Author: Mathe

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Women’s Day Celebrations

This is one of those weeks when all and sundry will talk about women. I am neither South African or a fully acknowledged woman (in Sesotho to qualify fully as a woman, one needs to be familiar with the institution of marriage). The question however is what will women’s day mean to me especially it falling on a Saturday? I am not sure but if I had the money and good company, the day will mean pure indulgence; a day at some spa and an evening of romantic comedies with good wine and chocolate. But I am sure that would be missing the point entirely! The day is about celebrating womanhood and honouring women in their various roles, past and present.

As I have been focusing on the past, it is only fitting then I celebrate a remarkable woman in history (of Lesotho naturally 🙂 ), Queen ‘Manthatisi of the Batlokoa clan. Queen ‘Manthatisi was a true warrior. As far as I understand, with her in the lead no man could say “never send a woman for a man’s job”! She was probably as good an opponent as Puseletso Seema is in fighting men in a stick fight (ho kalla); a ‘sport’ by men, with skilled women like ‘m’e Puseletso, whose performance elates all females and embarrasses most men 🙂

Derailed a bit, the point is, Queen ‘Manthatisi embodies what one could call ‘strength of a woman’. She was widowed at young age and instead of complaining of the lemons that life gave her, she made lemonade. For she understood, in part, that she had a duty to protect the throne for her son Sekonyela. Precisely because a mother, when needs be, holds the sharp edge of the knife (” ‘ma o ts’oara thipa ka bohaleng” ). Was it easy for her? Not at all! It is said that there were attempts on Sekonyela’s life whilst he was a young boy to prevent him from getting to the throne. So for Queen ‘Manthatisi her battles were both within and outside her land.

However, she did achieve that which she wanted to achieve. And for me, the evidence lies in the following sentiment — which I have heard but orally — describing her death:

‘Manthatisi a tall and fair in complexion daughter of the Basia, mother of Sekonyela, died with a smile on her face. For indeed she had secured her son’s future!

So yes in the spirit of women’s day celebrations, I doff off my hat to Queen ‘Manthatisi and any woman who will reach the finish line with a smile on her face!! And to girls like me, I say, sense of humour surely guarantees us as a smile 😉 !

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Part 1: Moshoeshoe I, the early years

August is officially the beginning of the Basotho year. It is a month for planting new crops and thus a month for new beginnings. In marking the beginning of ‘this year’, I thought I should write a blog each week for this month dedicated to the founder of the Basotho nation, Moshoeshoe I.

Moshoeshoe I was born 1870 and was named Lepoqo. A name that means disasters; for he was born in a period of no rain – this is emphasised because of the direct link to Basotho motto Khotso-Pula-Nala (Peace-Rain-Prosperity). Growing up, it is my opinion that Lepoqo was a ‘delinquent’ based on stories of him taking advantage of his strong physique to bully his peers. One such story suggests that he nearly clobbered to death a young man for ‘consuming’ milk from his favourite cow.

However, the man after going through initiation, he became a changed man. Reflecting on the period before his initiation, it is claimed that Moshoeshoe said:

‘Ke ne ke luma borena bo boholo!’

Roughly translated, he felt vibrations (or perhaps echoes) in him signalling a destiny of great leadership. So whilst bullying was not appropriate, he was in some sense trying to get the other boys to respect him (for the vibrations and echoes of power he felt in him).

The above is indeed who Lepoqo was before becoming Letlama (a name he got after initiation) or Moshoeshoe for that matter!

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Sesotho the language

The language is deep and very artistic. This is a fact and perhaps the only fact I know about Sesotho as a language. In recent years I have come to know that the dynamics of the language can be very confusing. For example, growing up, the plural of teachers was ‘matichere’ and not ‘litichere’ (or is it the other way round?)

For purposes of this post, I will not venture in what is confusing to me. I shall instead discuss the artistic depth of the Sesotho language. To me, Sesotho seems to be layered, with some layers only accessible to people I would label as “submarines”. At the layers of submarines, the language is rich but far from direct. It is filled with insinuations and innuendos that are presented in a very subtle and delicate manner: to give the speaker total deniability (if needs be).

So what makes the language rich at those layers? In my opinion, it is a combination use of riddles, deliberate distortions of words, and, of course, the manner of articulation. And the latter is important! I have seen individuals prepare to fight to the death (‘ho loana ea khumamela’) for being called ‘ngoetsi/makoti’ (daughter-in-law). This, at a superficial level, may seem strange unless one recognises that the reaction was due to an invocation of a deeper meaning to the word; the word is a distortion much like ‘mokhoenyana’ (son-in-law) is, but I shan’t elaborate on them. Instead I will choose a neutral word like ‘majakane’.

Majakane is a distortion of the expression ‘ba ja, ba ikana’ (they eat and vow). This word to many (land-dwellers) is accepted as an alternative word for referring to the elite, the affluent, etc. To an extend, in the context of today’s world, the interpretation is valid. However, the historical origins of the word suggest to me that the word was “coined up” to jeer at the Christians (after Christianity was introduced). The reason for this was that the ‘newly converted’, aside from publicly making a vow before eating to live by Christ loving ways, they were overly critical of the non-converts. In their interactions with them, there was no element of humility— since they thought they were better, as they had seen the light! In a nutshell, the word originated as a response to this behaviour and for this reason, it was deliberately loaded, with what I term, the double ‘dees’: disdain and defiance. Defiance because if the utterers were overt about their disdain, they would have suffered the fully wrath of the law, since Moshoeshoe believed in peace. So, by using ‘majakane’, the burden of the proof lied with majakane to convince anyone that the reference is pregnant with any other meaning, other than ‘they pray before eating’.

