Sotho

…to http://basotho.wordpress.com (Sotho)

Please tweak your blog roll appropriately.

The LaunchPad: Where Is Lesotho?

Lesotho is a small nation that is surrounded by the country of South Africa. The King and Queen of Lesotho have invited Johannes Amritzer and Mission SOS to do a Festival for their people. The first Festival was held there in October of 07 and 17 new churches were planted.

This coming week, a second series of meetings will be held there. Here’s a video report of the October meetings and a reminder to pray for Johannes, Peter, and the Mission SOS team this week.

The clip shows Basotho being healed miraculously. The clip shows the visitors, the healers, through the grace of God, giving sick Basotho their sight back, their legs, their hearing. And it shows the healers insisting that the healees have now been forgiven and saved.

I do not disbelieve in miraculous healing. I have been touched by it. But I disbelieve healers, and this disbelief stems from my conviction that if there is a God, then God is not biased, and will not reveal Him/Herself to a bunch of people at the expense of another bunch of people. This goes to the root of what for me being is all about, and that is if I am and you are, then by God we are. As a result, you can’t have Knowledge and Power if I don’t, and vice-versa, because we are.

If there’s any healing that must go on, it’s not going to be through a bunch of rich visitors to a poor nation. If anything, if Christianity and religion have any meaning, then it must be the opposite, the materially poor must be able to heal the materially rich. Why would God bypass my local preacher and instil in someone I don’t know who comes from a place I don’t know the power to heal me? It’s senseless, albeit dangerous.

N.B: I wasn’t there so I can’t say if collection plates were passed around — but I’d love to know from those who were there.

I wonder if the royal couple did invite these people to Lesotho. If so, then they shouldn’t have. I doubt Basotho need more hoodwinkers at this stage, having enough on a political level as it is. What Basotho do need is the subject of another discussion, but I can stuff it into a nutshell as Work, Political Stability, Economic Vigour and Health and Hygienic Awareness. Plus a little luck from the skies in the form of regular rain.

Did the healees know that their healers have a profitable business behind their action? Who are “the unreached peoples?” And are their melanocytes rather active? (1) Is this about race? Have people with less active melanocytes been reached? (2) It doesn’t seem to be about race, as there has been at least one festival in a European country, Bulgaria. So is this about money? Why are these folks doing this? Do festivals occur in richer, “white” countries? France, England, Italy, America, Spain? If not, why not? Questions and more questions.

Technorati Tags: johannes amritzer mission sos missionary festival healers
Del.icio.us Tags: johannes amritzer mission sos missionary festival healers
Furl Tags: johannes amritzer mission sos missionary festival healers

My country, my home
(from 70 to 07)

Lesotho fatše la bo-rra, I sing you/ then and now
Each day I sing you/ from mountain to cave I truly
Sing you. Spring is dawning in the valley’s
Old venue for kingly things. Thirty-seven years my love,
Thirty-seven years, and promises-/- the gravestones of our
Heads are cool, too cool for upper rooms in top
Offices, where someone’s already polishing promises-/-

In my dream, hope like a mad river washes the low

Lands, clearing years away/ I hear mothers crying
Over fate/ their tears cleanse my feet and feed
Vrystaat, the fat serpent along Mohokare/ there are
Everywhere men on sticks in silent streets, eyes

Yearning for some sign/ there are faces, violated angels
Outlined in candour beside you, O world, O bright
Unicorn of splendour, prancing in the boorish night.
© Rethabile Masilo

Photo credit and © copyright: Yannick Girardeau

Lesotho to unfurl new ‘peace’ flag to mark 40 years of freedom
By Thabo Thakalekoala MASERU

The tiny southern African kingdom of Lesotho celebrates its 40th anniversary of independence from Britain on Wednesday by unveiling a new flag to replace a martial one introduced after a 1986 coup.Deputy Prime Minister Lesao Lehohla said the flag — whose unveiling will cap national celebrations — showed “a nation at peace with itself and at peace with its neighbours.” The new flag has three colours: blue for rain, white symbolising peace and green indicating prosperity. It will also sport a cone-shaped hat, worn by the country’s indigenous Basotho people. [citizen.co.za]

It has been forty years of petty thuggery and thievery for the most part, and killings and nepotic rule by some. But there have been flashes of real nationhood, and that is where we need to throw our weight and build from. We’ve caught and denounced big-company bribery, and we’ve had free and fair elections a few times in a row. In this regard Lesotho is a trend-setter.

