2x1rmNovember 2, 202412min10260

THE RICHNESS OF QUTHING

Dinasaur footprints 1

The kingdom of Lesotho is divided into 10 districts which collectively make up the 30 355 square-kilometres country which is considered one of the smallest in the world. It is also one of three countries that are surrounded by another country. The other two are San Marino and Vatican City.

Quthing as district was originally part of the huge Cornetspruit district. The name Cornetspruit is an Afrikaans name for Makhaleng River. Cornetspruit comprised of Mohale’s Hoek, Quthing and Qacha’s Nek, the latter which broke off from Quthing to be an independent district circa 1904, even though it was initially established as an administrative camp in September 1888, by John Griffith, a member of Basutoland Mounted Police, a forerunner of today’s Lesotho Mounted Police Service (LMPS).

The decision to make Quthing as an independent district came about on 1 July 1877, with Hamilton Hope appointed as the first district administrator and magistrate of Quthing. The first principal chief of the district was appointed seven years later when paramount chief (King) Letsie I dispatched one of his junior sons, Nkuebe, to Quthing. He was coronated on 6 September 1884 at Alwyn’skop. He later chose Sebapala as his residence. The village took its name from the river of the same name.

Quthing is the only district that its two white magistrates and administrators were killed. The first magistrate, Hamilton Hope, was murdered on 23 September 1880 during the height of Basotho Gun War by King Mhlonto, the last king of Amapondomise. He lured Hope to his village in Eastern Cape claiming that if Hope gave him guns he (Mhlonto) would assist in defeating Basotho in the war. After being given guns by Hope, Mhlonto killed Hope and fled to Phamong near Quthing. He remained hidden until 1903 when he was arrested at Tele, in Quthing. He reportedly went there to buy something at the convenience store. Mhlonto served time at Quthing prison, which is also the first prison in Lesotho to have a recorded prison break which occurred on 1 January 1879 when chief Moorosi sons, Doda, Litlame and others escaped. Their prison break later ignited the Moorosi War.

The second magistrate to be killed was John Austen. He was killed on 28 January 1881, during the height of Basotho Gun War, on top of Mokotjomela mountain, near Mount Moorosi. He was beheaded and his head was sent to Matsieng.

Quthing is Lesotho’s pioneer in the medicinal field. During the siege of Mount Moorosi caused by the Moorosi War, a heavy gun battle that began on April till November 1879, Fort Hartley now called Pokane was established. It served as a hospital caring for the wounded soldiers. It was established by Surgeon Major Edmund Baron Hartley. Even though he only had a diploma in medicine, he was nevertheless made the country’s first district surgeon shortly after the war.

Today, the place where Hartley used to run a surgery, is still visible and in good condition, well as by a mere looking standard. The building is situated near the road a short distance before the Sebapala Bridge. It is now owned by the Sekhonyana family.

This Sekhonyana family also has a rich history in Quthing. Sekhonyana, also called Nehemiah, was the first child born at Thaba Bosiu after the arrival of Basotho in 1824. He was the only child of ‘Masekhonyana, the third wife of King Moshoeshoe I.

 

Sekhonyana was initially dispatched alongside Tlali to Matatiele, Eastern Cape, South Africa by King Moshoeshoe I. At that time, Matatiele was still part of Lesotho. But on 10 May 1865, Sekhonyana was attacked and chased away from Matatiele by Adam Kok III, the son of chief Adam Kok II of the Griqua nation. Adam Kok II was a close friend of King Moshoeshoe I and he was the one who advised King Moshoeshoe I to bring the missionaries to Lesotho. And coincidentally when Adam Kok III arrived at Matatiele after selling his land of Philippolis and spending a year living in Lesotho, he was welcomed by Nehemiah Sekhonyana and even chose Kokstad as his place guided by Sekhonyana.

 

After being chased away in South Africa by Kok, Sekhonyana came back to Lesotho and settled at Kubung near Mphaki before relocating to what is today known as Ha Sekhonyana. His grandchildren include; Sekhonyana Nehemiah ‘Maseribane who became the first prime minister of Lesotho in 1965 and Retšelisitsoe Sekhonyana who was classmate of King Moshoeshoe II at Christ The King High School from 1948 to 1954. He later became the youngest Lesotho minister of finance at the age of 34 in 1971. On the other hand, the son of Sekhonyana Nehemiah ‘Maseribane, would later be appointed as a cabinet minister and later served as a Lesotho diplomat overseas.

