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SIMON MAJAKATHETA PHAMOTSE |
| To have had your obituary written by the then still emerging
poet S. E. K. Mqhayi, who was subsequently to consolidate his reputation
as a National Poet across the first half of the twentieth-century, and have
it published in Umteteli wa Bantu, then the supreme cultural and
political forum in constructing New African modernity through the New African
Movement, and to have your biography sketched by the same poet in the historic
The African Yearly Register, a book that was a collective enterprise
of the New African intelligentsia in its engagement with modernity---all
of these things could only mean that Simon Majakatheta Phamotse was a unique
New African intellectual, journalist and political activist. His superb
short essays and reportages, written in both Tswana and English, which appeared
in Umteteli wa Bantu as well as in Leselinyana newspaper in
Maseru, would seem to indicate that together with Everitt Lechesa Segoete,
Azariele M. Sekese, Zakea D. Mangoaela, Thomas Mofolo and others, Phamotse
belonged to what Clement Martyn Doke has designated as the Golden Age of
Sotho Literature. In all probability, it was S. E. K. Mqhayi who wrote the
following biographical sketch that appeared in The African Yearly Register,
two years after his death: "Mr. SIMON MAJAKATHETA PHAMOTSE was born
in Basutoland and educated at Morija and Lovedale. Became post-master at
Mahaleshoek. After the Anglo-Boer War he came to the Transvaal with Sir
Godfrey Lagden and joined the Native Affairs Department, Pietersburg, under
Mr. C. A. Wheelwright. After resigning his position, he was instrumental
in establishing the first African newspaper in the Transvaal known as
The Native Eye. After some years Mr. Returned to Basutoland and became
secretary to the late Chief Jonathan whose daughter he afterwards married.
Mr. Phamotse was a very progressive man, and did much for Basutoland. The
Basutos acknowledged him as being their foremost leader. He was respected
by both black and white. Hating injustice and tyranny he did not hesitate
to condemn chiefs who dealt arbitrarily with their subjects. Was a lover
of African liberty throughout the country, especially in Basutoland"
(p. 79, 1930). From these observations and recollections of Mqhayi several
deductions can be made or extrapolated about the modernity of Simon Phamotse.
His political articles, which were invariably a critique of British imperialism
and colonialism in Basutoland as well as being a veiled call to resistance
through African Nationalism, appeared in Umteteli wa Bantu in the
early 1920s, alongside the contributions of H. I. E. Dhlomo, R. V. Selope
Thema, H. Selby Msimang, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, S. E. K. Mqhayi, Nontsizi
Mgqwetto and others. In other words, Simon Phamotse was a New African intellectual,
and like the others, a central figure of the New African Movement. Being
preoccupied with the construction of New African modernity, like his other
colleagues on the newspaper, it is clear why S. E. K. Mqhayi viewed him
as 'a very progressive man'. Phamotse was in tune with the progressive ideas
of New Africanism. It is possible to argue that his contributions to Umteteli
wa Bantu were the most politically engaged with the oppressive nature
of European modernity: they expressed a most profound dismay at the effects
of colonialism on the political values of New Africans. The second point
to be made from the observations of Mqhayi is that it was Simon Majakatheta
Phamotse who transposed the progressive ideas of New African modernity to
the Basutoland historical experience. In effecting this transposition, he
became an intellectual bridgehead between the New African Movement in South
Africa and the Golden Age of Sotho Literature in Basutoland. The importance
of this achievement should not be underestimated. This ability to forge
cultural, political, and intellectual bridgheads across the expansive and
complex modernistic terrain in Southern Africa was undoubtedly enabled by
the fact that Phamotse was in all probability the only important New African
intellectual to have been educated at Morija in Maseru in the context of
French intellectual traditions and at Lovedale in Alice in the ambience
of British intellectual traditions. It was perhaps in Alice sometime in
the first decade of the twentieth-century Phamotse and S. E. K. Mqhayi came
across each other for the first time. Mqhayi at this time was an active
contributor to both Imvo Zabantsundu and Izwi Labantu newspapers.
At this moment Mqhayi was at the beginning stages of the intellectual revolution
he was to effect within Xhosa literature. It was perhaps from the example
of Mqhayi as well as from Thomas Mofolo and from the other memebers of the
Golden Age of Sotho Literature with the serialization of their literary
works in Leselinyana that Phamotse came to appreciate the critical role
of newspaper in forging modern cultural sensibilities as well as propagating
the political ideas of African Nationalism. It was in this context that
Mqhayi and Phamotse formed a mutual intellectual respect for each other
as we will see in a moment in an obituary notice that the great Xhosa poet
wrote in 1928 when his New African friend died. It needs to be stated in
passing that it might well have been in Lovedale as students that R. V.