But there have been many more low moments, such as the recent automobile fleet scandal, whereby ministers and other high-placed civil servants could buy government cars for less than nothing. That was wrong and was addressed by this blogger and others. Government officials should not be rewarded for serving the nation — especially when those officials are elected members of government.

It has been forty years of misery for many Basotho. We basically failed to heed the warnings coming from farther north, as Africa became independent. The words we used then were boipuso (independence), self-rule, self-determination, tokoloho (freedom, and my kid sister’s name).

But as soon as we became independent, we replicated the same, stupid mistakes, inevitably falling into the trap face-first. Funny, when one looks at it, though. Lesotho is homogenous. It is a one-people/one-language nation. But we had to fish for things to differ about.

It has been forty years of digging in the dirt to survive. Basotho men have traditionally worked in South Africa’s mines, living there for long spells without their families and sending money home. The effect of this was at least three-fold: men had no education, the HIV virus prospered, family life was broken, and the country’s economic woes worsened.

The mine-working men, of course, bought flesh and contracted AIDS, then went home and spread it around. Their spouses back home would sometimes sell flesh in order to make ends meet, and they, too, would contract the virus. Then South Africa decided to send migrant workers home. We suddenly had a terrible influx of hordes and hordes of uneducated men looking for and not finding work. Crime soared, and domestic violence shot through the roof. Then China entered the textile industry, effectively shutting out Lesotho’s own textile industry due to cheap labour. And that’s when the drought arrived.

We’ve gone through a lot, and we’re surviving. But that’s no excuse for shoddy governing. Lesotho has about twenty political parties. Looking at those twenty or so parties in Lesotho, one wonders whether we, as politicians, will ever learn. The lesson is that we need to live for the betterment of the nation and not for the betterment of self (and of a few cronies and family members). There is no justification that I see for that many parties, other than the desire for each leader of those parties to be at the helm, pull the strings, be the head honcho. I dare you to find me twenty different political points of view to justify the myriad of parties.

I’ve lived more than half of those years abroad. A painful experience, as any Mosotho living abroad will concur. I never wanted to leave my country and make my life elsewhere, I was forced to do so. Like many of my country-people who are away from home, I wanted to be successful at home, for home, through home.

During these forty years there have been killings and other thug republic tactics. I think we must hold reconciliation meetings in the fashion of South Africa’s own. I recently saw Bishop Tutu mediating between a former IRA combattant and family-members whose relatives the combattant had killed. Why not in Lesotho. The pain and bitterness won’t go away by themselves. As my mum would probably have said, Re iphapantse joalo ka beng ba lifariki (we’re looking the other way as if nothing had happened).

It has been forty years of squandered resources. Ask me, and I’ll tell you that for a country of 1.8 million people, Skiing, Diamonds and Water are enough to keep everybody happy and sated. I haven’t even mentioned other tourist related sources of income. If 1.8 million people can’t be kept happy and sated with these three resources, then we need to look upwards in the hierarchy and see where things aren’t happening right, and make them happen right.

The people do not need to reward elected government officials. Their job is to serve the people and go home at night. No applause, and certainly no bonuses of any kind. Otherwise, quit the public service and start your own company. Idland says this better than I do. Bookmark his blog.

It has been forty years of dashed hopes for many, and success for some. We want food and jobs, peace, and a little bit of land to live on and cultivate. Is that so much to ask? This request, in fact, is embodied in Lesotho’s motto, (Peace, Rain, Prosperity) Khotso, Pula, Nala. We are looking forward to nothing less, and not much more.

On a rainy day Melissa and I arrived to find only 15 to 20 children, and no teachers. So we sang some English songs with them for a long time and then they treated us to some Basotho songs.

