GUN WAR

(188081), southern African war that ended 10 years of rule by the British Cape Colony over Basutoland (Lesotho). Cape magistrates had interfered with the chiefs' authority and with the traditional laws of the Sotho people; part of southern Lesotho was demarcated for white use, and a 1879 Disarmament Act was to be enforced in 1880. The Sotho refused to give up their guns. Fighting from defensive positions in rugged mountainous country, the Sotho kept the inefficient Cape forces at bay. A decisive engagement occurred at Qalabani (October 1880), in which the Sotho ambushed a column of Cape soldiers, killing or wounding 39 of them. Peace was patched up, but the Cape was unable to reassert control, and the British government in London took over responsibility for Lesotho in 1884. The Gun War is one of the few examples in southern Africa of Africans winning a conflict with whites in the 19th century.