Lesotho Books

Imperial Gullies: Soil Erosion and Conservation in Lesotho (Ecology & History)

Kate B. Showers

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Editorial Review:

Once the grain basket for South Africa, much of Lesotho has become a scarred and treeless wasteland. The nation's spectacular gullying has concerned environmentalists and conservationists for more than half a century, In Imperial Gullies: Soil Erosion and Conservation in Lesotho, Kate B. Showers documents the truth behind this devastation. Showers reconstructs the history of the landscape, beginning with a history of the soil. She concludes that Lesotho's distinctive erosion chasms, called dongas, often cited as an example of destructive land-use practices by African farmers, actually were caused by colonial and postcolonial practices. The residents of Lesotho emerge as victims of a failed technology. Their efforts to mitigate or resist implementation of destructive soil conservation engineering works were thwarted, and they were blamed for the consequences of policies promoted by international soil conservationists since the 1930s. Imperial Gullies calls for an observational, experimental and, most importantly, a fully consultative and participatory approach to address Lesotho's serious contemporary problems of soil erosion. The first book to bring to center stage the historical practice of colonial soil science and a cautionary tale of western science in unfamiliar terrain it will interest a broad, interdisciplinary audience in African and environmental studies, social sciences, and history. "Showers shows how local people understood that colonial contour conservation methods and road building actually stimulated gully erosion, something colonial scientists failed to realize. Overall it is undoubtedly one of the most important books written to date on any part of the environmental history of Africa. Moreover it stands out in the discipline of environmental history in general as an unusually sophisticated work of great insight and explanatory power."---Richard H. Grove, author of Green Imperialism: Colonial Expansion, Tropical Island Edens and the Origins of Environmentalism, 1600-1860 Kate B. Showers is a visiting research fellow and senior research associate at the Centre for World Environmental History, University of Sussex, England. She has lived in rural Lesotho and has served as head of research, Institute of Southern African Studies, National University of Lesotho.

Singing Away the Hunger : The Autobiography of an African Woman

Mpho Matsepo Nthunya, Mpho M'Atsepo Nthunya, K. Limakatso Kendall

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Gave Me a Lift 4 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I've never been much of a reader, but out of the few books I have read, this one has to be the most inspirational and touching to me. Singing Away the Hunger is about the real life events and struggles of an African woman who encounters many terrible and sad things: wearing a sack and eating weeds, being beaten by a teacher, the deaths of some of her children, and many other challenges. There are also some joys she shares, such as being in love. Her struggles though, are what were inspirational to me. The way she stays strong and positive through it all is very admirable, because the things that happen to her are unimaginable to me and don't happen in the U.S.A.
The form of her writing is proficient, because it gives me a sense as if she is telling her story directly to me. Besides the story being told in first person, I really experienced this when she threw in sentences such as "When we arrive at his house, we find rice with meat. We didn't know what is rice." I was able to sense her fifth grade education, and I could almost imagine her speaking to me in an accent, with her fragments and the African words she uses often such as `M'e (mother) and ntate (father). I got a sense of closeness to her as well as compassion for her. The stories she tells, and the knowledge she gives me about the different people in Lesotho and Benoni, in South Africa, and their cultural styles helped me to understand that there are different cultures in southern Africa. For instance, I learned that Lesotho is much poorer than South Africa, and that there is one language spoken in Lesotho, but twelve different languages in South Africa.
Another thing that I really enjoyed about this book is that it is very easy to read and understand. It is also fairly short, and it kept me wondering what type of event she would have to endure next. The titles of each chapter, such as "Death by Novena" or "The Child is Burning" hooked me. The titles alone drew me into each chapter.
One downfall, in my opinion, is the lack of descriptiveness. There are things and places that she talks about and includes in her stories that I would have enjoyed more if she could have taken me there with more detailed images. I would have liked to know more about the scenery where she was. For example she doesn't describe the area that surrounds her or where she lived as much as she could have. For the most part, in my opinion, that is all that I feel the book lacked.

