Ke mosali oa Mosotho : reflecting on indigenous conceptions of womanhood in Lesotho

ABSTRACTThis paper challenges the invisibilisation and silencing of indigenous conceptions of womanhood in feminist scholarly work. It argues that “Mosotho woman,” as we know it today, is a colonial construct for it is located within and fixed to hetero-patriarchal binarised hierarchies. It further argues for the reflection on historical narratives of women the likes of ‘Manthatisi of the Batlokoa as exceptional representations of precolonial conceptions of womanhood in Lesotho. As we interrogate the current invocations of “woman” in Lesotho, we ought to use these herstories as springboards to understand the silenced indigenous conceptions of bosali (womanhoods) that are not only complex but multifarious and beyond the confines of binarised hetero-patriarchal constructions. Drawing on the narrated life stories of 20 “never-married” women – methepa – the paper discusses boithlompho (self-respect), mosali oa ‘mankhonthe (perseverance), sexual empowerment, and botho (personhood) as underpinning the indigenous definitions of bosali. This paper argues for retrieval, elevation, and continuation of indigenous languages, rituals, and spaces as sources of knowledge and theory on womanhoods in local contexts.KEYWORDS: WomanhoodsexualityindigenoushistoriographyLesothodecolonial African feminism Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1. The Beauvoirean scholarship refers to second wave feminisms in Europe and America. This scholarship critiques the patriarchal construction of womanhood and its limitation to specific attributes which ultimately inform and justify the relegation of women to an inferior position compared to men in society.2. Whilst this scholarship usefully presents a contradictory theoretical stance against universalist, Eurocentric conceptions of identity, including womanhood, its major weakness is its tendency of essentialising African womanhood to motherhood and romanticising African women’s power (Bakare-Yusuf Citation2003) in ways that problematically disregard women’s realities in contemporary African societies. In particular, the tendency to essentialise motherhood – as the bedrock of African womanhood and African women’s power – marks this conception as exclusionary of those women who are not mothers. Further, in speaking of female, maternal power, this conception is exclusionary of hetero-patriarchally marginalised groups such as transgender women.3. Basali ba Basotho is the plural of mosali oa Mosotho and it is directly translated as women of the Basotho. I opted not to use “Mosotho woman” or Basotho women because this is a misuse of Sesotho nouns as English adjectives. In furthering the decolonial break that this paper is making, I was cautious not to continue this colonial misuse of Sesotho words. Instead, I use women in Lesotho to refer to women generally and methepa to refer to the participants of this study. Notable is the different orthography of Sesotho written in Lesotho compared to South Africa, for example mosali vs mosadi – the latter replaces li with di yet the meaning remains the same. In this paper, I use the Lesotho orthography for all Sesotho concepts.4. All principles of ethical research were observed and adhered to. Ethical clearance was obtained from the University of Pretoria Research Ethics Committee in May 2017 (Reference: 04381734-GW20170412HS).5. Letekatse is the singular for matekatse6. Hlonipha is the Nguni term which refers to respect, the Sesotho equivalent is hlonepha. Hlonepha is a verb and hlonepho is a noun.7. Mankhonthe holds deeper meaning than “real” or authentic. Instead, it encompasses a range of aspects such as resilience, strength, respect, community building to name a few. For a lack of a better word to translate it, I settled for real or authentic.8. Important to note is that this idiom holds deeper meanings for a marital relationship, in particular, it acknowledges that the couple may have fights but none of them can terminate the marriage before discussions are held with both families. Traditionally, marriage is a relationship between two families as opposed to individuals. Although its gendered connotations cannot be denied, the idiom also emphasises the need for a joint discussion to resolve the issues before the marriage can be dissolved.9. The notion of the “strong black woman” is linked to historical accounts of enslaved Black women that emphasise strength. Because they were considered and treated as property, and as strong, enslaved women were subjected brutalising conditions, and to strengthen economic productivity, their fertility was controlled by slave masters to increase labour force (Collins Citation2004). This stereotype continues to shape conceptions of black womanhood in racist sexist US society, and Black women are expected to embody strength and perseverance at all times.10. The discussion of “colonisation of minds” is worth mentioning because of its significance in respect to the deep embeddedness and normalisation of hetero-patriarchal, Christianised notions of womanhood in Lesotho. A deeper reflection of these issues is relevant in respect to the arguments raised in the paper, however, this discussion is worthy of another upcoming paper.Additional informationNotes on contributorsNeo MohlabaneNeo Mohlabane is a Lecturer in the Sociology Department at the University of Pretoria. She holds a Master of Public Health and Doctorate in Sociology from the University of Pretoria. Her speciality is in Gender Studies and her research interests lie in the areas of violence against women and girls, African femininities, adolescent and youth sexualities, intersectionality and decolonial African feminisms.