photo of person from Lesotho the maluti mountains
lesotho
 
THEMES IN THIS TESTIMONY
Agriculture  
Community Activities  
Compensation  
Development  
Employment and Income  
Environment  

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Nathnael

(LESOTHO 19)

Sex

male

Age

61

Occupation

farmer

Location

Molika-liko

Date

summary

LESOTHO 19 SUMMARY

detailed breakdown

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Section Section 1-2  Personal details. Family has lived in area for three generations. Agriculture provides for most needs “but money is still necessary” (reason people work in the mines). Sharecropping.
Section 3  Father is still alive and manages family land. He does not plant with him. More on sharecropping.
Section 4  Growing maize and cannabis. Narrator uncertain whether to talk about cannabis. Interviewer assures him he is not a police officer. “Cannabis is truly the wealth of this land…. It is a thing which is like a diamond.
Section Section 5-7  Agricultural information. Types of crops, problems in planting. Drought is the only cause of lower yields. Frosts. Different maize used in the past. Present type of maize grows better and withstands drought better Work in mines 1972-83. Bought sheep and settled in Molika-liko.
Section Section 8-9  Agricultural practices: “Sowing in lines”. Cannabis – most lucrative crop. Setting of prices done individually, not at village level.
Section 10  Complaints about water project: not being informed that whole valley would be inundated; thinking the dam project would give them jobs; hearing through the grapevine about resettlement. “Now truly we felt that we did not understand it properly as to what it could be, it is what kind of thing that the water will cover the place that is here.
Section 11  He is reticent about speaking about compensation. He says he must wait and see to see if it is adequate. Not wanting to go to the lowlands and leaving the place he knows.
Section Section 12-14  Discussion of who is to blame for their dilemma (not very clear). Animals and carrying capacity of land – says grazing is adequate. Fertility of soil. it has been fertilised by God this one. It has always been like that.” Discussion about keeping a smaller number of improved livestock. The interviewer says he continued the discussion after he finished the interview.