I enjoyed this book very much because it was inspirational, touching, and at the same time educational. I couldn't have read this book at a better time, because just when I felt things were so bad in my life, I read it and realized that it could be worse, and is worse, somewhere in the world. I would recommend this book to any one interested African cultures or anyone who has had hard times, because along with all the information, this book is sure to give you an appreciation of life itself.

Editorial Review:

A compelling and unique autobiography by an African woman with little formal education, less privilege, and almost no experience of books or writing. Mpho's voice is a voice almost never heard in literature or history, a voice from within the struggle of "ordinary" African women to negotiate a world which incorporates ancient pastoral ways and the congestion, brutality, and racist violence of city life. It is also the voice of a born storyteller who has a subject worthy of her gifts - a story for all the world to hear.

Southern Africa: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Southern Mozambique (Traveller's Wildlife Guides)

Bill Branch, Chris Stuart, Tilde Stuart, Warwick Tarboton

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Editorial Review:

From the world-famous Kruger National Park in South Africa to Botswana's Okavango Delta, Namibia's Etosha National Park, and Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, ecotravellers want to experience African savannahs, forests, deserts, and other stunning habitats and catch glimpses of some of the world's most spectacular wildlife: hornbills and parrots, monkeys and big cats, frogs and toads, crocodiles and snakes. This book provides all the information you need to find, identify, and learn about Southern Africa's magnificent animal life. - Identifying and location information on the most frequently seen animals. - Up-to-date information on the ecology, behavior, and conservation of the animals. - More than 500 full-color illustrations of Southern Africa's most common amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammal-the species you are most likely to see. - Information about and photos of Southern Africa's major habitat types. - Descriptions and photos of Southern Africa's most frequently visited parks and reserves. Easy-to-carry, entertainingly written, beautifully illustrated-you will want to have this book as constant companion on your journey.

Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870-1960 (Africa and the Diaspora)

Elizabeth Eldredge

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Editorial Review:

Even in its heyday European rule of Africa had limits. Whether through complacency or denial, many colonial officials ignored the signs of African dissent. Displays of opposition by Africans, too indirect to counter or quash, percolated throughout the colonial era and kept alive a spirit of sovereignty that would find full expression only decades later.
In Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870–1960, Elizabeth A. Eldredge analyzes a panoply of archival and oral resources, visual signs and symbols, and public and private actions to show how power may be exercised not only by rulers but also by the ruled. The BaSotho—best known for their consolidation of a kingdom from the 1820s to 1850s through primarily peaceful means, and for bringing colonial forces to a standstill in the Gun War of 1880–1881—struggled to maintain sovereignty over their internal affairs during their years under the colonial rule of the Cape Colony (now part of South Africa) and Britain from 1868 to 1966. Eldredge explores instances of BaSotho resistance, resilience, and resourcefulness in forms of expression both verbal and non-verbal. Skillfully navigating episodes of conflict, the BaSotho matched wits with the British in diplomatic brinksmanship, negotiation, compromise, circumvention, and persuasion, revealing the capacity of a subordinate population to influence the course of events as it selectively absorbs, employs, and subverts elements of the colonial culture.

The Rough Guide to South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)

Tony Pinchuck, Barbara McCrea, Donald Reid

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Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

INTRODUCTION

South Africa is a large, diverse and incredibly beautiful country. The size of France and Spain combined, it varies from the picturesque Garden Route towns of the Western Cape to the raw stretch of subtropical coast in northern KwaZulu-Natal. It’s also one of the great cultural meeting points of the African continent, a fact obscured by years of enforced racial segregation, but now manifest in the big cities. Yet South Africa is also something of an enigma; it has the best travel facilities on the African continent, but also the most difficult surface to scratch. After so long as an international pariah, the "rainbow nation" is still struggling to find its identity.

Many visitors are pleasantly surprised by South Africa’s excellent infrastructure, which draws favourable comparison with countries such as Australia or the United States. Good air links and bus networks, excellent roads and a growing number of first-class B&Bs and guesthouses make South Africa a perfect touring country and – with the dramatic slide of the rand in 2001 – a cheap one too for visitors. For those on a budget, rapidly mushrooming backpacker hostels and backpacker buses provide an efficient means of exploring.