Selope Thema and Simon Phamotse first crossed their paths rather than two
decades later as colleagues on the pages of Umteteli wa Bantu: it
is striking that in their writings in this newspapers there is a principle
not overtly stated but emphatically underlined that modernity was an unavoidable
fundamental experience of the present. In a way Phamotse felt this unavoidability
in a personal way, the dialectical tension between tradition and modernity,
by marrying a daughter of the Chief for whom he was a personal assistant,
as Mqhayi states. One fascinating characteristic of Phamotse is that he
seems to have been a quick learner and implementer of ideas he strongly
believed in. It is extraordinary that it is this Mosotho New African intellectual
with intellectual beliefs imbibed from Xhosa intellectual traditions who
established the first New African newspaper in Transvaal called The Native
Eye, not the Pedi New African intellectuals such as R. V. Selope Thema
or S. M. Makgatho who were born in that province. It is tragic that no copies
of the newspaper have survived. Given that The Native Eye was founded
as an intellectual and political forum of the Transvaal Native Vigilance
Association, it is clear that it articulated a historical vision of New
African Nationalism which had affinities with that of the African National
Congress. Simon Majakatheta Phamotse seems to have been a New African intellectual
of many outstanding abilities. This is the reason that S. E. K. Mqhayi's
obituary notice announcing his death in Umteteli wa Bantu deserves
being quoted in its totality: "Ininzi inteto eseyenziwe malunga nokufa kwalo mpakati waselu Sutu, yenziwa ngesi Ngesi nangesi Sutu; ukwenjenje okundinga nawo ama Xosa angaba noluto aluvayo ngayo. Mhla ndambone u Simon waye yinkwenkaza ekwininyaka ilishumi linamibini, mna ako ndandikwiminya ka elishumi linesihlanu. Wafika yena e Dikeni kweloxesha kunye nogxudululu lwamakwenkwe aselu Sutu etunyelwe emfundeni bubu Rulumente babe Sutu; wafika yena wangena hu Standard II, amanye akwesesi III, amanye esese zantsi ngapantsi koko , Amakwenkwana endisawak'umbulayo kweloqela yayingo 'Manama Molapo, Jas. R. Makepe, Rasebolelo, Mpunyana, namanye; kwakuko nenye intwana elulana ekwakutiwa ngu Roronyane Tsupane,---lentwana ndisayicinga imihlali yayo mhla kwafa inkabi emhlope yehashe ka Mr. Geddes Omdala, ivuyela ukuba lizakuya kuhlinzwa lityiwe, njengoko kwanjiwanjalo ekaya,---wadana wayinko unkabi akuva ukuba hayi lizakuya kumb'elwangokwela lapa isiko, amhleke kakulu amanye xa ak'uzeyo, ati, 'Uh!' Ititshala esasifunda kuyo ke nalamakaba yayi ngumfo ka Nqandela u Thos. G. lo uyitoliki yemantyi etolika ngiku, umfo omnandi kunene esikolweni, emfundweni nasekuvumiseni, indoda emk'utazayo nosisidenge umutana, imense abenento acwayitayo naye ngayo. Into endibe adingayitandi kutitshala wetu lowo, ibibukungaze alibone ityala entombazaneni, lahlala likuti makwenkwe; sendiqonda ngoku ukuba kayi, omdala intombi ubezingxolisa nazo agasese kutI,----lonto ozama ukusifundisa isidima nomutu wakowenu oyinkazana. Senditshilo ukuti u Simon ufike wafunda ku St. II, mna ndiku St. III, siguxana sibatatu pambili, iyinyo ka Vockerodt u Fred, ongum Fundisi wase Babatizi ngoku e Qanda, Middle Drift; iyinto ka Gysman u David oyititshala ngoku kwa Gaga, kwase Dikeni. U Simon wayesisukela nzima ngasemya,---waye lom Sutwana emhle, kunzima, nokungamtendi,---engemhle kodwa, elula mile, ebuk'ali esifundweni,---yaba yeyonanto wazibalula ngayo kumkuqala ubuhle, nabanye abantwana bambalula ngelogama. Six'eshene ngolohlobo no Simon e Lovedale, sade saya kwezipezulu i Classes; ndipume mna ndayakufundise, wasala yena esenziwa i 'Postmaster' yase Lovedale, walulama umfo ngeloxa akulondawo ipakamileyo. Andingeze ndisixele isizetu esamkupa apo e Lovedale, kodwa asisibi, singeyiyo nengxabano,---ndicinga ukuba ubizwe zizipata mandla zo Rulumente waselu- Sutu ukuba aye kunceda kwelo lakowabo, ukuze ke aye elu-Sutu. Akuba kulomazwe kaloku umfo kuqaqambe enye into eyokutanda isizwe sakowabo. Andilazi netuba alihleliyo kwa Rulu mente, etandwa