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The Basotho Nation-State: What Legacy for the Future?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Richard F. Weisfelder
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Virtually all analyses of Lesotho's political framework have agreed that strong elements of national identity have neither forestalled domestic conflict nor served to promote a unified assault on awesome economic problems. Hence many writers imply that a major asset, rarely found in independent Africa, has been wasted.1 Roger Leys has perceptively applied dependency theories of a ‘labour reserve’ economy to Lesotho,2 and spends considerable effort on historical analysis aimed at demonstrating the duration and pervasiveness of this process of systematic underdevelopment. In his conclusion he suggests that ‘the long and courageous battle of the Basotho to assert their dignity and worth is in fact a resource and political weapon of incomparable significance in the long-term battle for the liberation of southern Africa.’ Leys infers that national and class identities are interrelated, and possibly reinforcing, when he says that ‘the history of the struggle of the Basotho people and the very degree of their integration into the black working class of South Africa is a formidable weapon.’3

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Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 19 , Issue 2 , June 1981 , pp. 221 - 256
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1981

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References

page 221 note 1 Sources devoting particular attention to this theme include Holm, John D., ‘Political Stability in Lesotho’, in Africa Today (Denver), 19, 4, Fall 1972, pp. 3–16Google Scholar; Khaketla, B. M., Lesotho 1970: an African coup under the microscope (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1972)Google Scholar; Weisfelder, Richard F., ‘The Decline of Human Rights in Lesotho: an evaluation of domestic and external determinants’, in Issue (Waltham, Mass.), VI, 4, Winter 1976–1977, pp. 23–33Google Scholar, and Defining National Purpose in Lesotho (Athens, Ohio, 1969)Google Scholar, Papers in International Studies, Africa Series No. 3.

page 221 note 2 Roger Leys, ‘Lesotho: Non-Development or Underdevelopment. Towards an Analysis of the Political Economy of the Labor Reserve’, in Shaw, Timothy M. and Heard, Kenneth A. (eds.), The Politics of Africa: dependence and development (London, 1979), pp. 95–129Google Scholar.

page 221 note 3 Ibid. p. 126.

page 222 note 1 Emerson, Rupert, From Empire to Nation (Cambridge, Mass., 1960), p. 95CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 223 note 1 For an excellent discussion, see Saul, John S., ‘The Dialectic of Class and Tribe’, in Race and Class (London), XX, 4, Spring 1979, pp. 347–72Google Scholar.

page 223 note 2 Deutsch, Karl W., Nationalism and Social Communication (Cambridge, Mass., 1966 edn.), pp. 96–100Google Scholar.

page 223 note 3 The origins of the Basotho nation are discussed thoroughly in Thompson, Leonard M., Survival in Two Worlds: Moshoeshoe of Lesotho, 1786–1870 (London, 1975)Google Scholar; and Weisfelder, Richard F., The Basotho Monarchy: a spent force or a dynamic political factor? (Athens, Ohio, 1973)Google Scholar, Papers in International Studies, Africa Series No. 16, pp. 11–29.

page 224 note 1 Weisfelder, , The Basotho Monarchy, pp. 30–58Google Scholar.

page 224 note 2 Weisfelder, , Defining National Purpose in Lesotho, p. 18Google Scholar.

page 226 note 1 See Holm, John D., ‘The State and Rural Development in Botswana and Lesotho’, unpublished manuscript, 1979, pp. 1–6Google Scholar.

page 226 note 2 See Gray, J. G., ‘Analysis of Lesotho's Experience with the Revenue Sharing Arrangements of the 1969 Customs Union Agreement’, Working Paper FRP/3, Ford Research Project, Lesotho, 02 1979, p. 33Google Scholar.

page 226 note 3 Holm, op. cit. pp. 6–9.

page 227 note 1 ‘Prime Minister Addresses BNP Youth Rally’, in Nketu oa Mara (Maseru), 19 07 1968, p. 5Google Scholar.

page 228 note 1 A thorough analysis of factors undermining B.N.P. popularity appears in Macartney, W. J. A., ‘The Lesotho General Election of 1970’, in Government and Opposition (London), 8, 4, Autumn 1973, pp. 121–40Google Scholar.

page 228 note 2 A fine presentation of the domestic determinants of Chief Jonathan's foreign-policy reorientation appears in Hirschmann, David, ‘Changes in Lesotho's Policy Towards South Africa’, in African Affairs (London), 78, 311, 04 1979, pp. 177–96Google Scholar. See also Weisfelder, Richard F., ‘Lesotho: changing patterns of dependence’, in Carter, Gwendolen M. and O'Meara, Patrick (eds.), Southern Africa: the continuing crisis (Bloomington, 1979), pp. 249–68Google Scholar.

page 229 note 1 Within hours of Chief Jonathan's fiery speech at the Non-Aligned Conference in Havana in September 1979, the Minister of Commerce and Industry was inviting South African business to participate in developing Lesotho.

