EVERITT LECHESA SEGOETE

Everitt Lechesa Segoete

by

Zakea D. Mangoaela

Amongst the sons of his family he was the second. He was the son of Manoah Segoete. He was born in the year 1858, during the “War of Senekal”, while the Boers were burning some of the villages of Lesotho . That is how it came about that he received the name of Lechesa (Burning). He was born at Morifi, at Posholi's (on the other side of the Calderon River towards Herschel).

His father, who at that time was a renegade, returned to the Church, and settled near the Moruti (missionary) at Maphutseng. That is where Lechesa began to attend school off-and-on. Afterwards he went with his parents to Masitsi, where Rev. D. F. Ellenberger had gone from Maphutseng to build a station. His grandfather called him back, however, because his (Lechesa's) elder brother, Azariele Phooko Segoete, was ready to enter the “ Mountain School ” (Moriya), which had just been founded, and so Lechesa was needed to herd his grandfather's goats, in the same manner as his elder brother had done. In the meantime, his own father died.

I still remember the way in which he behaved when he received his first shirt. His mother had procured one for him by working for the Baruti. In the evening, when he came home from the veld---it was already after sunset---the glad news was told to him. It was said: “You will see it better tomorrow, for it is dark in the house, even though the fire is burning”. Poor fellow! He could hardly control himself. He must try it on. My word, he was glad, for only a mere handful of boys at Morija could boast of a shirt, and the usual form of dress was the skin of an ox or a goat. He took his shirt while his mother was engaged elsewhere and went out---into the rain, if you please. He slunk round to the back of the hut, took off his ox skin in the rain and put on his shirt, pressing himself up against the wall of the hut, for he was afraid that the precious shirt, pressing himself up against the wall of the hut, for he was afraid that the precious shirt would be soaked by the rain. Then he went back into the hut as pleased as could be.

Lechesa was a naughty boy and full of mischief. Yet he was rarely caught doing mischief or stealing. He was always to be found among those who stole fowls and grilled them at night, or amongst e those who went to rob the gardens of the Baruti. From the manner in which he grew up as a boy, one would never have dreamt that he would become a man destined to do great things for his nation and his Church.

Afterwards he went to the Mountain School , and there he studied well, for he was clever. It was at the time when his school had just begun. The food was “mielie-pap” (stiff), which was pressed down into basins and dishes. Meat was a thing of perhaps [a small piece]. Lechesa used to tell us how they, the small boys amongst so many stronger boys, often went to bed hungry or went through a whole day without nourishment. The dish of food was placed on the ground and the boys crowded round it. Then arms were stretched out to break off pieces with the fingers. If the arms were too short to reach the dish, their owners got nothing. The stronger boys had it all. They pushed aside the arms of the weaker boys or snatched away whatever the latter had in their hands, so that these were left sucking, and licking the crumbs that adhered to the tips of their fingers---nay, but he studied and passed his teachers' examinations and obtained his certificate.

He was well grounded in Christian teaching by his mother at home, by the Baruti at school and in their little gatherings. But in his youth he did not assimilate much.

One day he was nearly drowned in the Caledon River while was on some errand to Qhuithing, but he escaped in some manner we do not know. At Morija it was rumoured that he had been drowned in the river, and so when he came back and was passing through the fields before Morija, he greeted people, but many of them were frightened and some even ran away from him. Yet he told that even this miraculous escape did not have any effect on him spiritually.

Afterwards Everitt Segoete went on a tour to the Cape Colony with a boon companion. This is where, we may say, his life changed.

How? Through the difficulties and temptations he encountered there and endured. In those days the towns of the Cape Colony had not yet grown so large; the country was wild and sparsely inhabited. If one reads the book Monono ke Moholi ke Mouoane [1910, Wealth is like Mist and Fog], which was written by him, one soon realises that much of what one reads about Khitsane actually happened to Segoete in the Cape Colony. He was put in prison through the trickery of another man. He fell into hands of murderers, but escaped in a miraculous manner. He was hungry, he was robbed, he was a fugitive from justice in towns and in forests through faults of his own and those of other people. But enough. Let us but mention that in time he returned to Lesotho at the instigation of the wife of a Moruti who found him working like an ordinary labourer on the roads.

He did some work at the printing press in Morija. Then he went away and worked at the printing of some other paper (I forget the name) at Aliwal North, where he met the girl who later became his wife. At this time he was a changed man, he had been converted and grought to wisdom by the troubles which had befallen him in the Colony.

After this he came back again to Lesotho . He obtained the post as principal teacher, with an assistant, at Komokomong, Masitise. There he did good work both in the school and in the church, and made the work grow tremendously. While he was there he was selected for the ministry and was asked to submit himself for training at the Seminary in Morija. After passing through this period of training, he became a minister in the Church of Lesotho at Hermone, Koeneng, and again at Hermone, where he died.

He was a wonderful and powerful preacher, yet clear, for his were sermons of a man who had faith, who had personal experience, who had understanding. He was a genuine kind of a man who won respect, for in him were sincerity, charity, love and faith in full measure. Read the book Pitseng [ ], by Thomas Mofolo, and compare Mr. Katse with Moruti Everitt Segoete, and you will get to know faith, love, charity---and the works of Everitt Lechesa Segoete.

From: G. H. Franz, “The Literature of Lesotho ”, Bantu Studies , vol. IV, 1930.