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| Section 1-2 |
Personal and family history. Children – six surviving out of eight.
His betrothal and marriage.
All his children are at school, except two who are herdboys.
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| Section Section 3-4 |
His brothers’ and sisters’ work (two brothers work in the mines)
Agriculture: “…crops – maize, wheat, peas, and others – we are able to have in abundance”.
Selling surplus crops and wool/mohair. Also sell animals when need to raise some money for the family, but he does not have many (only ten).
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| Section 4 |
Life as a boy – herding, drinking milk straight from the cow, collecting wild plants; no proper schooling.
Wild plants are still available and there are boys who still know about them.
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| Section 5-6 |
Initiation – changes in customs, especially higher fees: “They now simply consider what you have in hand. If you are well to do, he will charge you one hundred and something. Perhaps that is … just for the scarification. After this you will probably be charged a further two hundred rands, explanation being that it is for firewood.”
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| Section 6 |
Sickness as a boy: ‘The head swelled and became thus big …After that I showed signs of an insane person.’
Details of how he was treated: ‘With this goat he purified me. That is to say in the manner of taking the bile’. Unwilling to go into too much detail about “sethuela” practices.
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| Section 7-8 |
Digging medicinal herbs and treating people. Brief explanation of his practices. Does not make animal sacrifices.
Traditional feasts and dancing.
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| Section 9-10 |
Pastures reduced because of increase in arable farming.
Herbs that can be found here but not in other parts of Lesotho: Khonathi (edible root used to treat barrenness for women); spiral aloe.
Controlled collecting of plants to ensure species survive.
Abundance of food in the area; occasional overflowing of rivers.
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| Section 10-11 |
His views on resettlement: “It seems to us that the promises we have been made are not going to be kept.”
Benefits of the area: “we never find ourselves in any difficulties since this land of ours provides us with everything”.
Problems over compensation.
Choice of places to move to: ‘We have opted to choose places where we might perhaps find it possible to live as we had at our former places.’
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| Section 12 |
Examples of promises to others that have not been kept: amounts of money, quantity and quality of grain, wells. Problems with new houses due to poor construction.
Being told not to plough some of his land.
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| Section 13-14 |
Problems in determining value of fields – measuring size rather than yield: ‘Let the “acre” be understood in its Sesotho sense and not in the white man’s sense…. . It should not be handled in the white man’s way. It would cheat us terribly.’
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detailed
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