calendars, a tattered and yellowed page from the denominational newspaper, Leselinyana, portraying photos and articles of the President of the Seboka (Motsamaisi oa Seboka) and the Director of the Seminary (Motsamaisi oa Sekolo sa Boruti le Bibele). These two leaders, who live no more than a kilometre from one another, but are seldom seen together, are constantly side by side upon the wall, forever looking down at the students as they listen, speak, and learn. One classroom has a poster board labelled, ―Social Sciences: People to know about. . .‖ On it are names and faces of such people as John Dewey, Bruno Bettelheim, Jean Piaget, and Carl Jung. Next to these white luminaries of the Social Sciences, the faces from a poster of the Cabinet of His Majesty, the King of Lesotho struggle to find the light – a World Cup soccer calendar has been hung in front of them, obscuring almost every Mosotho Political Science clinician on the wall.
Across the road from the Meshack Kotele Lecture Hall is an old, tin-roofed pit latrine.
Upon the roof of the lecture hall is a satellite dish. Inside the lecture hall students watch a film about HIV and AIDS, digitally projected from a laptop computer. Just across the small courtyard, an old woman builds a wood fire to prepare food for Bible School students. A cow is mooing, and, as if competing for attention, the motor revs on the car driven by the jewellery salesman who stops by from time to time, trying to entice the students to part with some of their little money in exchange for some earrings or a necklace. There are few faces here of European origin (aside from the must-know social scientists of days gone by, and the photos of stern, long-dead missionaries in the staff room) – only three or four lecturers who are envoys from Europe and North America. In just an hour or so the solid harmonies of LEC hymns, many of which are 150 years old, will move through the air, guided by the persistent metronomic beating of Rev. Moreke‘s stick against the wooden table as he leads Hymnology class. A few hours after that the beats will be much faster, louder, and newer as students listen to the radio, and dance and talk and laugh.
If Morija Theological Seminary has a ―heritage,‖ perhaps it is well represented by its Director. Reflecting his position as head of the MTS ―family,‖ students often refer to him solely as
―Ntate‖ (―Father‖), even when he is not present. As a pastor having served a rural parish, and as a dairyman raising and caring for cattle, he is an MTS graduate himself. His seminary teachers were mostly European missionaries. Having studied at the National University of Lesotho, he has prepared academically alongside hundreds or even thousands of his countrymen and countrywomen. Having lived at and graduated from a United States seminary, and participated in African and global ecumenical councils and programmes, his gaze and memory reach far beyond the borders of Lesotho. Having served on the LEC Executive Committee and worked with the MTS Board and Staff, he knows firsthand the struggles and difficulties of communication in the denomination. He can speak at length in English with a foreign colleague, turn to a student or neighbour for Sesotho conversation, and still remembers some of the French he learned so many years ago.
At least part of what it means to be at MTS is to have inherited the complex heritage that is at once rural, global, traditional, contemporary, English, Sesotho, colonial, poor, centre, periphery.
Which is the real face of this place? This place, and the staff and the students who have called it home, are as complex and complicated as its history.
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The Beginnings of Theological Education in Lesotho
Education for Christian life and leadership has played an important role in the life of the Lesotho Evangelical Church. What is now Morija Theological Seminary, with its Bible School and Theological School, can trace its beginnings, it seems, to the earliest visions of Eugene Casalis.
Casalis reports in his memoir, My Life in Basutoland, that even before he, Thomas Arbousset, and Constant Gosselin met Chief Moshoeshoe in June of 1833, he had been envisioning Christian education. As mentioned in another context in Chapter Two (above), Casalis, in My Life In Basutoland, recounts a dream in which he saw, ―…a church where hundreds of eager natives were assembled, and schools where a great number of children were being taught to sing the praises of God‖ (1971, 59). Casalis makes a point, later in the same memoir, of recalling a story he had heard of a ―Scotch minister, Dr. Robertson,‖ who disagreed with his consistory and congregation about the issue of segregation in the church. Casalis (90) reports Dr. Robertson‘s reply: ―‗What shall you think,‘ said he, ‗if you one day see a black occupying my pulpit and speaking for your edification?‘‖ Casalis goes on to write that:
Some time after he sent into Scotland a young man whose education in the first instance had been taken in hand by the missionaries of Caffraria. Tyo-Soga pursued his classical studies at the University of Edinburgh, obtained his diploma of Bachelor of Divinity, was ordained, and, returning to his country, proved to the Protestants of Swellendam that their pastor had not expected too much from him. Since then this native preacher has captivated great audiences at Cape Town (1971, 90-91).