page 230 note 1 International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, Lesotho: a development challenge (Washington, D.C., 1975), pp. 21–2Google Scholar.

page 231 note 1 Eckert, Jerry and Mohapi, Joseph N., ‘The Future Environment for Agricultural Planning, 1980–2000 AD’, Ministry of Agriculture Discussion Paper No. 9, Lesotho Agricultural Sector Analysis Project, Maseru, 1980, pp. 20–5Google Scholar.

page 231 note 2 Wiel, A. C. A. van der, Migratory Wage Labour: its role in the economy of Lesotho (Mazenod, Lesotho, 1977), pp. 81–3Google Scholar.

page 231 note 3 Markovitz, Irving Leonard, Power and Class in Africa: an introduction to change and conflict in African politics (Englewood Cliffs, 1977), pp. 199–229Google Scholar.

page 231 note 4 Ibid. p. 210.

page 232 note 1 See Moriri, Joe (pseudonym), ‘Lesotho: underdevelopment and private accumulation’, in The Vanguard. Quarterly Organ of the Committee for Action and Solidarity for Southern African Students (Roma, Lesotho), 03 1980, p. 9Google Scholar.

page 233 note 1 Breytenbach, W. J., ‘National Integration in Lesotho’, in South African Journal of African Affairs (Pretoria), 6, 1 and 2, 1976, pp. 92–3Google Scholar.

page 233 note 2 Wallis, M. A. H., van der Geer, R., and Letsie, J. J., ‘Aspects of Public Administration in Lesotho's Districts’, Public Administration Research and Curriculum Development Project, National University of Lesotho, Roma, 06 1980, p. 16Google Scholar.

page 234 note 1 Confidential source. This same point is also made by Gray, John, Robertson, Neil, and Walton, Michael, ‘Lesotho: a strategy for survival after the golden seventies’, in South African Labour Bulletin (Durban), 6, 1, 11 1980, p. 67Google Scholar.

page 235 note 1 The most comprehensive studies appear in ‘Focus on Lesotho’, a special issue of the South African Labour Bulletin, 6, 4, 11 1980Google Scholar. The articles include Murray, Colin, ‘From Granary to Labour Reserve’, pp. 3–21Google Scholar, and ‘The Effects of Migrant Labour: a review of the evidence from Lesotho’, pp. 21–39; Gay, Judy, ‘Wage Employment of Basotho Women: a case study’, pp. 40–53Google Scholar; Showers, Kate, ‘A Note on Women, Conflict and Labour Migration’, pp. 54–7Google Scholar; Murray, Colin, ‘“Stabilization” and Structural Unemployment’, pp. 58–61Google Scholar; and Gray, Robertson, and Walton, ‘Lesotho’, loc. cit. pp. 62–78.

See also Murray, Colin, ‘High Bridewealth, Migrant Labour and the Position of Women in Lesotho’, in Journal of African Law (London), 21, 1, Spring 1977, pp. 79–96CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Elkan, Walter, ‘Labour Migration from Botswana, Lesotho and Swaziland’, in Economic Development and Cultural Change (Chicago), 28, 3, 04 1980, pp. 583–96Google Scholar; and three Lesotho Agricultural Sector Analysis Project documents by Eckert, Jerry and Wykstra, Ron, namely: ‘Lesotho's Employment Challenge: alternative scenarios, 1980–2000 AD’, Discussion Paper No. 7, 1979Google Scholar, ‘South African Mine Wages in the Seventies and Their Effects on Lesotho's Economy’, Research Report No. 7, 1980, and ‘The Future of Basotho Migration to the Republic of South Africa’, Research Report No. 4, 1979, Ministry of Agriculture, Maseru.

page 235 note 2 See Wiel, van der, Migratory Wage Labour, pp. 16 and 51Google Scholar; and Eckert, and Wykstra, , ‘South African Mine Wages’, p. 13Google Scholar.

page 235 note 3 Leys, , ‘Non-Development or Underdevelopment’, p. 125Google Scholar.

page 236 note 1 See Wiel, van der, Migratory Wage Labour, p. 94Google Scholar

page 236 note 2 This issue is discussed throughout Wallman, Sandra, Take Out Hunger: two case studies of rural development (New York, 1969)Google Scholar.

page 237 note 1 A quantitative analysis can be found in Weisfelder, Richard F., ‘Defining National Purpose: the roots of factionalism in Lesotho’, Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1975, pp. 339–61Google Scholar.

page 237 note 2 See Macartney, ‘The Lesotho General Election of 1970’, and Weisfelder, Richard F., ‘Lesotho’, in Potholm, Christian P. and Dale, Richard (eds.), Southern Africa in Perspective: essays in regional politics (New York, 1972), pp. 125–40Google Scholar.

page 238 note 1 Eckert, and Wykstra, , ‘South African Mine Wages’, p. 5Google Scholar.

page 238 note 2 Eckert, and Mohapi, , ‘The Future Environment for Agricultural Planning’, p. 14Google Scholar.

