We set out early this morning. We were on the road by 7.30. The journey took us past some still poorer townships than those we visited last Sunday morning… vast, sprawling (sorry, it’s the only adjective I can come up with at this time of night) expanses of corrugated iron dwellings, without either electricity or running water. Scary.
When we got to the border, it was like being back in the 1970s: we all had to get off our fleet of three coaches, file on foot through the SA emigration customs, across the border to queue again to get through the Lesotho immigration. Then it was back onto the buses.
On the Lesotho side of the border one of our number noticed that a 
roadside café had ‘VR’ daubed on its wall. Victoria Regina. She’s the reason Lesotho was never subsumed, like other African kingdoms, into the republic of South Africa. At a certain point in the mid 19th Century, soon after the first (French) missionaries arrived in the area, the Afrikaaners appropriated parts of Chief Mushoeshoe’s territory. He appealed, successfully, to Queen Victoria for protection – and the British Crown then, as it were, underwrote Lesotho’s independence for the next one hundred years or more.
roadside café had ‘VR’ daubed on its wall. Victoria Regina. She’s the reason Lesotho was never subsumed, like other African kingdoms, into the republic of South Africa. At a certain point in the mid 19th Century, soon after the first (French) missionaries arrived in the area, the Afrikaaners appropriated parts of Chief Mushoeshoe’s territory. He appealed, successfully, to Queen Victoria for protection – and the British Crown then, as it were, underwrote Lesotho’s independence for the next one hundred years or more. When I was working in the Diocese of Durham in the mid 1990s, the Diocese of Lesotho was our partner. So I was hearing about, and indeed praying for, this part of the world years ago. But this was my first visit. (It’s not strictly my first visit to South Africa in general though. I was briefly in Durban and Cape Town -- as a nine year old in 1970!) The journey took us across flat, dusty, grassy plains on the South African side of the border, and then at once up into the mounta
ins which define this country. From time to time we passed the round, thatched mudstone houses that I associate more with Zulu settlements. Inevitably, the poverty in Lesotho eclipsed even the most severe we have encountered in South Africa. We were seeing it at the driest time of the year: everything looked brown or sandy or ochre. But apparenty, in another two months, when the rains have come, Lesotho is as verdant as England. I was struck when, at once point in the day, our Lesotho host gave us a traditional blessing: ‘Peace, Rain, Prosperity’. I felt a long way from home at that point… We’d say, ‘Peace, Sunshine, Prosperity’!
ins which define this country. From time to time we passed the round, thatched mudstone houses that I associate more with Zulu settlements. Inevitably, the poverty in Lesotho eclipsed even the most severe we have encountered in South Africa. We were seeing it at the driest time of the year: everything looked brown or sandy or ochre. But apparenty, in another two months, when the rains have come, Lesotho is as verdant as England. I was struck when, at once point in the day, our Lesotho host gave us a traditional blessing: ‘Peace, Rain, Prosperity’. I felt a long way from home at that point… We’d say, ‘Peace, Sunshine, Prosperity’!Our destination today was the headquarters of the Evangelical Church of Lesotho – which is the oldest church community in this country, founded by those French missionaries in 1833. The name of the place is the name given to it by those two intrepid pioneers. They called it ‘Morija’, after Mount Moriah, where Abraham met with God. It’s where the LEC now has its seminary, archives and printing press.
We’ve become used to a saying, when things at the Congress haven’t gone precisely to plan: TIA. This is Africa. It was TIA all day today. Mostly on account of the chaos at customs, we arrived at our destination an hour late. We were greeted with tea and cake, and then to a longer-than-expected presentation on the history of the LEC. Either side of this, however, were some unscheduled ‘extras’: an opening prayer which included some congregational singing by our hosts, an then extended introductions and welcomes, with several local dignitaries, including one local chief (without whose blessing we could not feel safe nor at home, according to cultural tradition), each invited ‘to say a few words’. By the time the first session began (an elegant study of what ‘Theology’ looked like in Calvin’s Geneva – in short: immensely practical and, unusually for that period, inclusive of lay people) we were running almost two hours behind schedule. It was a neat cameo of the culture clash between the westerners and the Africans. Many of us were twitchy about 
the departure from the schedule. It was clear our African friends were not in the least bit bothered. It was fun, though, to see two of our number officially presented with the conical hat and decorated blankets which constitute the principal items of national dress. We pressed on with a paper given by a scholar from Lesotho on Calvin’s influence on the preaching of the pioneer missionaries, and sat down to a late, late lunch at about 3pm. We were then given a swift tour of the community: the earliest church to be founded in the kingdom, the seminary, the archives and museum and so on.
the departure from the schedule. It was clear our African friends were not in the least bit bothered. It was fun, though, to see two of our number officially presented with the conical hat and decorated blankets which constitute the principal items of national dress. We pressed on with a paper given by a scholar from Lesotho on Calvin’s influence on the preaching of the pioneer missionaries, and sat down to a late, late lunch at about 3pm. We were then given a swift tour of the community: the earliest church to be founded in the kingdom, the seminary, the archives and museum and so on. We left at about 5.00pm for the capital city, Maseru. There had been hopes of some time to shop there for souvenirs – like the trademark blankets that local people wear to protect themselves from the cold. But the time had run out on us. So it was quickly into a hotel for yet another extravagant banquet of meat (pork, chicken, fish and lamb all at one meal!), rice and salad, with naughty deserts, before we set off to return to base, only to be required to go through an even more elaborate exercise at the border: we dismounted from our coaches to pass through customs at the Lesotho side, re-mounted to cross no-man’s land, dismounted again to pass through customs at the South Africa side, to re-mount for the rest of our journey. I was pleasantly surprised when we got back a few minutes before 10pm At one point in the day, I was sure it would be midnight.
If you’ll excuse the pun, the Mountain Kingdom will definitely be a congress highlight. We know we're in Africa now.
No comments:
Post a Comment