It seems clear that Casalis remembered imagining not only European missionaries providing Christian education for Africans, but also Africans providing Christian education for Europeans and Africans alike. Education for pastoral leadership has been, and is, considered to be foundationally important for the church in Lesotho. Alfred Casalis, in his report on the Theological School in the Livre D‟Or, the celebratory publication commemorating the seventy-fifth anniversary of the PEMS mission in Lesotho, claims that, ―The theological school, or more precisely, the pastors‘ school is the latest of the great schools of the Lesotho mission, but it occupies the place of greatest importance among these institutions‖ (1912, 640). A. Casalis goes on to write that within the field of mission, the question of indigenous activity plays a major role, and that nothing had been more studied or discussed over the last twenty-five years. Ellenberger (1938, 59) writes of Casalis‘ partner, Arbousset, that:
He was the first among the French missionaries, and in that respect was ahead of all those of the first generation, to perceive that the evangelization of the Basutos should be done by the Basutos themselves, in the very interests of the converts.
48
It is fitting, then, that Stephen Gill would write of E. Jacottet, regarding his visions for a strong indigenous pastorate that, ―...together with Casalis and all of the PEMS missionaries, he was a staunch advocate of a strong local church, led by Basotho, and fully in tune with the needs, aspirations and genius of the Basotho people‖ (1997, 33). Indeed, an important early realisation by many was the notion that the Christian church in Lesotho could and would only thrive with well- trained and educated Basotho leaders. This is, of course, certainly and necessarily the case for the LEC today – a denomination with more than 175 years of history in Lesotho and southern Africa.The Bible School would be the first to be founded, though its beginnings were marked by many failed attempts. The first specific discussions about a place and purpose for such a school, according to Ellenberger, took place in 1846.43 The school was to be located at the newly established station at Carmel, outside the boundaries of Basutoland at the time, because, ―it was considered necessary to shield the future teachers and catechists from the influence of the national and heathen elements‖ (1938, 67). Wars and disturbances hindered this initial plan, though, and the school was not yet founded. Ellenberger (1938, 99) relates that another opportunity presented itself, in 1855, with the promise of funds from Sir G. Grey, to establish a school for teacher training. The missionary conference selected Hermon as the place and Rev. Dyke as the future school‘s Director, but, as had happened earlier, ―the school was never started.‖ Ellenberger reports that by 1864, ―...the experiment of placing a Native evangelist, as a sort of a minister of a little church of his own, in any centre, had never yet been tried‖ (1938, 118). And so, for a third time:
In 1865 it was decided that that school should be established at Morija, and the necessary steps were being taken to carry out the scheme when war broke out and lasted until 1868, thus again making it necessary to defer the matter. The principle had, however, been adopted and it had been decided in all seriousness to proceed with the work as soon as it was materially feasible (1938, 119-120).
The Normal School and Bible School, which would serve as training centres for Basotho teachers and evangelists, were finally founded at Morija in 1868, largely through the initiative of Rev.
Mabille.44
43 ―In 1846 they decided to establish a secondary school or seminary where Native catechists and Basuto teachers would be trained‖ (1938, 66). Ellenberger continues, displaying his objectification of Basotho, and the sense, all too common throughout the history of the church, that Basotho would and could be ―used‖ by Europeans:
It strikes one as remarkable that such a scheme, which to-day seems so simple and so natural, should not have been thought of much earlier. To appeal to the Native Christians themselves, to make use of them in order to educate and christianise their fellowmen, does not that seem the method which common sense would dictate (1938, 66-67)?