However, as a visitor, you’ll have to make an effort to meet members of the country’s African majority on equal terms. Apartheid may be dead, but its heritage continues to shape South Africa in a very physical way. The country was organized for the benefit of whites, so it’s easy to get a very white-orientated experience of Africa. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the layout of towns and cities, where African areas – often desperately poor – are usually tucked out of sight.

Some visitors are surprised to discover that South Africa’s population doesn’t reduce simply to black and white. The country’s majority group are Africans (77 percent of the population); whites make up 11 percent, followed by coloureds (9 percent) – the descendants of white settlers, slaves and Africans, who speak English and Afrikaans and comprise the majority in the Western Cape. Indians (3 percent), most of whom live in KwaZulu-Natal, came to South Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century as indentured labourers.

Crime isn’t the indiscriminate phenomenon that press reports suggest, but it is an issue. Really, it’s a question of perspective – taking care but not becoming paranoid. Statistically, the odds of becoming a victim are highest in downtown Johannesburg, where violent crime is a daily reality. Other cities present a reduced risk – similar to, say, some parts of the United States; many country areas are safe by any standards.

Murder at Morija: Faith, Mystery, And Tragedy on an African Mission (Reconsiderations in Southern African History)

Tim Couzens

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Editorial Review:

Just before Christmas in 1920, six people sat down to a meal at Morija, headquarters of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society in Basutoland (Lesotho). All six were taken violently ill, and one of them died. They had been poisoned. The dead man was Édouard Jacottet, an eminent scholar and missionary. There was no trial and subsequently no one was ever convicted of the murder.

Who killed Jacottet? Drawing on the great tradition of the "locked room" detective story, Tim Couzens sets out, eighty years after the event, to solve the crime. Why was Jacottet killed? The answer lies buried deep in the past and is revealed here -- for the first time -- in a tale of heroism and courage, of sacrifice, deception, betrayal, and faith.

Written and researched with extraordinary care, this is a brilliant piece of detective work, but it is also much more. It is the biography of a deeply committed man, and a history of the Christian mission he served in an isolated African country to whose people and language he devoted his life before it was brutally cut short in strange circumstances. And the story is a national and religious epic, enclosed in a classical tragedy tempered with the sardonic smile of comedy.

A compelling, groundbreaking study, Murder at Morija is the outcome of many years of travel and detailed inquiry by its author in pursuit of elusive solutions to complex mysteries.

African Painted Houses: Basotho Dwellings of Southern Africa

Gary N. Van Wyk

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Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Prayer and protest come in many guises. The Basotho women of South Africa and Lesotho pray to their ancestors for rain, abundance, and peace by painting and slicing brilliant geometric murals on the mud plaster walls of their houses. "If the prayers are successful," says photographer and author Gary N. van Wyk, "the rains arrive and wash away the paintings." Growing up white under apartheid, van Wyk noticed these vivid houses while traveling with his family through the Highveld below Johannesburg where many Basotho lived and worked on white-owned farms. In the years when links to the outlawed African National Congress party were often severely punished, some Basotho women defiantly splashed their homes with the black, green, and gold colors of the ANC. Van Wyk joined in such protests as an art student by helping paint street murals of state-sanctioned violence. A passion for recording political graffiti led him back to the dwellings decorated in ANC colors, several of which he photographed for this dazzling testament to Basotho lives, ceremonies, history, and art. --Francesca Coltrera

The rise of the Basuto,

G Tylden

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Studies in the Economic History of Southern Africa: South Africa, Lesotho and Swaziland (Studies in the Economic History of Southern Africa)

Z.A. Konczacki

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Basotho and the Mines: A Social History of Labour Migrancy in Lesotho and South Africa, c. 1890-1940.(Book review): An article from: The Historian

Surendra Bhana

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This digital document is an article from The Historian, published by Thomson Gale on March 22, 2006. The length of the article is 571 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Basotho and the Mines: A Social History of Labour Migrancy in Lesotho and South Africa, c. 1890-1940.(Book review)
Author: Surendra Bhana
Publication: The Historian (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 22, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 68 Issue: 1 Page: 125(2)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale