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This is the first comprehensive economic history of the Basotho people of Southern Africa (in colonial Basutoland, then Lesotho) and spans from the 1820s to the present day. The book documents what the Basotho have done on their own account, focusing on their systematic exclusion from trade and their political efforts to insert themselves into their country's commerce. Although the colonial and post-colonial periods were unfavourable to the Basotho, they have, before and after colonial rule, launched impressive commercial initiatives of their own, which bring hope for greater development and freedom in their struggle for economic independence.
List of contents
Acknowledgements
Chronology
Introduction Part I: The Rise and Fall of the Basotho Nation Chapter 1. The Formation of the Basotho Nation, 1820s-1870s
Chapter 2. The Loss of Economic Independence, 1870s-1890s
Part II: British Trading Monopoly and the Liberation Struggle Chapter 3. Colonial Commerce, 1870s-1930s
Chapter 4. Basotho in Colonial Commerce, 1900s-1966
Chapter 5. The Political Struggle for Reform of Trade, 1900s-1966
Part III: Lesotho's Postcolonial Counter-Revolution and Resistance to It Chapter 6. The Developmental State and Lesotho's Counter-Revolution, 1966-1986
Chapter 7. The Military Dictatorship and the Neoliberal Turn, 1986-2010s
Chapter 8. Business Politics and the Collapse of the Congress, 2000s-2020
Chapter 9. The Rise of a Chinese Trading Monopoly and of Mobile Money, 2000s-2020
Conclusion: Commerce as Politics
Index
About the author
Sean M. Maliehe is an economic historian and ethnographer of commerce, money and mobile phones in Lesotho and South Africa (Diepsloot). He has held two postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Pretoria: Human Economy Programme, Centre for Advancement of Scholarship (2016-2018) and Department of Historical and Heritage Studies (2019-2020).
Summary
This is the first comprehensive economic history of the Basotho people of Southern Africa and spans from the 1820s to the present day. The book documents what the Basotho have done on their own account, focusing on their systematic exclusion from trade and their political efforts to insert themselves into their country’s commerce.
