Morija: 160 years of hurt and healing

In the western Lesotho town of Morija is the Mountain Kingdom's oldest church, which dates back to the 1850s. Mike Burgess provides context to its historical significance within the landlocked Southern African country.

- Mike Burgess

In the early 1830s, Chief Moshoeshoe I (1786-1870), leader of the Basotho -people, invited members of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society (PEMS) to establish a mission station in what is now Lesotho.

So was born the Morija Mission and its iconic red brick church that went on to survive more than 160 years of turbulent history to become the second-oldest building in Lesotho.

LESOTHO'S FIRST MISSION STATION

In 1824, during the Difaqane (the forced migrations brought about by the violent expansion of the Zulu Kingdom), Moshoeshoe I occupied his mountain fortress Thaba Bosiu. It was from here that he amalgamated members of the displaced communities into the Basotho nation.

Less than a decade later, in 1833, Moshoeshoe I welcomed the missionaries Thomas Arbousset, Eugène Casalis and Constant Gosselin (also an artisan) to establish a PEMS mission station at the foot of the Makhoarane plateau south of Thaba Bosiu.

The mission site, overlooked by towering sandstone cliffs, was called Morija in honour of the Biblical Moriah, the site of the Temple of Solomon. As the mission began to establish itself, the Basotho referred to it as Selibeng sa Thuto (wellspring of learning) due to the educational opportunities it provided, especially to the Basotho elite.