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Paper short abstract:

The paper analyses one of the first texts written in Sesotho, the transcription of a dream in which an African kingdom is saved from conquest by heavenly intervention. The dream of Tsekelo offers a breakthrough on divinatory practices and aspirations to freedom in 19th-century southern Africa.

Paper long abstract:

The paper analyses one of the first texts written in Sesotho, the transcription of a dream in which an African kingdom is saved from conquest by heavenly intervention.

At the beginning of 1858, the African mountain kingdom of Lesotho was on the verge of a war which would last until its subjugation under the British empire, in 1868. The newly-founded Republic of the Orange Free State (OFS) claimed the most fertile part of the kingdom and threatened an invasion, which took place later that year. At the same time, two of the sons of the king Moshoeshoe were in Cape Town, hosted by the Governor George Grey with the purpose of receiving an education. These two young men, Tlali and Tsekelo, composed on this occasion the first texts written in Sesotho by native Sesotho speakers. One of them was the dream of Tsekelo.

Tsekelo dreamt of a war fought between the Basotho of his father and an invincible enemy. During the battle, the heavens opened and flames, shining spears, and an army of men descended upon their enemies, sent by Molimo, ‘the Ancestor’/‘God’, granting them victory. The dreamer, however, reassured that he was not ‘a Seer or a Prophet’ and that this dream ‘led to nothing’.

The analysis this unique source offers a breakthrough on divinatory practices and aspirations to freedom in 19th-century southern Africa, in a context marked by prophecies, visions, and dreams of anti-colonial victory.