Moletsane
Very little is available on Moletsane in sources we could read. A Lesotho Times report of 31 May 2014 quotes Mikia Molapo, then Director of Chieftainship in Lesotho’s Ministry of Local Government and Chieftainship Affairs, saying that Chief Moletsane led the Bataung and joined Chief Lethole of Makoakoa and Chief Moorosi in an alliance under King Moshoeshoe I, that his territory was Taung in the Mohale’s Hoek area on the northern side of the Makhaleng River, and that Moorosi’s area lay across the river. The report is mainly about a dispute among the Baphuthi over how the history of Moorosi is told, so this is one official’s account, offered in that argument, not a neutral history. See our Bataung page, which rests on a single heritage statement and says we could not confirm the link between the Bataung and the Moletsane royal line.
A manuscript
The University of Pretoria holds, in the van Warmelo Collection, a Tswana-language manuscript titled “History of Moletsane’s Bataung and historical names of their country”, by B. Mogorosi, dated 1939, with a 9-page manuscript and a 5-page transcript. The repository record gives titles and page counts only; we have not read it.
What we have not read
We have not read Mogorosi’s manuscript, any history of the Bataung by Ellenberger, Sanders or Eldredge, or any account from the Moletsane house. We do not know who leads the Moletsane house today. We found no praises or totem; the Bataung’s lion totem on our Bataung page comes from a heritage statement for one place and is not a Moletsane source.
Izithakazelo and totem
We are printing no Moletsane praises or totem because none has been confirmed. If you belong to the Moletsane house and recite its praises, we would like to record them, with your permission and credited to you.
Sources and further reading
- Tsitsi Matope, Lesotho Times: Baphuthi should present concerns to govt: Molapo (31 May 2014)
- University of Pretoria: History of Moletsane’s Bataung and historical names of their country (B. Mogorosi, 1939; catalogue record only)
Do you belong to the Moletsane house? Tell us the history you know and we will add it, credited to you. Share what you know or WhatsApp 065 138 8213.