 

Quthing district is further credited as the first place in Lesotho to have a printing machine. When one of the first black newspapers in Africa, Leselinyana La Lesotho was first issued on 3 November 1863 after being printed at Masitise, even though it was addressed as Morija Lesotho, it was later relocated to Morija in 1875 and later assumed the name Morija Printing Works.

 

The first technical school or school of higher education in Lesotho is Leloaleng Technical Institute situated at Moyeni, Quthing. Leloaleng began in 1890. The following year 1891, Paramount Chief Lerotholi visited the school and was so fascinated by its set up that when he arrived at Matsieng, he began an idea of starting a similar school in Maseru. Despite being illiterate himself, Paramount Chief Lerotholi managed to raise £4000 for the building of the school. The school began in 1905, a few months after his death and it was initially named National Industrial School. Nelson “Fokothi” Fogarty was roped in as the school’s principal. In the latter years, the school was officially renamed Lerotholi Polytechnic.

Another first in the field of education to come out of Quthing is the attainment of a university degree. Mokete James Thaele, who was born in 1888 in Quthing and was studying at Lincoln University in USA in 1913, became the first Mosotho to obtain a university degree. He actually obtained two degrees.

 

NATURE AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY

The first people to settle in what is present day Lesotho were San people or Bushmen. They’re the people who introduced initiation ceremony (lebollo) and smoking of cannabis (matekoane) among Basotho. They also adopted to inter marriages with other tribes.

 

It was because of one of those intermarriage unions that Quthing now has one of the most culturally diverse populations in the country.

 

At the origin place of the earliest Basotho in Ntsoanatsatsi, there was Kuena, younger brother of Mohurutse, the founding father of Batswana. He fathered Khabo who had two sons, Mochuli and Napo. Napo left Ntsoanatsatsi and crossed Lekoa (Vaal) in search of a new land and possible freedom as he was Mochuli’s younger brother. Napo married a Mofokeng wife and had many sons, namely; Motebang, the founding father of the Batebang clan, Lisema, the founding father of the Bahlakoana clan, and Molapo, the founding father of the Makhoakhoa clan.

 

Napo also had a bushman wife but his people refused to be ruled by his Bushmen sons. The eldest son was Tjale. Feeling unwanted and discriminated against, these sons left and ended up settling among the Thembus in Eastern Cape.

 

Led by Tjale, they later settled in Quthing but they had already adopted the culture and language of the Thembus. The original place where they settled in Quthing is called Mtjanyane. There are many Thembus in Quthing up to Qacha’s Nek to date.

 

The other influential and important figure is Moorosi, son of Mokuoane, who became an influential leader of the Baphuthi nation. Baphuthi were the first people to settle at Qiloane, now called Thaba Bosiu. And during their migration to Kubake, Mohale’s Hoek, in 1795, Moorosi was born. He was probably the first person to own horses in Lesotho.

 

In 1823 he gave King Moshoeshoe I a horse. It was delivered by his dignitary, Lipholo. In January 1879 chief Moorosi helped his sons to escape the Quthing prison. It is the first prison break recorded in Lesotho. The prison break led to Moorosi War of 1879 as previously mentioned.

 

The Quthing district is also the only district in the country which has a bridge named after African politician. The Quthing River bridge near Mount Moorosi is named Mundia after the erstwhile prime minister of Zambia, Nalumino Mundia.

 

The only Ramsar wetland in Lesotho is Letša La Letsie in Quthing. It is named after Paramount Chief Letsie II. It is arguably the only structure place of public interest in Lesotho named after him. Further, the only place where wild birds such as vultures are fed animals in Lesotho is Majoe Mabeli Waterfall in Quthing. It is arguably the only place in Lesotho where you can spot more than 80 Cape Vultures flying at the same time. Not forgetting the dinosaur footprints on the outskirts of Moyeni town, the only administrative town in Lesotho of Thembu or Xhosa origin.

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The Lesotho Insights™ is a publication for Lesotho by Basotho. Now in its second edition, Lesotho Insights™ is an annual coffee table book that has been endorsed by the Government of Lesotho through the Ministry of Finance as the official review of the state of Lesotho’s economy and prospects in the new financial year.


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