page 238 note 3 See James C. Davies, ‘Toward a Theory of Revolution’, and Feierabend, Ivo K. et al. , ‘Social Change and Political Violence: cross national patterns’, in K., Ivo and Feierabend, Rosalind L., and Gurr, Ted R. (eds.), Anger, Violence and Politics: theories and research (Englewood Cliffs, 1972)Google Scholar.

page 239 note 1 Prime Minister Jonathan himself urged Basotho miners to stop contributing funds to the B.C.P. and L.L.A. There is no reason to presume that their support is restricted to cash. See ‘Funds for Lesotho Revolt’, in Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 24 12 1979Google Scholar.

page 240 note 1 See Weisfelder, , The Basotho Monarchy, pp. 59–94Google Scholar.

page 240 note 2 Authoritarian techniques for limiting political conflict are discussed in Holm, , ‘political Stability in Lesotho’, pp. 3–16Google Scholar.

page 241 note 1 The concept of ‘praetorianism’ has been discussed at length in Huntington, Samuel P., Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven, 1968), pp. 192–8Google Scholar.

page 241 note 2 See, for example, ‘Ba Lekhotla la Topollo Ba Bua ka Ntoa ea Bona le ma-PMU’ [The L.L.A. Speak of Their Armed Clash with the P.M.U.], in Leselinyana la Lesotho (Mazenod), 113, 6, 21 03 1980, pp. 1 and 4Google Scholar.

page 242 note 1 See Weisfelder, , ‘Defining National Purpose’, pp. 123–47Google Scholar.

page 244 note 1 Most writers who deal with Basotho irredenta do so only to demonstrate the absurdity of the ‘Homelands’ policy, and not to examine the potentials for conflict or complications of class relations which they create. See Lye, William F. and Murray, Colin, Transformations on the Highveld: the Tswana and Southern Sotho (Cape Town, 1980), pp. 98–105 and 146–7Google Scholar.

page 245 note 1 Cobbe, James is quoted in Wiel, van der, Migratory Wage Labour, p. 23Google Scholar; and Leistner, G. in Leys, , ‘Non-Development or Underdevelopment’, p. 110Google Scholar.

page 245 note 2 See Lye and Murray, op. cit. p. 102.

page 245 note 3 Quoted in Lombard, J. A., Stadler, J. J., and van der Merwe, P. J., The Concept of Economic Cooperatlon in Southern Africa (Pretoria, Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis, 1969), p. 20Google Scholar.

page 246 note 1 Quoted in ‘Can Change Friends – Not Neighbous’, in The Friend (Bloemfontein), 16 12 1969Google Scholar.

page 247 note 1 An interesting discussion of common bonds among the Basotho and Batswana appears in Lye and Murray, op. cit. pp. 1–23.

page 247 note 2 According to Dennis Etheridge of the Anglo–American Corporation, more than 50 per cent of Basotho migrant miners are able to visit their homes as often as every six weeks. Such a massive flow of people allows ample opportunity for illegal infiltration. Moreover, South African methods are by no means completely successful with respect to their own police installations and vital facilities. See ‘Dr Jonathan Invites Investors’, in Lesotho Weekly (Maseru), 30 09 1978, p. 5Google Scholar.

page 248 note 1 Murray, , ‘“Stabilization” and Structural Unemployment’, pp. 58–61Google Scholar.

page 249 note 1 Saul, loc. cit. p. 371.

page 249 note 2 ‘P.M. Sure of Landslide in General Elections’, in Lesotho Weekly, 12 12 1980, p. 1Google Scholar.

page 249 note 3 Ragira, Olindi (pseudonym), ‘Which Way BCP?’, in The Vanguard, 03 1980, p. 14Google Scholar.

page 249 note 4 These are discussed at length in Weisfelder, , ‘Defining National Purpose’, pp. 172–435Google Scholar.

page 250 note 1 Nicholson, Brendan, ‘Jonathan Warned: It's War’, in The Star (Johannesburg), 14 12 1979Google Scholar.

page 250 note 2 There is an excellent discussion of the problems faced by exiles in John A. Marcum, ‘The Exile Condition and Revolutionary Effectiveness: Southern African liberation movements’, in Potholm and Dale (eds.), op. cit. pp. 262–75.

page 251 note 1 Mokhehle, Ntsu, ‘Racist Propaganda Denied’, in Times of Zambia (Lusaka), 19 03 1980Google Scholar.

page 252 note 1 Russell, D. E. H., Rebellion, Revolution and Armed Force (New York, 1974), pp. 80–9Google Scholar.

page 252 note 2 Makatolle International (Cairo), 2, 7–9, 10–12 1962, p. 20Google Scholar. A more complete statement of B.C.P. views can be found in Weisfelder, , Defining National Purpose in Lesotho, pp. 23–6Google Scholar.

page 255 note 1 See Gray, Robertson, and Walton, loc. cit. pp. 73–8.

page 256 note 1 Ibid. pp. 77–8.