44 Note that this was a time of great transition for the Basotho. After years of difficulty with African and European encroachments, Basutoland came under British protection in March of 1868, via annexation by Cape Governer Wodehouse (Lesotho would come under direct Cape administration in 1871). Just two years later, in 1870, Moshoeshoe I, the great leader of the Basotho, who had enacted their polity, welcomed the PEMS (and later Catholic [1862] and Anglican [1863 (though the Anglican presence and ministry to Basotho became more permanently established in 1875, when the first priest was stationed in Lesotho)]) missionaries, and had worked tirelessly to protect Basotho and their borders, died on 11 March. Ellenberger wrote of Moshoeshoe, that:
His death removed one of the greatest figures in South Africa. He acquitted himself of his duties as chief better than any other Native potentate. He was the creator and father of his people. . . . Our Mission owes him much, possibly far more than we think. He facilitated its
The Theological School and Its First Students
The Theological School, a school specifically for the preparation and education of Basotho pastors, would have its beginnings in 1882.45 A small section entitled ―Likolo‖ (“Schools”) in the Leselinyana newspaper of August, 1882, indicates, among other things, the progress of the Bible School, reporting four Basotho students and eight from outside Lesotho.46 One sentence in this section anticipates the Theological School, indicating hope that the school will soon be founded.47 Indeed, it was during 1882 that the school, under the direction of Frédéric-Hermann Krüger, began its work:
Although his vision was not shared by everyone, Mabille had long believed that the eventual conversion of the Basotho lay in the hands of the Basotho themselves and the ultimate Africanization of the pastorate. To this end, he brought back with him from furlough a brilliant young man called Frédéric-Hermann Krüger. So the Theological School started in 1882 with four young teachers from Morija as its first students (Couzens 2003, 173).
Ellenberger (1938, 220) seems to be Couzens‘ source for the assertion that four pupils began work at the Theological School in 1882, writing that:
Rev. Krüger began his theological class at the end of 1882 with four pupils, who were all teachers or assistant teachers at Morija. It was not yet a complete school, but it was a tentative effort.48
In the Livre D‟Or (1912, 643), however, Alfred Casalis reports that there were five initial students at the Theological School – Job Motéané, a professor at the Bible School; Nathané Sékhésa, the Director of the station school; David (no surname given), an assistant at the Normal School;
establishment, protected and favoured it. . . . Few heathen chiefs have served the cause of the Gospel to the same extent (1938, 166-167).
Reacting to the prejudice present in the writings and thoughts of the ―white missionaries‖ and those who came after them, N. Mokhehle (1990, xvii) writes:
Yet with all that, Moshoeshoe‘s selflessness, his fearlessness, his power and depth of thought, his profound understanding and perceptual appreciation of man and man‘s relations, both in concrete and abstract; his polite but firm fatalism, his obvious lack of any adverse psychological complexes, his devastating simplicity and humility, his power of accommodation, his indestructible thirst for truth and justice, his human sensitivity about, and against man‘s inhumanity to man, his correct assessment of the meaning and values of events and things and his ―ultra-christian‖, ultra-islamic‖ tolerance and forbearance, all springing from his faith in Mohlomism, these loom clear in all the writings about, for, against and on behalf of Moshoeshoe as also in Basotho narrations.
45 As with the Bible School, the Theological School had its beginnings during tumultuous times in Lesotho.
The Gun War had just ended in 1881, and the British would, in 1884, after years of difficult Cape administration, assume direct control of Lesotho.
46 ―Se na le batlankana ba 12; ba bane ba bona ke Basōthō, ba bang ba tsua ha Molepo, Bopeli, le Borotse, le Zoutpansberg‖ (1 Phato 1882, 3).
47 ―Re tšèpa goba ka bona go thla thèoa sekolo sa boruti‖ (1 Phato 1882, 3).
48 See also Smith (1996, 307):
A new institution of great promise was started on modest lines under the care of Mr. Krüger – the theological school for the training of a native pastorate. Four young men of from 23-30 years of age, all teachers of experience and of tried character, and all fathers of families, began a course which was planned for six or seven years. Since they were all engaged in teaching, whether in the village or other schools at Morija, they had their lessons before seven in the morning and in the evening. Mr. Krüger taught them algebra and geometry as an intellectual gymnastic, as well as general history and theological subjects and the elements of Greek.