Chief Morena Mohlomi : The Great African Prophet, philosopher, leader and wiseman, socrates of Africa...

Mohlomi : The Great African Prophet, philosopher, leader and wiseman, socrates of Africa...

Mohlomi was born in 1720? At Mohakare valley today known as Caledon valley between Lesotho and Free State, he was the grandson of the great Bakwena chief Mohaneng and the son of Monyane (Ndawo). According Max Du Preez His father Monyane anticipated that Mohlomi will be great leader one day, as his name Mohlomi means ‘The Builder’. Around the 1730’s, when Mohlomi was thirteen or fourteen, undergoing his initiation, he had an unusual and ground-breaking vision while sleeping in his initiation hut. The old Basotho explain that this was not just a dream, in Sesotho the word dream is ‘TORO’, but a vision, which means ‘PONO’, Dr Marx Du Preez relates this as ‘Psychic connection with the ancestors’. He told his people later that in his vision:

There was a strong hurricane and it became very dark. Then he saw a bright light descending on his hut. The roof opened up and a giant eagle landed inside. Mohlomi got on its back and the eagle took him over the mountains to the highest peak, where the giant eagle dropped him ohloff. Momi noticed that he was surrounded by a multitude of old men and woman. In his vision one of these elders welcomed him and told him that thy were the souls of his departed ancestors, the Balimo(ANCESTORS). The old man then told him that he was destined to become a great leader and they were there to advise him on how to live, to lead and to rule.

Many versions of what Mohlomi heard from the ancestors, they say survived in the oral traditions of the Free State and Lesotho. According to (Weaner, 1933) Mohlomi felt himself, in a dream or stupor, conveyed up the sky, and heard a voice saying, “Go, rule by love and look at the people as your Men and brothers”. What is common in all them, was that Mohlomi, was told to be a man of peace and love; to be fair and just; to see all people as his brothers and sisters, to have compassion and patience; and to give a special consideration to children, women and old people. He was additionally advised to study medicine and to turn into a healer of bodies and psyches.

Mohlomi was of royal blood, his brother Nkopane destined to be chief saw unfit for him to be the ruler of clan by some reasons, and he entrusted the chieftainship of the clan to Mohlomi his younger brother according to (D.Fred.Ellenberger, 1912) and he was soon well-loved and respected in his region and his great herd of cattle which ensured his kin were never hungry. His unconventional ways of thinking began indicating all around from the start of his reign. He was no like other chiefs in the focal of southern Africa, he didn’t fabricate a solid furnished power, he never squabbled with anyone, he was noted for his wisdom and generosity, for it is certain that in any case his insight into mysterious issues and in the specialty of healing, it said he outperformed all men ,and he was no warrior: there were no victories or no augmentation of capacity to record says (D.Fred.Ellenberger, 1912) rather he disbanded his battling units totally, advising his healthy men to engage in farming also, and teaching them to be better husbands to their wives and fathers to their children. He likewise appointed quite a bit of his mostly obligations to his counsellors. This was radical conduct in those troubled times.

Mohlomi was beginning to live as indicated by the guidelines he accepted he had gotten from his ancestors. By his forties he was an ascetic with a high level of self-control. He was incredibly fit and ate very little, unquestionably no rich foods. He never drank liquor or smoked tobacco or dagga – truth be told, he advised everyone with whom he came into contact, against smoking and drinking. He wore earrings and a brass collar around his neck. Sometime in his life, admittedly after fathering several children, he settled on abstinence so he could purify his spirit – he didn’t have intercourse with his favorite wife, Maliepollo . He cherished investing his energy to young, and to add says (D.Fred.Ellenberger, 1912)  he used to say, “The young are the better” elaborating his saying, he stated that their minds had not yet been corrupted and they could still understand the natural truths. 

