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The Basotho kingdom emerged and consolidated in the dramatic and dangerous environment of nineteenth-century South Africa. In this 2003 book, Elizabeth Eldredge provides a rich description of local agriculture, iron-working and craft industries, bringing out the resourceful responses of the Basotho to the challenges of drought and famine, and explaining the dynamics of the competition for land. During the colonial period, regional economic integration increasingly influenced local production, land use and internal politics, and drew the Basotho into the regional migrant labour system. Throughout these turbulent years, the overriding interest of the Basotho was the pursuit of security. Dr Eldredge analyzes the epic struggle which bound together rich and poor, chiefs and commoners, and men and women in a largely successful effort to sustain this fragile and innovative society in the face of political threats and environmental challenges.
Sommario
1. Introduction; 2. Settlement and trade patterns before 1830; 3. Political consolidation and the rise of Moshoeshoe in the 1820s; 4. The land of the Basotho: the geographic extent of Moshoeshoe's authority, 1824-64; 5. The European intrusion and the competition for land, 1834-68; 6. Food and politics: feasts and famines; 7. The rise and decline of craft specialization; 8. The allocation of labor, 1830-1910; 9. The local exchange of goods and services, 1839-1910; 10. Women, reproduction, and production; 11. The Basotho and the rise of the regional European market, 1830-1910; 12. The colonial imposition and the failure of the local economy, 1871-1910; 13. Economy, politics, migrant labor and gender; 14. In pursuit of security; Appendix; Note on oral sources.
Riassunto
The Basotho kingdom emerged in the dramatic environment of nineteenth-century South Africa. This 2003 book explores its transition from chiefdom to kingdom to the British colony of Basutoland.