‘Basotho Bana’ means ‘Basotho children’ or ‘children of Lesotho’.

Lesotho: Land of Contrasts
21 Aug 2006 

"Even after being in Lesotho, I still find it a bit silly that it’s a country. It really seems as though Lesotho should have been "acquired" by SA by now."
Look who they sent to my country, Tarzan. Someone who thinks it’s a silly country. Someone who thinks my country should have been "acquired" by another. What the hell is that supposed to mean? You mean like you acquired the land of the Red Indian? Or like China acquired Tibet? Or like you acquired Iraq?

The Kingdom of Lesotho is there because Moshoeshoe said it was gonna be there. Many tried to "acquire" it, but were unable to do so. Moshoeshoe was both a warrior (he kicked British butt in 1851 and 1852) and a statesman (The most important role King Moshoeshoe played as a diplomat was his acts of friendship towards defeated enemies [Source]), and was reputed to have a weakness for the latter. He talked to and won over his enemies, if he could help killing them, which was most of the time. He wouldn’t have given you a passport into Lesotho. Now, Try this quiz, and tell me how you fare.

"As soon as you leave South Africa in any direction the roads just deteriorate and I always happen to be the person driving at that point. Electricity and thus streetlights are a luxury. So apparently are paved roads."
Yes, streetlights are a luxury in poor countries. Electricity is a luxury. Air-conditioning and midnight pig-outs on pizza and gas-guzzling liners on wheels and designer clothes are a luxury. But hospitality isn’t a luxury in Lesotho. Neither is respect, a lot of which I hope you picked up. Pride isn’t a luxury either. I’m sure you managed to see bunches of dirt-poor Basotho who greeted you with a smile, offered you something, and sang. No?

"I finally found the dirt road (and road being a term I use loosely) to the lodge we were staying at. Or at least that’s what the sign said. I absolutely hate driving in unfamiliar African rural countryside in the pitch black dark. After driving through farmers’ fields and across streams and over boulders we found the lodge (just go in the general direction of lights, in those rural parts not many places have electricity)."
Glad you found the lodge. But, say, what were you doing in Lesotho anyway, one of the poorest countries in the world, if you "hate driving in unfamiliar African rural countryside in the pitch black dark?" What kind of terrain did you expect to drive on? The 24 heures du Mans? And does that mean you looooove to drive in "unfamiliar American rural countryside in the pitch black dark?"

Did you not do your homework before leaving for Lesotho? I mean, surely you knew that it was a poor country, and that it had a lot of mountains… 70% of the country being rugged peaks called the Maluti and Drakensberg mountains. Surely you were aware of that! Did you know that Lesotho has the highest low point in the world? Yep. The lowest point in Lesotho is at 1400 m above sea level. That’s a mointain peak in many places. What did you think you were gonna be driving on? Route 66?

"All the people were dressed in their professional attire. Yet we were in rural Lesotho, so of course it’s just dirt paths everywhere. Everyone’s once nice shoes were quite dirty."
That’s just so terrible for the poor shoes! Good thing for some of the shoe-less locals, though. No dirt. What shoes did you wear that day? I bet they were of the dear kind… alligator or ostrich from southern Africa. That’s just like the unprofessional Basotho to hold a conference on dirt roads. 

"During one break I felt a bit out of place watching some traditional Basotho farm workers in the field covered in their blankets and walking along their donkey while I stood there in my nice clothes sipping some Coca Cola."
Exactly who are you, and why are you bent on insulting us? Coca Cola? And that’s your standard for sophistication? If I ever see you in my neighbourhood… No threats. If I ever see you in my neighbourhood I’ll encourage you to get out of my country and never come back.