Mohlomi’s favorite interest was to have long philosophical discourses with other Wise-man of his locale. Long after his death, people remembered that he frequently contemplated questions, for example, where does the universe start and where does it end? What is the quintessence of life; how is life created? (In an essence of spirituality) he emphatically contented that there must be one Creator for all things and the spirits are immortal. In certain regards his convictions related with oriental convictions and the law of karma, regardless of never meeting anybody however fellow Africans. According to Dr Max Du Preez, inner voice, he said, rather than pressure from society or norms dictated by others, was man’s just guide and monitor of his behaviour. He considered it as man’s internal guide and further elaborated that if you are kind and generous to others, especially the unfortunate and weak, destiny will be your companion. Mohlomi’s teachings were aimed at the community he was living in and the problems of his time.

The issues Mohlomi's Individuals battled with towards the finish of the eighteenth century were the maltreatment of intensity by Kings and chiefs, equipped clash among groups and clans, the maltreatment of liquor and dagga, witchcraft and the feeble position of ladies and kids. The vast majority of the Mohlomi truisms that have turned into a piece of Basotho ethical quality and made do as of not long ago had to do with these issues. 

It is better to thrash the corn than to shape the spear, was a saying that was rehashed long after his death. He used to say, "Peace is my sister", a sister being an individual who was in a delicate position in the public arena and to be taken care of, secured and supported. And also "A knobkerrie is unmistakably progressively important when used to thrash corn than to execute men on the War zone." His recommendation to chiefs and headman was: "The point at which you sit in judgment, let your choices be simply. The law knows nobody as a poor man." It was Mohlomi who begun the Custom, still alive right up 'til the present time, that one ought to welcome an outsider with an open, lifted hand Also, the shout "Khotso!" (Peace).

But possibly the most famous saying of all, now proclaimed by some Basotho historians as a call to democracy, was: “A  king is a king by the grace of his people.”

Dr Marx Du Preez points out how this great man came to be known by Westerners the early missionaries on his paper titled The Socrates of Africa and His Student; A Model of Pre-Colonial African Leadership: 

Early European Christian Missionaries of the nineteenth century, who touched base in the locale past the point where it is possible to meet Mohlomi, were defied by his inheritance and talked very of him, regardless of their common view that the indigenous people of South Africa were crude or on the other hand, best case scenario, children requiring training. The Swiss evangelist Dr David-Frederic Ellenberger, to whom we owe a great part of the composed records of Mohlomi's life, reflected that a few men are brought into the world great and others have enormity pushed onto them, and stated: 

"Mohlomi was brought into the world extraordinary." He composed that Mohlomi was popular for his love for peace, his philanthropy to all and his wisdom. "He was a teacher of men, and his teachings had sweeping Impacts in refining all the Basotho clans. He stablished certainty between man and man, and chiefs and people with one voice tried to respect Mohlomi for his wisdom and for the love he bore to all men." The French preacher Eugene Cassalis alluded to him as a head of extraordinary consideration "whose name is regularly summoned in the midst of open catastrophe".

Mohlomi was a wanderer, a traveler, with just a mobile stick and a calabash of water and joined by a couple of unarmed Men, he consistently navigated the zones north and south of the Vaal River. He strolled as far as present-day Kwazulu-Natal, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Limpopo, notwithstanding visiting pieces of Botswana and conceivably even Zimbabwe. On a few events he embraced ventures that keep him away from home for quite a long while. He should have voyaged a huge number of kilometres in his full existence of around 95 years. Mohlomi could be called southern Africa's first Africanist. Different Africans of the time only every once in a long while visited different chiefdoms, particularly the people who talked various dialects. He considered all people as one and declared everyone as his siblings and sisters. This was very uncommon for the eighteenth Century. 

