5/29/2023 0 Comments Tranter serial numbersAs a lad, I bought a good number of collectable arms in Lesotho. The armed forces of Lesotho were non-existent, so why so many guns? No doubt these had found their way over the border to a place where they could be sold, where Africans were in charge, and where the firearms regulations were not harsh. But the greatest amount of 19th C arms was always to be found in Lesotho. But after 1879, black resistance petered out, the colonial police got their way, and certainly during my lifetime it was (a) completely forbidden for any black person in S Africa to have any firearm and (b) there were regular police auctions of confiscated arms, which is how some S Africans started their collections. The Hlubi tribe rebelled in 1873 and the tribesmen crossed, with their arms into Basutoland temporarily, having thumped the Natal forces on the way. The white colonists in Natal were alarmed and vigorously set about dis-arming non-whites. Starting in the 1870s, South African migrant labourers on the diamond mines began to acquire cash and buy arms. The same deal was given to two other African kingdoms: Swaziland and Bechuanaland. The deal was, in return for peaceful relationships with the colonies around it, the Kingdom would not be colonised. It was given protection by the Crown during the "scramble for Africa". ![]() The "crowned 3" mark is certainly commonly seen in arms acquired from Basutoland, but there are reasons for this.īasutoland / Lesotho is a small, poor, mountainous land-locked African kingdom which lies within South Africa.
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