"On Monday evening we were invited by the council of ministers from the SADC region to attend a little function of theirs. We were staying about 15 kilometers away and on the way there passed a few poor villages. These places didn’t have electricity, got their water from a well and lived in such small homes. The Lekahoe Club where this function was held was a different story – very fancy with free flowing drinks and food in abundance. After spending a day talking about the plight of the poor in Southern Africa, why not go see the government officials throw money at these sorts of functions where they try to convince the civil society sector that they really do care about the poor?"
Of course, African government ministers don’t care about the poor in their countries, but you do, n’est-ce pas, Mademoiselle Wanderingcrabb? That’s why you’re so concerned about the lack of electricity and other civilised things. That’s why those ministers should fix the road network, and that’s why you disliked the function at the Lekahoe [sic] Club, n’est-ce pas, Mademoiselle WanderingCrabb?

Lesotho is a country that has had to fight, most times literally, to exist. But we have never eliminated another people (you have), we have never conquered another country (you have), we have never declared war on another country (you have), we have never nuked anyone (you have), and we have never subjugated another race or ethnic group because of the amount of melanocytes in their skin (you have). Perhaps that’s why we don’t have tarred roads and electricity and you do? I’m just curious, what does your travelling companion, Corlett, make of all this poverty and lack of electricity in Lesotho?

When you decided to go to Africa, were you hoping to see Tarzan? You know, overflowing rivers gorged with greedy crocodiles and a white man clamping their awesome jaws with his bare hands — something the natives can’t do. But like Richard Pryor so rightly said,

"Tarzan wouldn’t last a week in Africa. They’d probably just call him ‘Crazy White Man.’ You’d go, ‘Where’s Tarzan?’ They’d say, ‘You mean the Crazy White Man? Eh.. he’s up in them trees with the baboons.’"

It’s conical, it’s handwoven, and it’s everywhere. The Basotho Hat is the supreme symbol of Lesotho. Up to 8 out of 10 companies may have the hat in one form or another as a logo. It’s absolutely ubiquitous. But that’s because we can’t live without it, as we need the hat as well as the kobo (Basotho blanket) to face the forces of nature in Lesotho. These may be a blazing sun during the day and a chilly breeze after sunset.

Mokorotlo used to be on the flag, but that particular flag was too closely associated with Leabua Jonathan’s party and regime, so in the name of reconciliation we designed the present flag. One of the most refreshing local scenes is to see a line of ladies sitting on the ground, Sesotho style, weaving different objects, mokorotlo (Basotho hat), moseme (floor mat), seroto (dish), and other household stuff. Mokorotlong, in Maseru, is a handicrafts centre. Very easy to burn. Which is what some hooligans did during the 1998 riots.

The -ng suffix means "place of". Joala is beer, joaleng is a bar, a shebeen. Bolo is football. Bolong is the stadium. Here are some eyefuls of Mokorotlo: Happy Mosotho girl — Mokorotlo alone — Man wearing a mokorotlo — Mokorotlo on a Lesotho number plate — Qiloane, the mountain supposed to have inspired the shape of the hat. The pictures you’ve just seen belong to their respective owners. Their websites in themselves are quite interesting and worth a visit.

Maseru - Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates will this week make his first visit to Lesotho in the company of his wife and former US president Bill Clinton to visit various Aids projects. [www.iol.co.za]

“Moshoeshoe, when hearing of the trekker settlement […], stated that ‘… the ground on which they were belonged to me, but I had no objections to their flocks grazing there until such time as they were able to proceed further; on condition, however, that they remained in peace with my people and recognised my authority.’ [www.biography.ms]”

They did not.

Suffering and Scavenging at the Tour de Lesotho
The Tour de Lesotho is billed as “Africa’s toughest cycling challenge”, and involves four major mountain passes and some 2100m of vertical ascent. The short version is an 84km route with “only” 1000m of elevation gain. [http://wakanaka.blogspot.com]

Philanthropy At Its Best
Logos Global Ministries has an exceptionally successful program going inside the little nation of Lesotho, Africa. Hundreds and hundreds of children are receiving such TLC through our program that it is literally keeping them alive. [http://lesothochildren.blogspot.com]

Lesotho: Govt intensifies efforts to help rape survivors
The Lesotho government is to improve medical care provided to sexual violence survivors after rape cases reported in the first three months of this year climbed to almost the total number for 2005. [www.irinnews.org]