With the above, I hope I have illustrated my point. Sesotho is a language of depth and one has to always establish whether they are on land or sea. If at sea, above or under? Whatever the case, I think one is better assuming he/she is deep under swimming with the sharks. But this becomes a very bad and dangerous habit….ask me I know!

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Rhetoric question about mythology creation

Having started this journey for a few weeks now, I have been thinking a lot about why Mbeki felt the need to affirm his Africanism. Surely it can’t be because people didn’t believe him when he said he was African!For if that is true, then people might not believe me when I say I am a proud MOSOTHO.

Well, perhaps to own defense really, I am inclined to believe that the affirmation itself is more about mythology creation. And who really can’t believe that mythology creation is key to influencing understanding of ones culture and identity? This is just food for thought!

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VXI* VoiceXML browser

I have recently started playing with VXI* VoiceXML browser. Granted that it is a commercial product and we might not afford to buy a license, I thought I should give it a try. One of the reason is that it is designed specifically for use with Asterisk.

Installing it was the easy part but getting it to work was another story. For reasons unknown to me, using the start up scripts to start and stop the browser was a hassle. Specifically, starting the browser with the command /etc/init.d/openvxi stop didn’t work. After several exchanges with the tech support team at I6NET Solutions and Technologies we found a workaround or rather we resorted to starting the browser manually using: /usr/sbin/openvxi -channels 100 -config /etc/openvxi/client.cfg &

I am now happily playing with the browser although I wish the documentation could have included the option to start the browser manually. All is well for now 🙂

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A change in attitude to beat poverty

As alluded to before, I have had interesting conversations with many people I have met in my walk of life. Today, I shall share a conversation I had a few years ago on the state of poverty in Lesotho. I am not sure how the conversation started but I distinctively remember its conclusion. The conclusion was if one is hungry and stranded in some random place (particularly in the rural areas) then the best cause of action is to locate a ‘phephesela’ (flag indentifying where local beer is brewed at ). The reason given was that unlike in the past when one could just knock at a stranger’s house; now one is met with poverty accompanied by a greetings in the form of: “ao, ngoana morena! Ha re phela letlala tjee e be u tla jang?” (Translated roughly: what can we possibly offer you, when we live with such hunger! ) A greeting that threatens a legacy of being a welcoming nation of peaceful dwellers.

To those who haven’t been to a place where local beer is brewed, I imagine you are asking yourselves how could going to such a place be a better option? Well, first the local brew is quite filling- so if you also happen to be hungry then you will be sorted . Secondly, the regulars of such places are so much fun and incredibly knowledgeable. I know this because my great aunt, nkhono Makhotso brewed like no other woman to walk planet earth (I might be a bit biased)! Ha bobetse hantle joala ba hae e ne e ba ‘methele kapa lebitla-le-ahlame! (Translated roughly: when her brew was well fermented, it became what locals would term ‘the grave awaits’ unless you heed her advice and took the amount she recommended for your consumption.)

Ok, looks like I derailed a bit 🙂 The point is, poverty is so wide spread and the reality of it in ordinary households can be very depressing. Depressing because you begin to realise that Basotho have become helpless in the face of povety to the extend of being reduced to ‘bags with eyes’ (mekotla e mahlo, mehlohloa e rapame!) Sounds very harsh but the truth is, Basotho in the past believed so much in doing for themselves. They ploughed their land and didn’t need to wait for government to provide them with seeds. As a young child, I remember hearing ‘mphe-mphe ea lapisa, motho o khonoa ke sa ntlo ea hae’ . (Translated roughly: dependency leads to poverty while self-sufficiency leads to prosperity). So unless, each Mosotho makes a shift towards self-sufficiency, we cannot possibly beat poverty and jokingly, ‘phepheselas’ will be discussed as options to dealing with reality. And worse, future generations might grow up not knowing the many adages we have that reflect thoughts of abundance and generosity such as ‘bana ba motho ba arolelana hloho ea tsie’ (translated roughly: related beings share a head of a locust).

*For the sake of clarity, in the context of Sesotho, self-sufficiency does not come at the expense of solidarity. Working together is key, “kopano ke matla”! All I am saying is by changing our outlook we might rediscover past traditions of ‘matsema’ and the likes, where communities found creative solutions to ensure that all have food to eat.

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Value of history & culture

Since starting this blog nearly two weeks ago, I have been thinking a lot about what I know about Lesotho and its history. In the process I have come to realise how much I have been drawn to this topic. I also realised how interesting some of my sources were. As an example, I had very interesting conversations with a gentleman called Kalusi Ramakhula. He is very passionate to say the least and very knowledgeable when it comes to Lesotho history. In the inspiration page, I have included in a succinct form his written piece on ‘value of history and culture’. It is, in my opinion a beautiful piece (although I had forgotten about it) that suggests that by looking into our past while making sure that the future takes precedence, success can be assured!

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Unintended ‘Imperialist’

As part of building the ontology for capturing knowledge about HIV and AIDS, I came across UNAIDS’ Terminology Guidelines document. The document presents preferred terminology for discussing matters on HIV and AIDS. For example, response to AIDS is the prefered alternative to fight against AIDS.

There are many examples, but one in particular, made me realise that in writing my proposal, I came across as an imperialist of sort! I used the term intervention a number of times in articulating the goals of my work. As aptly put in the document,

“[t]his term conveys “doing something to someone or something” and as such undermines the concept of participatory responses.”

In some circles, this translates to imperialism. So in such circles all I can really say in my defense is: I was but an intended imperialist in writing the proposal. I will in the future try as much as I can to avoid terminology that may be perceived in any negative light 🙁