Most records considered him as a man of wisdom, prophet, healer and a rain-doctor. He took it upon himself to spread his message of peace, love, resistance and good governance to other peoples of the African subcontinent. He served as an adviser to numerous kings and Chiefs through his adventures. He was a peacemaker, according to Dr Max Du Preez he contemplated these social orders and broke down what made them peaceful and prosperous or battling and failing. With his wisdom he resolved conflicts and wars between clans, tribes, family and personal matters. When people heard that he is in the village, they would gather all together just to hear his teachings. According to (J.C.Macgregor, 1905)  he was also well known by his rain-making charms and healing, furthermore it is said that if the people saw long queues of people waiting to consult or seek advice and/or healing, Mohlomi was in a neighborhood. It is renounced that Mohlomi cured leprosy. He was never a diviner or a person who divines via bones.

Mohlomi was a well-known rain-doctor, what's more, accepted, in compliance with common decency, it is said, that he truly had power on specific events to bring precipitation. There’s so much little said about the process but (Willoughby, 1928), a missionary, in his records, found that the process of the tswanas on rain-making was much more like that of the Basuto and Mr Ellenberger gives us little guarded information on what Mohlomi used to do in times droughts: 

“but in times of droughts he would shut himself up in his secret place and manipulate herbs, roots, etc, stirring up a concoction of with a reed, and invoking the aid of the supreme Being through the intercession of the shades of his ancestors...”

Kings and chiefs would send their sons and daughters to Mohlomi for initiation: Mophethe, Chief of the Bataung, was on one event an observer to Mohlomi's capacity, thus dazzled that he beseeched him to show his craft to his young child Moletsane and sent even seven head of dairy cattle as an expense for commencement into the mysteries. Mohlomi consented to show the fellow, however he was then taken excessively youthful, and before he was mature enough Mohlomi passed on, and this mystery kicked the bucket with him. Be that as it may, he deserted him with certain of his students the mystery of different remedies for regular infections. Not forgetting to mention another Mohlomi’s student who was his niece, the daughter of Nkopane, Anna Selatile Mantsopa Makhetha . She was an adviser to King Moshoeshoe, prophet, healer, war-doctor and rain-maker who later was banished with his clan for the wrong doings of the clan leader who was Makhetha the young brother of Mohlomi.

When Mohlomi was involved in the young men shields production, he shrouded one in mystery lodge, where he used to blend medicine and commune with the spirits, where nobody set out to enter, and after that he raised an alert that one of his shields have vanished in a strange way. In the village this was a serious matter that needed an immediate solution, the chief called out numerous diviners far and near and assembled people. They throw their bones, and no one found the location of the shield; he stood out and said to his people don’t put all your faith on the diviners, even them they have their on limits. 

(D.Fred.Ellenberger, 1912) gives us two of his voyages to other nearby villages, he says:

About the year 1811 Mohlomi visited the Mapolane tribe, who at that time were living on the Maphutseng, not far from Mohale’s Hoek. They received him with great honour, and as he was short of grain that year and they have plenty, they made a collection for him, to which each one contributed something, with the that he was able to return home with a plentiful supply. soon afterwards he visited one matekane, who live near ButhaButhe. People came from all the region round about to see him and hear his. Among them was Mosheosheo...

Mohlomi's notoriety and uplifting frame of mind were with the end goal that he never dreaded for his security during his movements. He was generally welcomed all over the place and was counselled as a sort of prophet, as Dr Max Du Preez puts it. He was a splendid medication man and his administrations were respected everywhere.

Marrying young women or the daughters of chiefs he visited became Mohlomi’s strategy for guaranteeing harmony and great connections. It is by and large accepted that he had forty wives, but that number excludes the wives he did not take back to his village. He would pay such as woman’s marriage settlement and build her a hut but allow her to choose her own “protector” and sexual partner in the village. In other instances, he would find wives for men who could not afford to pay a dowry and pay it on their behalf. He never claimed these benefits, but there were a lot of men over a wide area who were indebted to him.

The white missionaries of the time denounced Mohlomi's polygamy and considered his more than one wife as wild desire, because of the truth they did never again recollect that it have progressed toward becoming positively a complex political technique.