Harry launches new charity
Sentebale which means “Forget me not” in Sesotho, the […] language of Lesotho. The prince, once dubbed the royal ‘wild child’ for his youthful drug and drink antics, said of his new charity “As far as I am concerned, I’m committed.” [http://claudette.pdpress.com]

Africa’s Kingdom in the Sky
This week we drove up to Sani Pass, which is in Southern Drakensburg, about 2-hours from Pietermaritzburg. We took a day trip hosted by the Backpacker’s lodge we were staying at that drove around Sani Pass and up into Lesotho, “Africa’s kingdom in the sky.”` Lesotho is over 2000-meters above sea level, and in order to get there from Sani Pass, you had to use a 4X4 because the roads are gravel and very steep and winedy. [www.dogooder.ca]

Lesotho Angel
Canadian Russell Armstrong, hospital administrator at the Tsepong Clinic in Lesotho, discusses the realities of the AIDS crisis in Africa. NB: There’s a video to watch. [http://despoticktock.blogspot.com]

Learning to Swim
The river wasn’t even flowing, but there were rock pools, and in one pool the size of a small car I saw the maroon dress and black sweater floating motionlessly. It must have been an elementary school girl, already dead, drowned. People watched as if it couldn’t have been helped. I cussed to myself. [www.gregalder.com]

The airport in Lesotho, South Africa
It is also super dumb to say […] the airport in Lesotho, South Africa. Where in the world is that? I hear this kind of thing a lot and it gets up my nose. Why does nobody ever say, at the airport in Zambia, Zimbabwe? Or at the airport in France, Belgium? At the airport in the USA, Mexico. At the airport in Argentina, Venezuela. At the airpot in Malaysia, Taiwan. It’s silly. I was having a translation of my papers done once when the translator (a sworn and legal one at that), said, “What’s Lesotho?” [http://sotho.blogsome.com]

European Diamonds finds 2 large gems in Lesotho
European Diamonds PLC said it discovered two large diamonds at the Liqhobong kimberlite mine in Lesotho. The gems weighed 29.2 carats and 24.3 carats. They were found less than a month after it discovered a 27.7-carat stone in the same site. Separately, the miner said it sold 16,500 carats of the Liqhobong diamonds for 691,000 usd in Antwerp recently. [www.lse.co.uk]

We the Basotho, call the specific odour of brand-new clothes and other objects White folks’ fart or bosulu ba makhooa. Don’t ask me why. If you do, then I’ll have to venture a guess, and here is my guess.

Our traditional clothes never had that smell, no matter how new they were. The leather had always been beaten, washed, scraped, hung and processed, which left it smelling… nothing, really. We discovered White folks’ fart with the advent of factory clothes that arrived, of course, with white folks. Hence the name.

The consciousness of colour and race spilled over to us from across the surrounding borders of South Africa. In Lesotho, Indians are referred to as Makula, or Coolies. Merriam-Webster describes Coolie as “an unskilled laborer or porter usually in or from the Far East hired for low or subsistence wages.” It is an offensive term in my book.

We refer to nectarines as Marete a Makula, literally, Indian Testicles. This time even if you ask, I wouldn’t know what reply to venture. Do Indians have glabrous nuts? Nevertheless, I’ve always found the integration of Indians in Lesotho, from the point of view of native Basotho villagers, utterly complete.

Barotseland, Lesotho’s cousin. Learn about it to learn about Lesotho, Basotho and Sesotho.
PS: This post has been imported from another of my blogs. I decided to copy and paste comments to the original post.

Idland has recently brought up the subject of Basotho mistreating other races in Lesotho. “Billions of blue blistering barnacles,” as the captain would have said. The top question is of course, why? Why would Basotho, of all peoples, do so?

