Chief Mopeli Paulus was a great poet. I quote lines from one of his poems in Mangoaela (1921: 21) referring to the incident of the driving out of Oetsi and the Makgolokwe: Ke pela, ke hloela, thaka Lelaka la Rasenate. O lutse qhooeng, a thetsa maoatla, A re: khoeIi ke ela,ho Senekane; O itse a sa shebile, A mo hotetsa ka leshala sebono: A ku utloe motsu, mo-hlola-lintoa; Ke ho qala u hapeloe ke Basotho! U ne u re ho ja tsa Oetsi, oa lemala! Translation (He is a rock-rabbit, a spy, a comrade of Lelaka of Rasenate. He sits on a summit, deceiving the fools, Saying to Senekal: There is a moon, While looking at it He set fire to his buttocks with burning fuel! Do feel the sting, instigator-of-wars, It is the first time your cattle have been plundered by the Basotho! By devouring Oetsi you formed a habit!) Lelaka la Rasenate - Lelaka of Rasenate refers to Chief Letsie. By sitting on a summit and deceiving the fools, he is cleverer and plays hide-and-seek with fools like Senekal, Senekal was the Commandant-General of the Free State in 1858. Whilst the Boers were under the false impression that the relationship between the Basotho and the Boers was normal, the Basotho strike again by setting fire to their buttocks, that is, by stealing their cattle and their horses. The poet (Mopeli Paulus Mokhachane) is pleased that the Boers should feel the pain of loosing their cattle, and he regards Senekal as mo-hlola-dintoa -instigator-of-wars - the cause of conflict or war between the Basotho and the Boers.
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 20:08:49 +0000
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