Studies of Christian Zionist churches in southern Africa have suggested that they were non-political. This paper puts the growth of Zionism among the BaKgatla in the context of local political struggles and the life of Queen Seingwaeng, mother of Chief Molefi. She was politically important from the 1910s until the 1960s, articulating the views of ordinary people otherwise considered politically helpless. She led popular opposition to the "progressive" authoritarianism of Regent Isang, promoting the restoration of her son Molefi to chieftainship through religious movements in the 1930s--and joining the Zion Christian Church in 1938. However, by 1947, Seingwaeng and the Zionists were seen as a political threat by Molefi and the ruling elite, who expelled them from BaKgatla territory. Molefi was reconciled with his mother in 1955, but she did not return home to Mochudi until 1967, nine years after his death.
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