Most of the ill-treatment is directed at the Chinese population, and consists of muggings, robberies and property degradation. It comes as a surprise to me, because as far as I can remember there’s always been a Chinese population in Lesotho, and an Indian one (Makula), and a Portuguese one (Mapotoketsi), and an Italian one (Mataliana). Any racism had mainly come from some members of these groups, and rarely the other way around. But today we hear that,

Sadly, racist attitudes are not limited to people of poor education, or even to locals, but also find regular voice among wealthy expatriates, many of whom are happy to tell you that the Chinese are the same around the world: rude, careless, cheap, etc. [wakanaka.blogspot.com]

Not all white people are racists, yet we’ve known white racists just across the border, haven’t we? Not all African men are male chauvinists, yet we’ve known a fair share of those on our continent. So how can we turn around today and smear an ethnic group with collective labels, as some of our country people seem to be doing? We have fought against such practices in the past, when they were directed at us. We must fight them again today, when we direct them at others.

We have so far only considered the moral and common-sense aspect of the issue. There’s an economic angle. Carrying out hate crimes (if that’s what they are) against foreigners will only

• invite potential investors to back off and to go look elsewhere,
• speed up the closure of foreign controlled but job giving businesses,
• create a climate of instability that is incompatible with a healthy economy.

Courtesy of Nguni.com, who holds all the rights to the snap.

“I urge all Basotho to know their status so that they can be able to manage their lives and receive treatment in the case of those affected.”
http://www.fortwayne.com

Aids is killing about 70 people a day in Lesotho.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

1. Lesotho is one of the world’s poorest countries, with a per capita income of £340
2. Lesotho has the third highest HIV rate, with a 29% infection rate for people between 16 and 49 years of age
3. In 2003, 29 000 people in Lesotho died from AIDS/HIV-related causes
4. Lesotho’s entire population is to be screened for HIV
5. Lesotho is the first country in the world to offer HIV tests to its entire population
6. King Letsie III is likely to become the first monarch to take the test publicly
7. Life expectancy in Lesotho has dropped from 52 to just 34 years since 2000
8. The brain drain drawing Africa’s nurses to the West has also been blamed for exacerbating the problem
9. In Lesotho, all members of the population over the age of 12 will know their HIV status by the end of 2007
10. Tests cannot be mandatory under international human rights law
11. The simple act of testing could have as important an impact as as a moderately effective vaccine
12. The test is simple and only requires a finger-prick of blood that takes 15 minutes to show the if the virus is present
13. The idea of testing is going to be introduced within each community through village chiefs at a pitso
14. Only 21 000 people in Lesotho took an HIV test in 2004
15. 40.3 million people in the world are living with AIDS
16. Sub-Saharan Africa is the worst affected part of the world with 26.0 million sufferers
17. The highest rates in the world are in Swaziland (39%), Botswana (37%) and Lesotho (29%)

[Source]

In Kenya my brothers and I met a Lozi, from Barotseland in Zambia. Since then, I haven’t lost my fascination for Silozi, his mother tongue. Why? For the simple reason that Mukelabai and all of us are cousins. He speaks Silozi, we speak Sesotho, but we understand each other quite well. Muzuhile cwani? O tsohile joang? We met Mukelabai by chance; we were staying at the same hotel in Nairobi: The Jacaranda Hotel.

Kiwena ma’ni libizo? Lebitso la hau ke mang? (What’s your name) See? I told you. Look at these (Silozi, Sesotho, English):
Amu otolole lizoho. Otlolla letsoho. (Stretch your hand.)
Mwazuba? U oa tsuba? (Do you smoke?)
Ku mumuna. Ho momona. (To suck.)
La Bulalu Laboraro. (Wednesday, literally ‘the third one’)
Kamuso Kamoso. (Tomorrow). In Sesotho we also say ‘hosane.’

Learn more about Silozi and our cousins in Zambia:

• http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Lozi_root.html
• http://www.channelafrica.org
• http://www.worldscriptures.org/pages/silozi.html
• http://www.barotseland.com/silozi1.htm

I have created quite a lot of quizzes on Lesotho, Basotho or Sesotho. You can access them here: My quizzes in English.

They are however all in English. Here’s the first one I’ve ever penned in French: My first quiz in French. (Pre-registration).