zinkosi zake, engumlingu ngokwake. Ndiyalik' umbula kanjalo ituba awaye ngu Mhleli wepepa laselu Sutu ekwaye kusitiwa yi 'Naledi,' oko kukuti 'Inkwenkwezi'; ngeloxesha nam ndandise p'ep'ni le 'Zwi Labantu,' e Monti, pantsi ko Mr. A. K. Soga Ingqomb' o Nosantso, u Mnqayi womlungu yi Rayifile; sasisananiselana ngamapepa, siziva kakuhle izinto (ezihambisekayo elu Sutu,---waye oka Makepe u Jas bengahlukananga, besebenza ubuzwe ngokwe gwele elihle. Kwimtlanganiso zeloxesha ebezisahuba lapa e Koloni ubekolisa uhubako u Mr. James R. Makepe lowo, atate ubuhlungu. Kute kupi,---kuleminyaka ingekude zavakala indaba zokuba u Simon Phamotse up'ambene ne 'Pitso!' (I 'Pitso' [Mbizo] ke, yintlanganiso enkulu eyi Palamente yaselu Sutu, apo zonke inkosi zidibana kona nezipakati zelo, ibe u Mongameli wayo iyi Ruluneli Jikelele yo Manyano). Ite inqubo yenkosi wayibona u Simon ukuba iyalulibala uk'omokazi olulupantsi, idludla nezik'ulu ezi, ikolise zona. Ibankulu ke leyo; waye u Phamotse elandelwa ngumndilili omkulu wenfundi,---into leyo ezatsho inkosi zaxakwa,---zabona into enye yokuba mazimgxote emke elu Sutu,---naleyo ibuye yazixaba; kuba akubanga lula ukugxote umntu ezweni lokuzalwa kwake. Yinhohla leyo engati yade yalanyalwa yi Ruluneli Jikelele, ngaliti. 'Izikalazo zika Phamotse neqela lake ziyapateka; ngako oko icebo eliya kulunga kukuti asondezwe kumagqugula olaulo, babe nabameli nabo kwi Pitso.' Kwabanjalo, zalunga izinto. Kunjani namhlanje? Tina mpi yase Koloni sivana ngoku kakulu ngokunempi yaselu Sutu, ekubeni oko o Simon aba babengekabi kakulu kwizinto zobuzwe, kwakungeko kwazana kwanto kuma Xosa nabe Sutu! Amadodana aselu Sutu afunde e Koloni, alwenzile u Manyano pakati awetu sizwe sintsundu se Afrika eseZantsi,---nakwa Zulu amadodana, nakwalaba Tshwana,---le ingumfi namhla u Simon Phamotse, ingumzekelo wolumanyano, nokubonisa ukulunga kpkuke umfo ofundileyo apume ekaya, abone ihambiseko yesinto kwamanye amazwe, ase eze nemfundiso kwelakowabo. Sitsho siyik'uza intsapo; sibak'uza abe Sutu; siluk'uza uhlanga olutsundu lonke ngokulahlekelwa kwalo yilendedebe!" (Ngu Nzulu Lwazi [S. E. K. Mqhayi], "Umfi u Simon M. Phamotse", Umteteli wa Bantu, April 21, 1928). Of the many intellectual portraits, many in the form of obituaries, that Mqhayi wrote over many decades, this one of Phamotse seems to have been the most deeply felt emotionally. Given these portraits, it is imperative that S. E. K. Mqhayi should be consider one of the foremost cultural historians of the New African Movement. It may be in this epistemic field of intellectual history, that there are greater affinities between Mqhayi and H. I. E. Dhlomo, than there are between them as brilliant poets of New African modernity. But to conclude on the the question of Phamotse, as an indication of his continuing invisibility in our cultural history, though he was a significant New African intellectual, there is dispute among as to whether he was the founder or even editor of Naledi ea Basotho (The Star of Lesotho) which was published in Mafeteng in Lesotho as a forthightly from 1904 to 1911 and as a weekly from 1911 to 1937. The most authoritative book on New African newspapers in Southern Africa, Les and Donna Switzer's The Black Press in South Africa and Lesotho (1979), does not mention Phamotse association with this newspaper in any form whatsoever, whereas Eric Rosenthal's Southern African Dictionary of National Biography (1966) postulates him as not only the editor of this newspaper but also as its founder. To Rosenthal, Phamotse's middle name was Mande, while all other references referred to him as Majakathetha. Without agreement on such elementary factors, it would seem that it is going to be difficult to reconstruct an intellectual portrait of Simon M. Phamotse. It would also seem that Phamotse has fallen into the same fate as Robert Grendon. Recovery of such outstanding New African intellectuals as these two is imperative for a fuller and ampler understanding of the complex structure of New African modernity. |
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