Griffith Lerotholi

Nathaniel Griffith Lerotholi (* around 1873 ; † July 1939 ) was from 1913 to 1939 head ( Sesotho morena e moholo , English Paramount Chief ) of the Basotho people in Basutoland , today Lesotho .

Life

Griffith Lerotholi was the second-born son of the second wife of ´morena e moholo Lerotholi . Like his older brother Letsie, he grew up in his father's village, Likhoele near Matsieng . It was named after the representative of the governor of the Cape Colony , Charles Duncan Griffith. He grew up in his uncle Bereng's house in Masite. In 1897 he was seconded to the Phuthi as a morena . With his father and brother, Griffith Lerotholi fought successfully against his great-uncle Masopha in 1898. However, for years he could not hold his own with the Phuthi. It was only accepted in 1903 three years after the Phuthi leader Mocheko was exiled.

Griffith Lerotholi's eldest son, Bereng Griffith, comes from his fourth wife, while his son Seeiso Griffith, born in 1905, came from the “third house”, so he was entitled to succession. Seeiso's mother had left her husband for a few years around 1900, so Griffith preferred the younger Bereng. So he sent Seeiso to the remote Mokhotlong district , where he then worked as a tax collector. In 1926 Griffith gave his son Bereng to the British as the legal successor.

Letsie became the new morena e moholo in 1905 as Letsie II . He died in 1913. His only son Tau died shortly after Letsies II's death in an unknown manner. Griffith Lerotholi was supposed to impregnate a widow of his brother so that he could become Letsie's son when he came of age. Griffith Lerotholi was to reign as regent until then. But in 1912 he was the first important morena to join a church, the Roman Catholic Church , so that, according to their moral standards, he could refrain from impregnation. The Sons of Moshoeshoe , the highest body of the barena, gave in and made him morena e moholo. All subsequent barena ba baholo were also Catholic.

Griffith's leadership style was more autocratic than that of his predecessors. His relations with the newly formed bourgeois movements Basutoland Progressive Association (BPA; about: "Progressive Association of Basutoland") and the Lekhotla la Bafo ("Council of the common people") were strained. In 1921 or 1922 he attempted to humiliate the COP at a meeting, but was himself humiliated by the participants.

In 1919 Griffith Lerotholi asked the British colonial authorities to campaign for the repatriation of the areas west of Basutoland that had belonged to the Basotho until the Senekal and Seqiti wars and were now part of the South African Union . However, the British High Commissioner refused. Nevertheless, Griffith was allowed twelve confidants first morena e Moholo of the Basotho for London travel and was there by King George V received.

After Griffith Lerotholi died in July 1939, the Sons of Moshoeshoe chose Seeiso as their successor as morena e moholo.

literature

Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , pp. 108-110.

Individual evidence

^ ^A ^b ^c ^d Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 108.
^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 367.
^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 183.
^ ^A ^b ^c Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 109.
^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 110.

personal data
SURNAME	Griffith Lerotholi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Nathaniel Griffith Lerotholi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Head of the Basotho
DATE OF BIRTH	around 1873
PLACE OF BIRTH	Likhoele , Basutoland
DATE OF DEATH	July 1939

[scott108-1] A ^b ^c ^d Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 108.

[2] Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 367.

[3] Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 183.

[scott109-4] A ^b ^c Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 109.

[5] Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 110.