So, what are you doing on 27 October 2005 at 9:00 pm, South African time? Nothing? That’s good, because then you’ll be able to watch a documentary on King Moshoeshoe I, on SABC 2. The idea is to then come back and tell us how it was, what it said, and so on. What? Yes, you can blog here at Sotho. You just need to register here.

I’ve already said a word on the film-maker Max du Preez and his interest in Moshoeshoe. I will not repeat it here. Nick Graham also had a word to say on the 100 Greatest South Africans poll, as well as Laurence Caromba over at Commentary. I hope you’ll have time to read up on all these before viewing the documentary. (more…)

If you missed “Gumboots” the last time they were in town (Paris), they’re back for a third run, from Saturday 29 October 2005 to Wednesday 2 November 2005. I saw the show in January this year, and would love to see it again this time around.

The girl moved up the queue, politely thanking each person as she passed them. As she got to the front, the apology guy finished and went off with waves and goodbyes. The girl took his place and started explaining her needs in Sotho, calling the clerk ntate (Mr.) in every sentence. Apparently it was fairly lousy Sotho, because the clerk switched to English - he was explaining express services - and she was clearly relieved.
[ More… ]

One of the reasons why the newspaper business is not so vibrant is that the Basotho do not have a reading culture because most of them are illiterate. With a population of about 2,2 million and 80 percent of the population living in rural areas, access to newspapers or other mediums of communication is very low.

In a paper on the need for an editors forum in Lesotho, Newsshare Foundation director Lawrence Keketso said there were many reasons for the absence of such an organisation in the country despite the fact that the country is one of the pioneers of the print media in Africa (Leselinyana la Lesotho -1863). Chief amongst these was the fact that the country, unlike other colonial countries, was never planned to become an industrial or commercial center but a supplier of cheap and disciplined labour for the South African mining industry, thus the reluctance of multi-national corporations to invest in the country even after independence. The fact that the country’s economy is relatively small, not offering a lot in terms of media survival has contributed to establishments being born at sunrise and disappearing with the sunset. Though the media is usually referred to as The Fourth Estate, in Lesotho were it to be ranked, it would probably fall below tenth because of the perception with which it is viewed locally. "The media is always last to be allowed in for some important national events", Keketso said. [ Source… ]

Max du Preez is ticked off. A poll that was recently organised and conducted in South Africa, he says, proves nothing beyond the fact that white South Africans have phones. Mr du Preez says that "it was a good idea. It could have helped South Africans so much in their process of trying to identify with a shared past. Instead, the SABC’s programme on the hundred greatest South Africans has turned out to be a huge embarrassment for the public broadcaster.

The only thing it proves is that white South Africans have telephones. Not that it’s the SABC’s fault, really. It was the fault of the silly producers who thought one could do an experiment like that in the South Africa of 2004 by asking the public to vote. It was skewed even before the voting started: most white South Africans do have telephones, cellphones and access to the Internet; most black South Africans don’t.

I’m trying to be generous here, but really, Eugene Terre’Blanche, Steve Hofmeyr, Brenda Fassie, Hansie Cronje, DF Malan and Hendrik Verwoerd among this nation’s one hundred greatest citizens? In our entire history?" When one sees the list of those who made the cut, it is hard not to agree with the writer. Eugene? Hendrik? Mr du Preez calls them "newsmakers, not great people. And if we wanted a list of newsmakers, where are Eugene de Kock, Dirk Coetzee, Wouter Basson or Gideon Nieuwoudt? What about Andre Stander, Colin Chauke or some of the serial killers and rapists of the past few years?

These popularity contests can’t be taken seriously. On some levels, this kind of popular democracy doesn’t really work. If all South Africans were asked today whether most white farmers’ land should be taken away and given to landless blacks, my guess is two thirds would say yes.

Yet the list of Great South Africans tells us a lot about our society. Few of those who bothered to vote sat back and thought about South Africans as one nation, trying to figure out who had made a difference, a contribution over the past 400 years. Rather, people voted to get their "own" in the list.

