October 4 on the Lesotho calendar is a monumental date. It is the date when Lesotho got its independence from her colonial master, England.
My great-grandmother from my father’s side lived long enough to tell stories. I did not know her name, we only referred to her as Thingthing. She lived in Kolonyama in Lesotho. Kolonyama occupied a strategic position between Harakolo in the Leribe district, where Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan came from, and Hamokhehle in the Teyateyaneng district, where Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle came from.
I recall going to see her in 1964 when my grandmother, Ntai, was taken back home to perform some rites by my father, her son, after two years of having been widowed in 1963. Thingthing then was not as old compared to 20 years later, when I went back to see her. Her mind was very sharp. Little did I know that my visit to her in 1981 was the last because I would flee from Lesotho subsequently and she in that period of my absence from home would perish.
Lesotho turned 57 this month and is one year shy of commemorating its bicentennial existence next year.
On the matter of Lesotho’s independence, Thingthing captured what was in the coloniser’s mind. She read the sadness in the eyes of the queen as she handed over the right of Lesotho to self-determine its destination.
What does independent Lesotho mean? I have to draw from the eyes of Thingthing.
In 1965, when my grandmother went to perform the rites, Thingthing was the matriarch supervising the rituals, including pointing to the beast to be slaughtered. I was eight years old. This was a year before Lesotho gained independence and the country had just had its pre-independence election, of which chief Leabua Jonathan was declared the winner.
A census of the population would follow in April of 1966 and an independence was in the wings, scheduled for October 1966.
The performance of the rituals by Thingthing showed the place of women in the Basotho society remained strong. This is because in another matter of near-bloodletting conflict, between the chief of my village chief Nts’epe Masoetsa, a World War 2 veteran, and his subject, the belligerent Benoni Teele, my mother, a teacher by profession, went to stand between them and ordered them to drop their spears immediately — which they did without a wink.
This is how the matriarchs played their role — and gender-based violence was rare, though males tended to be favoured for most roles.
On my second visit to Thingthing from the National University of Lesotho, I imposed myself on the late ambassador of Lesotho to Canada, Ralechate Mokose, who was from Kolonyama. He knew Thingthing very well.
The late Prof Machobane, a historian, and his father, a historian too, were taking National University of Lesotho students on a history field excursion. Kolonayama was one of the destinations. Though I was not a history student, I joined and had the privilege of visiting my great-grandmother. She was a revelation to the Machobane historians.
In particular when it came to the exit of the Lekganyanes from Lesotho, Thingthing kept our jaws dropped. She pointed to where the church activities took place, which was to the west of Kolonyama mountain on a plain along the Mohokare River. Thingthing narrated how young women were being sexually abused at the Lekganyane mission. This displeased the chief of Kolonyama and his subjects. They then planned to act — and act they did. Lekganyane left unceremoniously from his place of birth.
On the matter of Lesotho’s independence, Thingthing captured what was in the coloniser’s mind. She read the sadness in the eyes of the queen as she handed over the right of Lesotho to self-determine its destination. The colonial masters were unhappy because they would lose the power over the Lesotho’s wool, where they held a monopoly, Thingthing said.
Thingthing’s reflection on Britain’s unhappiness at losing power over one of its colonies affirms how deep colonialism was embedded in the psych of the British. Its most eminent scholar of economics harboured the same misgivings of neoliberalism peddled by the Chicago School since its establishment in 1930, yet he cherished free trade — indeed, free trade for some and not for the other. This was none other than Adam Smith.
In this quote, Hansard member Mr Lee says: “I was quoting Adam Smith’s assertion: To propose that Great Britain should voluntarily give up all authority of her colonies, and leave them to elect their own magistrates, to enact their own laws, and to make peace and war, as they might think proper, would be to propose such a measure as never was, and never will be, adopted by any nation in the world.
“The bill now before the house deals with one example of the constitutional transformation which Adam Smith told the world it would never see. It provides for the establishment of Basutoland under the name of Lesotho as an independent kingdom within the Commonwealth. In accordance with the agreement expressed in paragraph 10 of Command 3038, the bill sets October 4 1966 as the date on which it shall become independent, and makes provision, on the lines of other independence bills, for certain matters consequential upon independence.”
The Lekganyane brothers have to reunite in their country of origin and trace their rich, albeit unceremonious, history in the country of their origin. This will be crucial as we head to the bicentenary celebrations of Lesotho. The blood is crying for each other’s brethren
So when Milton Friedman by 1970 rose to be the master of free market fundamentalism, he concluded Adam Smith’s project of neocolonialism which has chained all colonial outposts long after they got independence.
Thingthing understood how patriarchy deployed different levers of authority in the case of Lekganyane and his church — and how the Basotho would respond. She also understood the political economy of colonialism and how Jagdish Bagwathi’s theory of immiserising growth plays itself out.
The question, then, is how do Thingthing’s lessons take Lesotho forward as she completes 200 years of existence?
Thingthing’s counsel on the Lekganyanes, who fled Lesotho under a cloud, would draw from a Sesotho saying that emphasises blood as that which connects brother to brother and sister to sister. The saying is “Mali a bana a llelana tseetsee” — blood cries for reunion.
The Lekganyane brothers have to reunite in their country of origin and trace their rich, albeit unceremonious, history in the country of their origin. This will be crucial as we head to the bicentenary celebrations of Lesotho. The blood is crying for each other’s brethren.
On the political economy of neocolonialism, Thingthing asks us to look critically into the role the Chicago School played and continues to play.
The statistician-general will release a bouquet of data on Tuesday from the census which will reveal more on his earlier reports that says 99% of those left behind are black Africans. The Interfaith Forum of South Africa convenes from Monday to Wednesday at the Birchwood Hotel to ask the question of what happened to the 99%.
Thingthing has pitted us against Smith and Friedman in this regard, and by encouraging us to look at Bagwathi’s work, in Thingthing we may find good counsel.
• Dr Pali Lehohla is the director of the Economic Modelling Academy, a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a research associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former statistician-general of South Africa.
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