The Basuto

The Basuto
Author: Hugh Ashton
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 328
Release: 2018-08-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1351043048

Originally published in 1952 and as a second edition in 1967 this volume provides a systematic and comprehensive account of the Basuto people and their changing culture, and reviews the developments and changes leading up to 1966 when Basutoland achieved independence as Lesotho. It describes in detail daily lives, the education and upbringing of children, initiation, marriage, economic activities and political developments within and outside the country. It includes a discussion of tribal and modern law and the workings of the courts and a study of the part played by magic and sorcery and an analysis of the motives leading to the out break of 'medicine' murders in the 1940s.

History of the Basuto, Ancient and Modern

History of the Basuto, Ancient and Modern
Author: D. Frédéric Ellenberger
Publisher:
Total Pages: 434
Release: 1912
Genre: Basuto
ISBN:

David Frédéric Ellenberger (1835-1919) was a Swiss French Protestant missionary who left for Basutoland (present-day Lesotho) in 1860 as a member of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society. Ellenberger spent more than 45 years collecting the oral traditions of the Basotho (also known as Sotho) people. His method was to gather "all the information which it was still possible to obtain from intelligent old men concerning the tribes, their origin, their manners, their form of government, their beliefs, the genealogy of the chiefs, etc." His objective was to preserve, for the Basotho, their historical memory, which he saw as being lost through contact with Westerners and other Africans. Ellenberger kept his notes in French, and this English edition of his work, published in 1912, was written by his son-in-law, J.C. MacGregor, a British colonial administrator. The book includes genealogies going back to 1450, a history of the Basotho people from their origins to 1833 (when the missionaries arrived), and an account of the rise of Moshoeshoe I (circa 1786-1870), the founder and first paramount chief of the Sotho people. The appendix includes chapters on religion, hunting, witchcraft, law and social order, and Basotho character and manners. A Sesotho version of Ellenberger's history, Histori ea Basotho, was published in 1917.

The Basuto

The Basuto
Author: François Laydevant
Publisher:
Total Pages: 196
Release: 1952
Genre: Sotho (African people)
ISBN:

The Basutos

The Basutos
Author: Sir Godfrey Yeatman Lagden
Publisher:
Total Pages: 444
Release: 1910
Genre: Lesotho
ISBN:

The Basutos

The Basutos
Author: Eugène Casalis
Publisher: Cape Town : C. Struik
Total Pages: 500
Release: 1861
Genre: Basutoland
ISBN:

Tales from the Basotho

Tales from the Basotho
Author: Minnie Postma
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 2014-08-04
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1477301712

"They say that the eldest of the chief's daughters..." So begins a tale from the Basotho, unfolded by the meager light of a dung fire that burns smokily behind the reed screen sheltering the entrance of the hut. The old ones of the tribe wait until dark before telling their stories, for everyone knows horns will grow from the head of one who tells a story during daylight hours. Tales from the Basotho abounds with elements familiar to folk narrative. The heroes and heroines are the chiefs and their wives, their sons and their daughters. Fantastic creatures frequent the narratives. exhibiting their awful powers. Rustic peace and beauty pervade the stories, as Minnie Postma amply demonstrates in her versions of the tales. Something fearful may be occurring—the dreaded Koeoko pulling the only son of the chief under water—but, at the same time, girls with babies tied to their backs are searching for edible bulbs in the veld, and an old woman dreams in the gentle sunlight in front of the huts. These tales from the Basotho are for entertainment only. There is a tabu against telling tales while the sun shines, because daylight hours must be saved for work. The telling itself is the· reason the story exists, for the audience is already aware of the outcome of each tale. As Wm. Hugh Jansen emphasizes in his foreword, "text" and "context" are often easily interpreted and made accessible in a translation, but Tales from the Basotho is ultimately successful for its rendering of "texture." And texture is doubly hard to convey when the telling itself is of primary importance. Minnie Postma and Susie McDermid have transferred the art of the Basotho raconteur onto the printed page. All the simple, understandable formulas, exclamations, and repetitions used so skillfully by the native storyteller are present. Rhythm is an important element in the tales, and a word, a phrase, even a whole paragraph will be repeated until the rhythm satisfies the storyteller, in tum increasing the appreciation of the listeners.