Mohlomi’s ideas of nationalism where not based on unify all kingdoms through peace and love only but through industrialization too. He brought new ways of cultivating various crops and he equipped different peoples with skills gained from his travels. He brought new inventions. He established trade routes such that through his message of unity between nations, economic activities were starting to take place in those nations, among the nations, was the Batlokoa who used to import picks and iron executes from Zululand, Zulus being master smiths, and trade them to their western neighbors for livestock says Mr J. C. MacGregor.

At the point when Mohlomi was in his seventies and too old to even think about undertaking such long voyages, he withdrawn to his town called Ngoliloe(The place were is written) close to the present Clocolan in the Eastern Free State. There were in every case long lines of individuals waiting to be healed or advised or wanting disputes settled. It was during this time he set up a Leadership Academy to prepare young aspirant chiefs. In around 1804 the father and grandfather of a vexed youngster from the little Bamokoteli group took him to this institute. The grandfather, Peete, was likewise identified with chief Monaheng, Mohlomi's grandfather. The youngster, later called Moshoeshoe, was ambitious and exceptionally forceful and obstinate and his grandfather expected that he wouldn’t make good leadership material when he had to take over the leadership of the Bamokoteli. Mohlomi more likely than not detected the boy's readiness and leadership characteristics, since he took him in and gave him uncommon consideration, showing him his own methods of reasoning and convictions on how a great chief should rule. When he was done, he gave Moshoeshoe one of his earrings as a symbol of authority, a black cow as a symbol of neighbourliness and a knobkerrie as a symbol of power. At that point he took Moshoeshoe's face in his grasp and scoured his forehead against the teenager's, stating: "All the experience, information and knowledge with which Molimo and our predecessors have advanced my brain with, will currently additionally be occupy furthermore, enhance your acumen for the incredible work you are to perform."

Later on, his last days he prophesied that:

  “You will suck a white cow [in other words, he’s saying, there will be hunger according to Mr Ellenberger]; preserve your grain, or what you eat......Also there will be a cattle plague, and they will die of ‘libula” [kind of dropsy]. 

After some few years the prophecy came true, and the bane was called “Lefu la ma-Motohoana." It is said that on the last day of his life Mohlomi had vision. After the trance he said to his wife Maliepollo:

Maliepollo, my wife, the spirits have spoken to me who am about to die. Great trouble will come upon this land of ours: Therefore, when I am no more, and the time of mourning is over, go thou hence, and it has been told to me that the wisdom I have will not be in vain but a woman will possess it”

That woman was Anna Selatile Matsopa Makhetha who was born approximately in this period 1790- 1800 and she was well-known as healer, war-doctor, prophet and adviser. later in the day he said to the individuals who were accumulated round him, sitting tight for the end:

“My friends, I wanted to move my children out of the way of the war which is coming and take up my abode on the plateau of Qeme, but sickness has prevented me. After my death, a cloud of red dust will come out of the east and consume our tribes….”

Some say this was the prophecy of Mfecane wars, which had a huge impact on the peoples of Southern Africa. Mohlomi died in 1815, leaving his wife Matiepollo and two sons Tlali and Nkopane. It is said his sons were incapable to rule the clan and the chieftainship of the clan was transferred to Makhetha , Mohlomi’s younger brother.

By African thoughts

  

References

.Cuthbertson, G., D.L.Robert, & Pretorious, H. (2003). Frontiers of African Chrianity: essays in honour of Inus Daneel. 

D.Fred.Ellenberger, V. (1912). History of the Basuto Ancient and mordern. London: Caxton Publishing company.

J.C.Macgregor. (1905). Basuto Traditions. 

Ndawo, H. M. (n.d.). Ibali Lama Hlubi. 

Ndawo, H. M. (n.d.). Mohlomi.

Preez, D. M. (2018). The Socrates of Africa and his Student: A Model of Pre-Colonial African Leadership. Research Fellow, Centre for Leadership Ethics in Africa, University of Fort Hare.

Weaner, A. (1933). MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF THE BANTU. 

Willoughby, W. C. (1928). The soul of the Bantu; a sympathetic study of the magico-religious.