Basotho and the Mines

This major study of migrant labour in Lesotho, concentrating on the period between 1980 and 1940, considers the position of Basotho migrant workers in South Africa, Lesotho’s dependency on migrant labour, and the social and cultural consequences on communities, when men are sent away to work. The author provides in-depth analysis of migrant labour drawing predominantly on primary historical sources, and bringing in aspects of political economy, and cultural and social history. Some of the central questions addressed are: balancing structure and agency; how Basotho migrants coped with death and mourning in the mining compounds; the social history of commercial beer-brewing and commercial sex in Lesotho; the relationship of these factors to the system of chieftainship; and missionaries and the British colonial demonstration. The narrative is framed by the histories of colonialism in Lesotho and South Africa, and assesses the impact of colonialism on the geopolitics of these two interdependent countries.