We Are Fighting the World. Gary Kynoch
settlement near Kloof Gold Mine] when I was at Bekkersdal. Ntsoaki had run away from Kloof to stay at Phiri, where she was discovered two months after her escape. Marashea from Khutsong, Kloof, and Bekkersdal came together to go to Phiri and return with Ntsoaki. They left in the afternoon with six taxis and one van. They came back with her around nine the next morning. She was badly wounded, stabbed in many places. They did not tell us the exact number of those from Phiri who died, but for us three died and two were badly injured.
Revenge attacks were also commonplace and LG, Matsieng Lerashea under Tsotsi Raliemere in the 1980s, describes how his leader engineered revenge after LG suffered at the hands of a rival group:
I was beaten by Matsekha at Carletonville. I went to the hospital at Deep Level [mine]. Marashea of Matsieng went to Phiri and told them I was beaten by Matsekha. Raliemere told them they would come to see me. I was beaten and went to the hospital on Saturday. On Sunday members of my group arrived at the hospital and Raliemere gave me R40. He told me I must go to the dance next Saturday and did not care whether I was discharged or not. I was badly injured but I had to go to the dance at Phiri. On Wednesday I was discharged and on Saturday I took the train to Phiri. My head was aching but I could not refuse. At twelve o’clock the whistle was blown and Marashea came and formed a group. At two o’clock we all bathed with moriana. I didn’t know where we were going. At eight o’clock three vehicles arrived, two taxis and Raliemere’s private car. Some entered the taxis and I was with Sanki, Bothlenyane, Mohlomi, and Raliemere in the private car. We left, going straight for Carletonville. Before we entered the location, the vehicles stopped and they locked me inside a taxi and they attacked that location. I heard many gunshots. When they came back I didn’t know what had happened, but they took me to the scene of the fight and there were fifteen people dead.
As Marashea became established in the Free State from the 1950s, some of the groups ignored the Matsieng-Matsekha divide that had caused so much fighting on the Rand. Given time, however, this split was replicated in the Free State. BM recounts how his group was torn apart:
There was a fight between Marashea that caused a division between us. We were united as Basotho. The fight was caused by a woman named Mantoa who was staying with Ntate Sootho. This led to the groups of Ha-Molapo and Matsieng that did not exist in the Free State, only in Gauteng and some other places. In the Free State we had only one group that did not belong to either Molapo or Matsieng. A young man from Leribe called Maseko happened to fall in love with Sootho’s woman. People from Matsieng did not like this because they thought that this young man was being unfair to the old man. Those from Leribe supported Maseko when he took Sootho’s woman. This led to a serious dispute between the two parties. That’s why we fought each other. The fight began in the morning around five. . . . Our men left Virginia to go to Thabong early and surround their area before they realized we were there. We started throwing stones at their houses and it seemed as if they were expecting us. The fighting continued until around ten [a.m.] and nobody died but many were injured. Since that day we have never been together with the people of Molapo.
By the 1970s, the Free State factions were as divided as their compatriots in Gauteng. Alliances between Free State and Rand groups reflected this division, as a Matsieng faction from Virginia would call on Matsieng from Soweto for assistance and vice versa. Matsieng established strongholds in the Virginia and Klerksdorp areas, while Matsekha enjoyed supremacy in the vicinity of Welkom.
The Matsieng-Matsekha rivalry was not responsible for all internecine fighting within Marashea. Disputes over leadership sometimes led to fighting and the proliferation of splinter groups. Commonly recited examples include the cases of Mashai and Lenkoane. A renegade Matsieng group based in Carletonville led by Mashai fought many battles with Matsieng from Soweto in the 1980s and continues to defy the authority of the leader of Matsieng in the Free State. Lenkoane was assassinated by a man who aspired to his position. This led to fighting between those who had supported Lenkoane and the followers of his assassin, Teboho Majoro.40
SOCIAL PRACTICES
Relations between groups of Marashea were cemented at dances, concerts, stokvels, and funerals, and these social affairs also acted as fundraisers. For example, BM has an annual feast and celebration for all the members in each one of the settlements under his control. Additionally, Matsieng from the Free State maintained relations with Matsieng on the Rand by means of feasts and funerals. Some activities, especially funeral rites, were Marashea inventions that distinguished members from other migrant Basotho. The following description of a ceremony and the answer to a research assistant’s question reveal the distinct nature of the organization.
At the vigil for the dead we do not pray or sing hymns; rather we talk a lot of nonsense about this man. We tell him to go and tell Satan about his deeds on earth because he killed people. We jump over his coffin. There is no singing of hymns but the accordion is played the whole night, just like at stokvels. His blanket and molamu and other weapons are placed on top of him. When we proceed to the cemetery the coffin is shot three times, or it is hit with melamu. The coffin is swung up and down as we walk toward the graveyard while the women are marching and yelling.
question: But are you Christians?
Yes, I am Catholic, but in Marashea one forgets all those things. (‘Mè LW)
Since advances in transport made it feasible for the Russians to bury their dead in Lesotho, the groups guarantee male members a funeral in their home area and financial compensation for relatives. PL explains that in the old days, “we did not bring them home, we buried them in South Africa, but now they are brought home to their relatives. . . . We buy an ox for food and everything is bought by Marashea. We give R1,000 to his relatives” (Welkom, 21 May 1999). Other interviews confirm that this has been standard practice for many years now. Retired members and their families are accorded the same privilege by some groups. “We tell them to make their families aware that when they die we must be notified so that we can come and bury them—it is our obligation. For their funeral we buy two sheep, one cow, a coffin, some groceries, and we give the family of the deceased R1,000” (CN).
Marashea women on the Rand in the 1950s and 1960s were famous for their enticing displays when they performed the famo, a dance in which the buttocks and sometimes even the genitals were displayed to cheering men. One of David Coplan’s informants provides a detailed description:
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