| dc.description.abstract | This thesis focuses on the effects of the ‘medicine murder panic’ in colonial Basutoland from 1945 to 1960, particularly the event’s influence on the early Basotho nationalist movement. Portrayals of the rise in ‘medicine murders’ during the 1940s as a threat to the moral fabric and personal safety by commentators, particularly those within the press and the Christian missions, helped create a panic that shaped how the state responded to the crime. Britain failed to tackle the underlying issues that were causing the epidemic and its racially tinged response undermined its position with much of the nation. The escalation of the panic and poorly managed response revealed fragilities within Basutoland’s governance and damaged Britain’s authority in the territory. Making use of this moment of disruption, anti-colonial groups, first Lekhotla La Bafo and then the Basutoland African Congress, politicised the killings and linked the panic to wider dissatisfactions with colonial rule. As a result, nationalists increased their support and influence in society, leveraging that to put pressure on Britain for a negotiated withdrawal from Basutoland, with Britain ceding significant powers after 1960. While there has been detailed research exploring the murder and panic, particularly by Colin Murray and Peter Sanders, the medicine murder panic is often inaccurately portrayed as being an event unto itself, separated from the other political changes within the protectorate. This thesis contributes to the wider historiography of colonial panics by demonstrating how the previously assumed apolitical occurrence had a significant political impact. It offers a deep reading of the medicine murder panic in a context of emerging nationalism to reveal how a panic could widen cracks in a colonial state and stimulate a particularly nationalist form of opposition. | en_US |