We had better vote in our thousands for "our" leaders, otherwise we will be marginalised, they thought. This seems to be especially true of white Afrikaans-speakers. On the other hand, if it is true that mostly white people voted, then it must also follow that a lot of them voted for Thabo Mbeki, Desmond Tutu and Winnie Mandela, all among the top ten. It is depressing to see how people mostly voted in racial blocs. We are clearly a very long way away from identifying with the same heroes of our past." In the comments section of this post by Conrad Barwa on "The Head Heeb", Jonathan Edelstein, referring to results of a poll published and conducted, amongst its audience, by the London-based New Africa magazine on the 100 Greatest Africans, says that

what the New African’s editors may be overlooking is that Africans aren’t "a people," and that any given African will know much more about the precolonial and colonial history of his own people and country than that of other regions. I think Moshoeshoe I should be on the list, for instance, but how many people outside Lesotho (and maybe ZA) know of him? Post-colonial political leaders and newsmakers have much wider name recognition outside their own country and will draw more votes in this kind of poll,

It was a time of great droughts, of social instability, of conquering chiefs and encroaching colonialism. Chiefdoms and clans attacked each other from the east coast right up to the highveld, creating a domino effect and incredible human suffering. Moshoeshoe was the only leader of the time who did not partake in the violence, but took an approach of defending, making peace, rehabilitating and gathering people around him. Moshoeshoe was a revolutionary diplomat and an extraordinary innovator."

It’s hard–very hard–for me to disagree with that, and I won’t. I’ve been trying to say it long enough. My awe and respect of Moshoeshoe I, however, does not erode the same awe and respect I hold for other leaders, like Nelson Mandela, Robert Sobukwe, Beyers Naudé, Bishop Tutu and Bram Fischer. The actual list is much longer.

Moshoeshoe "was never beaten in war, not by the British, the Boers of the Free State, or by the forces of Matuwane, Mzilikazi or Sekonyela. More than anyone else at the time, he had reason to be arrogant and authoritarian. Yet he remained humble, serving his people with a sense of democracy virtually unknown in the world at the time. He embraced new ideas and technology, yet cherished his people’s culture and customs. In every way he was a man the whole of Africa could look up to - even today. He was a one-man African Renaissance. But the citizens who voted for the SABC’s programme regarded Steve Hofmeyr and Eugene Terre’Blanche as greater contributors to our nation than King Moshoeshoe.

There are other great men and women who should have been among the top 20 who never made it on to the list at all. The great Boer War general and guerrilla leader Christiaan de Wet, for instance. The Khoikhoi leader Autshomao. The extraordinary sage and philosopher Mohlomi

[Added by Rethabile Masilo: Mohlomi was Moshoeshoe’s mentor, and the shaper of the future king’s forgiving and diplomatic mind. Somebody else says: Moshoeshoe (Moshesh, Mosheshwe or Mshweshwe – pronounced MOH-SHWAYSHWAY) was a prince of the Basotho, born in 1786. As a young man, he was angry and impatient. So his father sent him to Mohlomi, a famous chief who taught him self-restraint, patience and leadership. Moshoeshoe learned the value of hard work, that the powerless merited justice, and the poor, compassion. These lessons served him well, under the most extreme circumstances a ruler could face. After a great drought brought on the mfécane or lifaquane, Moshoeshoe withdrew with his people to the fortress of Buta-Buthe. When the overwhelming Tlokoa tribesmen invaded, he withdrew with a few survivors to Thaba Bosiu or Bosigo (Mountain of the Night), from which he would never be dislodged again. His warriors captured Tlokoa cannibals who’d eaten his grandfather when he straggled during the retreat. Moshoeshoe forgave them and gave them land so they would give up cannibalism. He said he had to revere the resting place of his grandfather]. The world-renowned palaeo-anthropologist Philip Tobias. The writer JM Coetzee. Activists Bram Fischer and Helen Joseph. We missed a great opportunity here. This initiative could have meant so much to us as a nation. We will simply have to explore other ways of finding common historical figures we can all identify with. [ Source… ] NB: Nick agrees, and says so over at NjaloNjalo UPDATE (21/10/2004): South African TV show stirs up a storm