African Philosophy of Strategy
(Anti-Colonial and Anti-Enslavement Wars)

By Mocholoko Dr Zulumathabo Zulu © 2022

Listen to the Radio 702 FM Pidcast at End of Article

The Preamble

Yesterday Friday morning on March 11, 2022 I was on the show of the indefatigable Clement Manyathela of Radio 702 FM at 10am to discuss the Sotho and Zulu anti-collonial wars and the role of women therein. I gracefully shared a stage in The Clement Manyathela Show with the famed Professor Mathole Motshega (husband to Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshega).

The Basotho, under their respective Kings Wetsi and Moshoeshoe valiantly fought five wars namely (1) Makholokoe-Boer War of 1856; (2) Senekal War of 1853; (3) Seqiti War of 1865; (4) Third War of 1867 and (5) the Gun War of 1880.

The Makholokoe fought two battles wherein they won the first one and conceded in the second one as a result of the Dutch delivering fresh and more resourced armies and logistics to dispossess the Makhokokoe of Wetsieshoek (the present day QwaQwa).

The Bashoeshoe defeated the Dutch Boers in the Senekal and Seqiti wars but conceded on the Third War in which case King Moshoeshoe asked for British protection to which the British agreed in exchange for Lesotho becoming a British Protectorate (a gentle form of colony) through a British Act of Parliament in 1868. Hostilities between the Boers and the Bashoeshoe were ended through the Aliwal North Armistice that was signed between the Boers and the English in 1869 which resulted in the present borders of Lesotho and Azania (South Africa). Thus, the borders of the present day Lesotho are defined in this Treaty.

The Basotho generals who fought in these anti-colonial and anti-enslavement wars include the indomitable General Morosi and Regiment Commanders Letsi; Phoshudi; Mohadi and others. The celebrated Dutch General Wepenar (after whom Wepenar town of Free State is named) was killed at Seqiti War of 1865 by the men of Morosi and buried at Thaba Bosiu. Wepenar was later exhumed by the family for reburial. Brave Black women who fought in the anti-colonial wars include the unconquerable Manthatisi of the Batlokwa (cousins of Makholokoe).

Without further ado, I present the African Philosophy of Strategy.

African Philosophy of Strategy
By Mocholoko Dr Zulumathabo Zulu © 2022

They confer 1% inspiration
To overcome 99% frustration
Lift is engine of strategy
To transcend force of gravity
We obviate forces that subtract
To preserve desert seed intact
African philosophy of Strategy

to shrug off the uncertainty,
to set free a wounded country.
Beloved Azania, our Motherland!
To unshackle you from leg irons
We need supply lines of logistics
Like instruments of strategy
To materialise the freedom

Contextual Commentary

We give masive thanks to the indefatigable and erudite African ancestors who have gone before us. They fought valiantly in the anti-colonial and anti-enslament struggles to preserve the desert seed for the sovereign independence of the Melanin. The desert seed is the indigenous cultural knowledge and the kernel of the seed is the language of the indigenous peoples of the land.

The fact that you and me can recollect and perform the sacred rituals and the totems and flawlessly speak the language of the African ancients confirms that the desert seed is still alive albeit underground on account of the ECC (Euro-Christian Colonialism) Suzerains who marginalise our indigenous language and extract fealty from our vassal State. We venerate the ancestors who have successfully defended the beloved desert seed in spite of losing ground to the Suzerains.

Many, like the Canadian Aboriginals and other Aboriginals of the Americas, have lost the mother tongue
as a result of the bacterial destruction of the desert seed as a result of the heartless Nuns who snatched babies from their Aboriginal mothers like hungry hawks. The underground bacteria use a subliminal strategy to disassemble the desert seed to particles of nothingness leaving no trace of a seed once there.

Even though they lost ground to the ECC Suzerains, our valiant African ancestors were able to preserve the sacrosanct desert seed from exctinction. The desert seed remains underground, like a polished diamond, awaiting the advent of the desert rain. Yena can remain underground continuously and consistently for years; for decades and for centuries attuned to the infinitesimal changes and the remote signals of the coming rain. Yena only needs to be perpetually vigilant and neurotic to defend vigorously against the treachery of the bacteria that destroys the sacred seed.

When the rain falls (Zulu, 2014a) with a lightening flash and thunderous precipitation, the great desert flower Mponeng springs into effervescent existence knowing that the evanescent rain will soon be gone and never more to return. The non-return of the desert rain is like the 1994 Democratic dispensation of Azania that can never respond to the replay that is forever called for by the disenfranchised people of the land as confirmed by the honourable former President Thabo Mbeki in his response to such a question from the audience during the Thabo Mbeki Leadership Institute conference in the Theo building of the University of South Africa in the great land of Azania.

The desert rain is the African cultural revolution that engenders a powerful tide to lift everyone out of the doldrums and the economic and mental shackles of the White establishment and their treacherous Church. When the revolutionary tide rises, all boats rise including the small ones. This desert rain must be embraced by all sons and daughters of the beloved Melanin. This is the only chance you have to get it right the first time like the desert flower.

When the rains fall, the desert flower Mponeng springs to life rightfully fearing that the rain will soon be gone. She adheres to a stringent moral code and internalises the rain by storing the rain in the succulents. She dances in the recharging breeze of the African rain wearing some green to venerate the fearsome gods of the African soil. She espousies the African moral code with respect to the rituals; the totems and the taboos. When the desert rain becomes abrupt and vanishes into oblivion and never more to return, she draws and recharges from the inexhaustible reserves of the rain that fell.

The Struggle in Spanish

Sin embargo, la lucha (Zulu, 2014b) debe continuar! No rendirse! Nunca jamas porque el destino es nuestro! Nosotros debemos derrotar las cadenas vestigiales de la esclavitud y CEC (colonialismo eurocristiano)! La melanina debe sobrevivir en la jungla, para ser el arquitecto del destino no comprado y no vendido como estaba destinado a ser por los antepasados africanos.

The English Translation

Notwithstanding, the struggle (Zulu, 2024b) must continue! No surrender! Never never because the destiny is ours! We must defeat the vestigial chains of slavery and ECC (Euro-Christian colonialism)! The Melanin must survive in the jungle, as the unbought and unsold architect of destiny as it was meant to be by the African ancestors who have gone before us.

Haba bokwe Baholo! Thokoza Makhosi! High veneration to the Ancestors!

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References

Zulu, Z. (2014a). The Sacred Knowledge of the Desert: African Philosophical Transcendence: Madisebo University College Press.

Zulu, Z. (2014b). A Woman In The Bush: Madisebo University College Press.