Everitt Lechesa Segoete


Everitt Lechesa Segoete was a Mosotho writer, minister, and teacher. He is considered one of the earliest authors of Sesotho literature. Segoete is best known for his novel Monono ke moholi ke mouoane, his second book Raphepheng, as well as a teacher to Thomas Mofolo.

Life

Everitt Lechesa Segoete was born in 1858 at Morifi, now Mohale's Hoek, during Senekal's War between King Moshoeshoe I and white settlers. His Sotho name, Lechesa, meaning "the burner" or "burning," was given to him because of the burning of Basotho villages by Boer commandos during the conflict. The family later moved to Maphutseng, where Segoete began attending a school run by the Reverend David-Frédéric Ellenberger of the Paris Evangelical Missionary. When Ellenberger moved to Masitise, Segoete followed. He went on to obtain his teacher's certificate, but instead of becoming a teacher he left for the Cape Colony. While there, Segoete faced various challenges, rumoured to include going on the run from police and narrowly escaping being murdered. These events appear to have inspired his novel published years later.
Segoete then returned home, taking up work at the missionary press at Morija, before moving back to the Cape Colony to work at a newspaper. He returned again, to what was now Basutoland, where he became headmaster of the school at Qomoqomong, now in Quting District. Segoete attended seminary, graduating in April 1896 and becoming ordained in 1899. He went on to serve as a minister at Hermone, now in Mafeteng, then in Koeneng, now Leribe, before returning back to Hermone.
Everitt Lechesa Segoete died on 7 February 1923.

Work

Segoete is recognised for his contributions to early Sesotho literature. In 1910, two year's after Mofolo's Moeti oa bochabela appeared, he published his first novel, Monono Ke Mohodi Ke Mouwane, and a collection of religious meditations, Mefiboshethe kapa pheello ea molimo ho moetsalibe. This pattern of producing secular and religious texts would characterise the rest of his career.
Monono Ke Mohodi Ke Mouwane is the story of Khitsane, an old man who is introduced at the end of his life. Khitsane, who is largely understood to be a namesake for the author, narrates his life to a neighbour, including his journey to Witswatersrand, conversion to Christianity, and return home. As such, the book sets out a moral tail of redemption.
Three years later he produced a short book, Raphepheng, which appeared as an English translation in 1930 with the subtitle, The Life of the Basotho of Long Ago. At the same time he published, Moea oa bolisa, another religious text. Raphepheng details, via a first person narrative, aspects of Basotho traditional life. The eponymous narrator glorifies the past and laments the passing of tradition.
Following his death on 7 February 1923 a final devotional work was published, Mohlala oa Jesu Kreste.