The Mantsopa Cave Church of Lekhalong la bo Tau region (the Pass of Lions) has had many
iterations. In the mid-19th century, Canon Henry Beckett, the Superior of St Augustine,
established a mission here, but with time, the cave became a meeting point of many
different spiritual practices. As anthropologist David Coplan noted, “Pilgrims to the sacred
caves practise every form of African religion from pre-Christian Basotho ritual and medicine
to independent Apostolic to established mission church Christianity.”8 It is also where
prophetess Makhetha Mantsopa, niece of King Moshoeshoe, is buried. She predicted
the Mfecane, which caused widespread chaos, disruption and warfare among indigenous
communities in the 19th century, and the short but decisive battle with the British called
“the hail of bullets”. She fell out of favour with the king’s son, Letsie, who drove her over
the Orange River border into exile, where she lived for the rest of her life. Later in her life,
Mantsopa converted to Christianity.