Gun War / Disarmament War - 1880-1882
The Basotho forces gained a complete victory in this "Gun War" of 1880-1881. The brunt of the fighting fell on Letsie's eldest son, Lerothodi, who was aided by Masupha, third son of Moshweshwe I. Desultory warfare was carried on between the colonial troops and the Basuto until 1881, when the intervention of the high commissioner, Sir Hercules Robinson (afterward Lord Rosmead), was asked for. Peace in Basutoland was not announced until the end of 1882. In the following year a form of self-government was established, but was once more followed by internal strife among the petty chieftains.
In 1879 the Zulu War and the awful slaughter of over eight hundred British troops at Isandlwana by the Zulus had stirred up all the kindred tribes. In August 1879 the Cape Parliament passed an Act to disarm all natives within its jurisdiction, because of the excitement caused among all the Bantu tribes of South Africa by the massacre at Isandlwana by the Zulus. The Prime Minister, Gordon Sprigg, summoned a pitso of the whole Basuto tribe in October of the same year, at which he informed them that they must give up not only their guns but their assegais and all other arms in return for full compensation; and also that the hut-tax was to be raised, in order that the Government might have more money to spend on schools, roads, and other improvements.
The chiefs readily agreed to the raising of the hut-tax, but the other proposal they considered a breach of faith, and they said so plainly at the pitso. First, because when, in 1868, they had been offered their choice of depending from the Cape Government or from that of Natal, they had decided against the latter because it disarmed its natives, whereas the former did not. Secondly, because they had been induced to leave their homes in large numbers and go to work on Government railways or in the diamond mines, by the promises held out to them of earning guns. (It will be remembered that previously they had not been able to buy arms or ammunition at all.) Thirdly, because this very Government had called upon them, only a few months before, to use these same guns in bringing to book a disorderly chief, Morosi.
“As for the guns,” said Tsita Mofoka, “they belong to the Queen, only they are in the hands of us who are her soldiers and her servants.” So also said Nathanael Makotoko; and Tsekolo Moshesh added: “ We knew that by coming to the Queen’s Government we should have full liberty. And now, what would become of our great confidence in the justice of the Queen’s Government if now we are to be disarmed, not because we have done any evil, but just because our colour is black? The trust that Moshesh had in the Queen ! He died trusting her: he use to say that the Queen was the Sun of the World.”
Another one pleaded, “Our guns are to us like the little things children care for; we do not take them violently away, but when they grow older they cease to care for them, and when our people grow wiser and more educated they will not care for their guns. Wait till then.”
But history repeated itself. Just as thirty years before the headstrong sons of Moshesh (then including Molapo himself) had drawn down on the English power the defeat of Viervoéts, so now did the younger and less responsible chiefs raise the standard of rebellion. These were, Lerothodi,‘ Masupha (who was old enough to know better) and Joel; all reactionaries, promoters of heathenism, ceaseless opponents of Christianity.
Unfortunately, just at the critical moment in 1880, Molapo died. Thus the loyal party lost its most powerful leader, and immediately the greater part of the tribe rallied to the rebels. From that moment the struggle, though it did not begin there, raged principally in the northern regions of Leribé and Thlotsi.
Four-fifths of the Basutos rallied to Joel, attacked his own force and defeated it. This was in December, 1880. The victorious rebels, having wiped out the chief obstacle to their progress, now carried everything before them throughout the entire district.
Fighting went on between the British and the loyalists on one side against the rebels on the other, till in 1881 peace was patched up between the Cape Government and the Basutos, with this result: The Cape had sunk £4,000,000, had lost many lives, had alienated the whole tribe, and had nothing to show for it. The Basutos retained their arms. Far, far worse from the missionary point of view was the ruin of the country. Schools and villages were destroyed and congregations scattered.
On November 29th, 1883, the Basuto had a national gathering, where a letter from Lord Derby was read, asking them to decide whether they wished to govern themselves or to be ruled by the Queen. They chose to be placed under the Imperial Government, and on March 16th, 1884, Col. Clarke was installed as Resident Commissioner.
As a consequence of the war, and in the absence of any government, the interval between the end of the struggle and the arrival of the Imperial authorities is one of the saddest periods of Basuto history. The liquor law not being enforced, barrels of spirit came freely into the country, and drunkenness became general amongst chiefs and people. Mopedi, a brother of Moshesh, residing in the Free State, seeing this state of things, came to Basutoland and made a crusade against this evil, and as a result a strong reaction set in.
In 1891, Letsie died, and Lerothodi was confirmed Paramount Chief in his place. The first years of his paramountship were troubled by his uncle, Masopha, and his brother Maama, trying to supplant him, but with the moral support of the Government, he overcame his brother’s resistance and broke his uncle’s power in a campaign, the cause of which was the refusal by Masopha to give up one of his sons, who had escaped from prison in the Free State.
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