At the Water and Hydrogen in a Digital Future Conference and Expo last week in Maseru, Zakea Mangoaela's book Lithoko tsa Marena a Basotho, about the Mosotho warrior emerging victorious from the Gun War that took place at Mohlanapeng where the British were beaten easily, engages one's intellect on the digital age as never before imagined.
The Gun War lasted from September 13 1880 to April 29 1881. Mangoaela talks of quantum physics and quantum computing as he discusses the physical reality of the body of General Spirit that was shot dead. He describes how his remains as they were collected as though he would be resuscitated. But the praise singer immediately transcends into the virtual, where space and time are one.
He says the black blood of the medulla oblongata escaped long before we could write or inform the superiors of General Spirit and relatives, and instantaneously reported the instance of the death of General Spirit in the Cape, far from the battlefield. In that regard the Mosotho warrior interacts and navigates the complex quantum computing where communication and messaging travels at the speed of light.
Makoanyane, the army general of Morena Moshoeshoe, was intrigued by the power of satellites that would take pictures from the sky. Sent by his master Moshoeshoe to the missionaries’ outpost in Morija, the warrior Makoanyane is said to have been given provisions for his master.
Unfortunately, Makoanyane could not hold back his desire for oranges. He ate them. When he reported back to the king on his journey, there was a missing message. The letter he handed over raised the matter of oranges that he was given, to hand over to the king. But Makoanyane had devoured them.
Perhaps with the poverty we face in Lesotho in the face of abundant water, the question is: what is our theory of change in our contemporary age?
On his second trip, Makoanyane decided again to devour the oranges, but before he could do so, he placed the letter away and hid himself from it by sitting behind a rock while he satisfied his passion.
Back in Thaba-Bosiu, the question of oranges was again raised. Makoanyane was challenged by how this document saw him. What eyes does it have? Makoanyane was intrigued with the possibility of satellites that today are commonplace. They see the belly of mother earth. So as we discuss the digital age, the imagination of the Gun War and Makoanyane’s indiscretions should inspire us.
Coming back to the founder of the Basotho nation, King Moshoeshoe. He represented the metaphors of development in his spoken word and deeds. On his voyage from Menkhoaneng to Thaba-Bosiu, his grandfather Peete, was accosted by cannibals who devoured him. The soldiers went for the cannibals and brought them before court. The king decided the matter had no benchmark in the courts of justice globally. Even King Solomon’s adjudication in identifying who the true mother was to the living baby does not match the metaphor of development by King Moshoeshoe.
The cannibals deserved sudden death, yet in them King Moshoeshoe identified a theory of change and sought mechanisms by which the challenge of poverty, inequality and lack of economic engagement were central. He argued the cannibals were the graves of his grandfather, and how could someone in his rightful mind desecrate his grandfather’s grave?
The ever-working mind of King Moshoeshoe found not only a symbolic but a material solution to the issue of hunger and poverty, thereby eliminating poverty and the root cause of cannibalism.
A higher-order outcome in the development challenge emerged from King Moshoeshoe’s immersion with systems thinking and systems design. His immersion was the total liberation of a people. He gave cannibals ploughs, seeds and freedom from want. He integrated the cannibals back into society. He brought the Ming dynasty’s 1300 system thinking of an ever-normal granary to prevail. He was first in building granaries — Lisiu.
Perhaps with the poverty we face in Lesotho in the face of abundant water, the question is: what is our theory of change in our contemporary age?
Morena Moshoeshoe’s theory of leave no-one behind, and international and global citizenry, displays itself when asked by the colonising agents of the British and the Boers on the extent of his territory. His answer was: wherever a Mosotho is, that is Lesotho.
This internationalising programme was the hallmark of Moshoeshoe’s theory of life having equal worth and the role of diaspora in bringing peace. Prime minister of Lesotho, chief Leabua Jonathan — to whom the term white gold, our subject of today, can be attributed — as a miner in the goldfields, saw gold and realised how it was important to the economy of South Africa. He used this mental mode of development as a lens of what this asset, gold, would mean for Lesotho.
He was keenly aware of water scarcity in South Africa. The chief was generally illiterate, but his mental orientation understood the relationship of water, development and neighbourliness.
To this end, Mashudu Ramano — the pan-African and neighbour of Lesotho — pursues chief Jonathan’s dream. He put to good use his knowledge of working in the mines, his thoughts about his country that oozes clean water, and out of it created a theory of change that would capture water in a metaphorical white-gold language.
At the same time as Lesotho was discussing its independence in the 1950s, Moetapele, a scientist whose prowess propelled him into politics, with a special eye and impeccable sense of dialectics. This endured and enabled him to understand how time with human effort ripens change. Like Moshoeshoe, prime minister Ntsu Mokhehle, fondly known as Moetapele, longed for peace and did not hanker for power. He was the first head of state (on what is little known by the world) in the African continent, if not in the world, to have voluntarily served only and only one term.
In his analysis of the balance of forces, when asked by a journalist about how the then Basotholand could withstand its independence as a tiny country in the middle of South Africa, his scientific analysis preceded him. He answered Lesotho is a gizzard, it is strategically positioned to digest South Africa. After all, where have you ever seen a gizzard containing its host? Its function is to digest all elements of its host.
The metaphors of Ntoa ea Lithunya, the adventures of Makoanyane, the indomitable wisdom of King Moshoeshoe, the white gold of prime minister Leabua and the gizzard of Moetapele constitute the psychological and foundational assets of the definition of development for Lesotho as a nation in an interconnected world
The question is what have we done in the interim or rather what have we not done with the wisdom oozing from the metaphors of development, to answer the questions of the next two hundred years when Lesotho convenes its bicentennial celebrations.
One of the things we should have done is place hydrology, geology and engineering as priorities of our educational outputs, to respond with speed to our god-given assets. A wise person says the next best moment of a lost opportunity is taking that moment now.
Another area of systems thinking is the unification of chemistry and physics in matters energy. This unification heralds the future of abundance from sustainable energy. Let me explain Tesla’s thinking of free god-given psychrometric energy in air and water. Through hydrogen energy we are in deep chemistry and when we look at M-Cycle we are deep in physics. The coming together of these two clean energy systems will set the world of abundance alight. We need to pursue these.
To this end, the Lesotho consulate in Johannesburg is exploring the M-Cycle cooling technology with its experts, an important complementary system to hydrogen energy.
The metaphors of Ntoa ea Lithunya, the adventures of Makoanyane, the indomitable wisdom of King Moshoeshoe, the white gold of prime minister Leabua and the gizzard of Moetapele constitute the psychological and foundational assets of the definition of development for Lesotho as a nation in an interconnected world.
What is happening today could be the culmination of these metaphors of development brewed high up in the highlands of Lesotho, driven by the digital immersion into quantum physics in the Battle of Guns and embedded in the satellites that Makoanyane tried to hide away from.
Development and economics are about culture and history. By embedding this into these mental modes, it is possible to imagine Lesotho in 200 years.
Let us be inspired by the bicentenary reflections that will take place next year and embed metaphors of development of the last 200 years to project the next 200 years through the lens of water and hydrogen in a digital future conference and expo.
This is the mandate the prime minister has to deliver on.
• Dr Pali Lehohla is the director of the Economic Modelling Academy, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a research associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former statistician-general of South Africa.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.