Walter Matitta and Josiel Lefela

At a time when, in Lesotho, the Paramount Chief was, politically, dependent on the advice and support of the Resident Commissioner, and religiously a devout member of the Roman Catholic Church, whose influence he supported with all his authority, two men among the people spoke for change and a restoration of the idealized past, a past when Paramount Chief and people consulted together at the great pitso of the Nation and no foreign officials and missionaries of conflicting views brought in alien laws and ideas and confused the forces of unity and tradition. Walter Matitta, the prophet, and Josiel Lefela, the politician, were born in the same year, 1885. They shared aspects of a common vision, though they chose different routes to realize it, and they liked and respected each other. So it was that when Walter Matitta asked his consistory in 192o for advice on whom he should marry, the Women's Association, who considered the matter carefully, dismissed a number of candidates and favoured Miss A. Lefela, a sister of Josiel Lefela. In fact this particular link did not come into being, but Josiel Lefela for his part named his third son Walter, in Matitta's honour, and frequently asked Matitta's prayers for his work, remembered in a hymn sung by Matitta's followers to the present which in thirty-nine verses gives the history of the Church, concluding with these verses

Alien · Chose · History of religions · Honour · Hymn · Political science · Politics · Sister · Sociology · Theology · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Classics · History · Law · Legal Issues in South Africa · Philosophy · Religious studies · South African History and Culture