Phuthi

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Phuthi ( Sesotho : Baphuthi ) are an ethnic group in Lesotho and South Africa . Their language is also called Phuthi or siPhuthi , called Sephuthi in Sesotho .

The Phuthi live scattered in the southern districts of Lesothos, Quthing and Qacha's Nek , but also Mohale's Hoek , as well as in the South African areas around Herschel and Matatiele , which belong to the Eastern Cape Province . The number is not known. About 20,000 people speak Phuthi, which, unlike Sesotho, which is common in Lesotho, is one of the Nguni languages and is most similar to siSwati despite the great distance. Her totem is the duiker , which is also called phuthi in Phuthi .

history

The forerunners of the Phuthi were the three groups Mazizi, Mapolane and Maphetla, who came from the area of Tugela in the 17th and 18th centuries. In the 18th century most of the phuthi lived in the area of ​​the Caledon and then moved in the direction of what is now Quthing . Persecuted in the times of the Mfecane , their leader Mokuoane asked the Basotho morena , Moshoeshoe I , for protection in 1825 . From around 1840 Mokuoanes grandson Moorosi (1795–1879) was the leader of the Phuthi. He settled far to the west and thus defended the area from European invaders. The Bethesda Mission Station was established in its area in the 1840s . For this he was supported by the Société des missions évangéliques de Paris (SMEP) in his efforts for independence. As a result of the Seqiti War , he fled to Masitise in what is now the Quthing district, where he also invited the missionary David Frédéric Ellenberger .

In 1869 he united his territory with the British crown colony of Basutoland, which was proclaimed in 1868 . In 1877 magistrates were appointed by the administration of the British Cape Colony to which Basutoland now belonged to oversee Moorosi's land. Moorosi rebelled against it. In 1878, Moorosi allegedly freed his son Doda from a Cape Colony prison. The colonial authorities then asked the Basotho to use force against Moorosi. Morena e moholo Letsie I reluctantly participated. Moorosi died after months of siege by British soldiers and Basotho troops on a mountain on the Senqu , which has since been called Mount Moorosi like the neighboring village . As a result, the Basotho Gun War against the colonial power began in 1880 . The Phuthi dispersed to the south of what was then Basutoland and the adjacent South African areas that later belonged to the Transkei . Their new settlements were mostly built in inaccessible mountain regions, such as the villages of Mpapa, Daliwe, Hlaela, Mosifa and Mafura east of Mount Moorosi . Moorosi's son Ncatya was named after the city of Qacha's Nek . Ncatya's son Mocheko was replaced in 1899 by morena Griffith Lerotholi , a Mosotho . The Phuthi, however, revolted unsuccessfully.

Today the Phuthi in Lesotho have no minority rights . Rather, it is often referred to the unity of the people. In 2005 a "Sephuthi Culture Day" was held in Quthing with the support of UNESCO . The language is recognized in South Africa, but it is not one of the eleven official languages . The continued existence of the language is at risk.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information about the language on salanguages.com (English), accessed on July 17, 2010
  2. ^ 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. 10.
  3. ↑ Elizabeth A. Eldredge: A South African Kingdom: The Pursuit of Security in Nineteenth-Century Lesotho , accessed July 17, 2010
  4. ^ 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. 276.
  5. ↑ a b Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weis fields Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 277.
  6. ^ 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. 11.
  7. ↑ a b Information from the government of Lesotho ( Memento of May 22, 2014 in the Internet Archive ), accessed on May 22, 2014