as the 'Father of the Basotho people'.

The practice of cannibalism increases amongst refugee Basuto people during this time of lifaqane (literally a 'need for sustenance' or 'we want'). According to the missionary, Ellenberger, tribes which practice cannibalism include the Bakhatla of Tabane, specifically those who are ruled by a Chief Rakotsoane at Sefikeng.

The Zulu under Shaka became the dominant force in the south-eastern corner of Africa, creating a tribal empire from a mixture of persuasion and intimidation, plus a certain amount of warfare

The district of Mangane, now known as Bloemfontein, is described as 'infested with cannibals' by the end of 1822. A cave at Mohale's Hoek has a brotherhood of twenty-seven cannibals who are under the leadership of one Motleyoa. Other areas known to have cannibals, including the banks of the River Cornelius Spruit, which contain several villages of cannibals.

1834 - 1838

Groups of Boer settlers, the descendants of Dutch and German farmers, set off from the Cape Colony to the east in search of new land. One group led by Piet Retief arrives in Zulu territory in early 1837 to spark conflict, while another group arrives on the western borders of the Basuto tribal region, claiming land rights. This act sparks decades of conflict.

The initial small trickle of Boer settlers into the Transvaal soon turned into a flood which the native states were virtually powerless to prevent

1843 - 1848

In order to halt the flood of settlers, Moshoeshoe signs a treaty with the British governor of the Cape Colony which establishes Basutoland as a protectorate on 13 December 1843. The Boers have to be suppressed in a short-lived action by the British in 1848.

1854 - 1868

The British temporarily pull out of the area, leaving the Basuto to fight their own battles, most notably the Free State-Basotho War against the Boers of Orange Free State in 1858.

Following defeats in which much of his territory is lost, Moshoeshoe appeals directly to Queen Victoria and, in 1868, Britain's 'High Commission Territories' adds Basutoland to its protectorates.

The long-lived founder of the Basuto state, Chief Moshoeshoe I, remained on the throne for just long enough to see the benefits which were delivered by accepting the safety of a British protectorate, and is pictured here in very low quality, surrounded by his ministers