When Sechele Was Still A Boy, His Father, Also Called Mochoasele,
Was Murdered By His Own People For Taking To Himself
The Wives Of His Rich Under-Chiefs.
The children being spared,
their friends invited Sebituane, the chief of the Makololo,
who was then in those parts,
To reinstate them in the chieftainship.
Sebituane surrounded the town of the Bakwains by night;
and just as it began to dawn, his herald proclaimed in a loud voice
that he had come to revenge the death of Mochoasele. This was followed
by Sebituane's people beating loudly on their shields all round the town.
The panic was tremendous, and the rush like that from a theatre on fire,
while the Makololo used their javelins on the terrified Bakwains
with a dexterity which they alone can employ. Sebituane had given orders
to his men to spare the sons of the chief; and one of them, meeting Sechele,
put him in ward by giving him such a blow on the head with a club
as to render him insensible. The usurper was put to death;
and Sechele, reinstated in his chieftainship, felt much attached to Sebituane.
The circumstances here noticed ultimately led me, as will be seen by-and-by,
into the new, well-watered country to which this same Sebituane
had preceded me by many years.
Sechele married the daughters of three of his under-chiefs, who had,
on account of their blood relationship, stood by him in his adversity.
This is one of the modes adopted for cementing the allegiance of a tribe.
The government is patriarchal, each man being, by virtue of paternity,
chief of his own children.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 40 of 1070
Words from 12132 to 12407
of 306638
