Sechele’s Baptism

Jeff Ramsay | Tuesday October 26, 2021 06:00

Among his community's concerns was the fate of the Kgosi's four junior wives, whom he had agreed to put aside in keeping with the Christian injunction of monogamy. There was also a widespread fear that Sechele's conversion would compromise his royal role as the initiator of regiments, rainmaker, and practitioner of other forms of medicine, magic, and ritual associated with his high office. As has often been the case in local indigenous politics, women initiated grassroots resistance.

The day after Sechele announced his intention to convert, the morafe's females collectively downed their hoes, refusing to tend to their gardens. Faced with the protest, men gathered at the Kgotla, with the women watching from outside, in what became a week-long attempt to try to convince Sechele to alter his decision.

The intensity of the opposition on the first day surprised the Kgosi, who concluded the meeting by challenging the gathering to execute him, as they had his father Kgosi Motswasele II, if that was their wish. The crisis even reached beyond the morafe’s borders.

The other prominent Mokwena monarch of the era, Morena Moshoeshoe of Lesotho, sent Sechele a gift of 10 cattle and two horses with the following reported message affirming that: '...that whatever he wished, whether guns, gunpowder, horses or cattle, he must apply to him and he would supply them, and tell him to allow his people to believe in what they like, but he (Sechele) must never believe. 'I am a King' said Moshesh. '& I won't put myself under the authority of another; I have a kingdom as well as He; & people would laugh at me if I believed and put myself under the power of anther.

Tell Sechele that.' The future status of the wives, along with other outstanding questions, was finally settled in a two-day letsholo meeting. After efforts to cajole and intimidate the Kgosi into rescinding his decision had failed, an arrangement was made to assure that the new religion did not undermine traditional royal responsibilities. In this context, Sechele transferred some of his duties over to his brother Kgosidintsi.

In the end, however, the Kgosi ultimately retained his overall authority as the overseer of Sekwena custom.

He also became the chief patron of the church. It would have been easier for Sechele to have followed Moshoeshoe's advice. Becoming a Christian complicated both his personal and public life. The Mokwena's conversion can perhaps be best understood as a personal leap of faith that transcends secular understanding. More easily understood is his particular fondness for Old Testament stories of Judges, Samuel, and Kings. Having taught himself in a matter of weeks how to read Moffat's Bibela, Sechele found in its passages of Israel's descent into anarchy and the subsequent unification of its tribes under Dikgosi Saule le Dafida echoes of his struggle. The Bafilisitia and Amaleka were foes worthy of the Boers and Amandebele. Although Sechele admired Solomon's judgment, David was his hero.

He observed: 'Modimo wa lefika ya me, ke tla ikanya mo go ona; thebe ya me, le lonaka lwa poloko ya me, kago ya me e e godileng, botshabelo jwa me; mmoloki ya, o a nkgolola mo thubakong.' Much of the literature about Livingstone, from biographies to popular dramas and Christian cartoons, has exaggerated his description of Sechele as a 'backslider' in his newfound faith. The description arose from an incident when the missionary discovered that his convert had impregnated one of his former wives.

Sechele's relationship with the missionaries was further complicated by his syncretic approach towards reconciling Sekwena law and custom with the precepts of the church. In the end, he continued to preside over such activities as rainmaking, purification ceremonies, 'witchcraft' trials, and prayers to the ancestors.

Concerning the forebears, perhaps taking the Fifth Commandment to heart, he had the wall of a chapel that he had built adorned with the names of his forefathers, their cognomens being listed according to genealogical descent along a line 5.5 metres across, which terminated with his name painted double the size of the rest. As a result, his suspension lasted until a few months before his death. Notwithstanding this circumstance, Sechele remained the undisputed leader of the local Christian community, which grew rapidly.

He often gave sermons and otherwise led Sunday afternoon Bible discussions (his knowledge of the good book left missionaries in awe). He also preached to other merafe.

Thus when, in 1859, missionaries first arrived among the Amandebele at Inyati, they were surprised to find that Sunday prayers services were already being held in the community as a result of Sechele's previous proselytising. In this context, the noted historian Neil Parsons has observed that Sechele 'did more to propagate Christianity in nineteenth-century southern Africa than virtually any single European missionary.'