https://orcid.org/0009-0007-5063-5150
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ABSTRACT
Drawing on archival work conducted in South Africa, the UK and Lesotho, and on oral histories collected in 2021–2023, this article historicises the experiences of Basotho living along the Lesotho–South Africa border. It focuses primarily on the part of eastern Free State designated during the apartheid era as the Basotho ‘Homeland’ of QwaQwa and the adjacent Lesotho district of Butha Buthe. Rugged and mountainous, official border markings and crossings are few, but border crossing has been a feature of this region as long as borders have existed. Governments on both sides have long resisted rationalising these crossings, instead showing remarkable continuity over almost 150 years of securitising the border and relying on the rhetoric and logics of nationality to police the crossing of these borders by local residents. Governments have resisted working with local communities, approaching them only when their testimonials might enhance the geopolitical position of the national governments. While today most borderlands residents claim Basotho ethnicity, the realities of the border have strained long-standing ties across the border in the name of national sovereignty and governments have weaponised nationality to claim the loyalty of borderlands residents without reciprocating the relationship by facilitating easier border crossings.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Inhabitants of today’s Lesotho have long referred to the land as ‘Lesotho’, even during the colonial period when the British authorities called the territory ‘Basutoland’. Out of deference to this we will refer to the territory as Lesotho throughout unless directly referencing the colonial government.
2 Similarly, for ease of understanding, we will refer to this territory as QwaQwa throughout, unless directly referencing the prior name.
3 T. Tyerman, ‘Everyday Borders in Calais: The Globally Intimate Injustices of Segregation’, Geopolitics, 26, 2 (2021), 465.
4 J. Agnew, ‘Borders on the Mind: Re-Framing Border Thinking’, Ethics and Global Politics, 1, 4 (2008), 175.
5 P. Vinnicombe, People of the Eland: Rock Paintings of the Drakensberg Bushmen as a Reflection of Their Life and Thought (Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 2009).
6 The main road into the Mokhotlong District from lowlands Lesotho is called Moteng Pass, which came from the name of Sekonyela’s brother, ‘Mota, who led this group up and over that pass in the 1850s. Interview, David Ambrose, Ladybrand, 28 October 2021.
7 For a good summary of the Gun War, see P. Sanders, ‘Throwing Down White Man’: Cape Rule and Misrule in Colonial Lesotho, 1871–1884 (Morija: Morija Museum and Archives, 2010).
8 S. Gill, A Short History of Lesotho (Morija: Morija Museum and Archives, 1993), 107.
9 C. Twala, ‘The QwaQwa Public Service, 1975–1994’, African Historical Review, 50, 1–2 (2018), 79.
10 QwaQwa was originally about 62,000 hectares, but in the 1980s the apartheid regime added about 80,000 hectares to the original land area and attempted to add about 10,000 hectares at Botshabelo near Thaba’Nchu. ‘Proposal to Double Size of QwaQwa’, The Star (Johannesburg), 16 August 1983.
11 Lesotho National Archives (hereafter LNA), S3-7-2-2 Mechachaneng Border, Sworn Statement by Checha, given at Witsieshoek, 2 October 1888.
12 LNA S3-7-2-2 Mechachaneng Border, Sworn Statement by Gaise, given at Witsieshoek, 26 September 1888.
13 LNA S3-7-2-2 Mechachaneng Border, Letter State President Reitz, OFS to Acting Resident Commissioner Maseru, 15 September 1890.
14 LNA S3-7-2-2 Mechachaneng Border, Letter Assistant Commissioner Leribe to Government Secretary Maseru, 5 July 1889.
15 C. Walton, ‘Discovery and Exploration of Basutoland 2: Tracing the Source of the Caledon River’, Basutoland Notes and Records, 1–2 (1960), 34.
16 LNA S3/7/2/3 Witzieshoek–Basutoland Border Fence, Secretary for Native Affairs to Government Secretary, Maseru, 13 April 1917.
17 LNA S3/7/2/3 Witzieshoek–Basutoland Border Fence, 1917 Officer in Charge Butha Buthe to AC Leribe, 30 May 1917.
18 South African National Archives, Pretoria (hereafter SANA P), GG 1466 47/76: Boundaries: Natal-Basutoland, Letter High Commissioner to Governor General, 26 February 1926.
19 SANA P NTS 10122 Basutoland–Natal Boundary 1920s–30s, Letter Secretary for Lands to Secretary for Native Affairs, 12 January 1927.
20 SANA P NTS 10122 Basutoland–Natal Boundary 1920s–30s, Letter Secretary for Native Affairs to Secretary for Lands, March 1927.
21 L. Barnard, J, Stemmet and S. Semela, ‘The Battle of Namoha, QwaQwa (1950): An Oral History Perspective’, Journal for Contemporary History, 30, 3 (2005), 192–196.
22 A.S. Mopeli-Paulus, The World and the Cattle (Johannesburg: Penguin, 2008), 125–148.
23 C. Twala and L. Barnard, ‘The Incorporation of Botshabelo into the Former QwaQwa Homeland: A Logical Consequence of the Apartheid System?’, Journal for Contemporary History, 31, 1 (2006), 162.
24 Gill, Short History, 213.
25 L.B.B.J. Machobane, Government and Change in Lesotho: A Study of Political Institutions (Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1990).
26 L. Evans, ‘Contextualising Apartheid at the End of Empire: Repression, “Development” and the Bantustans’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 47, 2 (2019), 372–411.
27 R. Slater, ‘Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Contested Livelihoods in QwaQwa National Park, South Africa’, The Geographic Journal, 168, 2 (2002), 119.
28 Twala and Barnard, ‘Incorporation of Botshabelo’, 164.
29 The mountain area where the ski resort was to be is spelled different ways in various archives and on different maps. We will refer to it as Khoptjoane for consistency. National Archives of South Africa, Bloemfontein Depot, QwaQwa Archives (hereafter NASA, B Q), CMQ 3/4/2 Commissioner General Correspondence, Sol Kerzner, Southern Sun to J.S. Pansegrouw, Commissioner General, 17 November 1976 and Hendrik Fors to J.S. Pansegrouw, Commissioner General, 22 February 1977.
30 Those efforts are detailed by J. Aerni-Flessner, ‘Development, Politics, and the Centralization of State Power in Lesotho, 1960–1975’, Journal of African History, 55, 3 (2014), 411.
31 ‘Scheme Will Bring Skiing to OFS Border’, The Friend (Bloemfontein), 20 September 1976; ‘SA Ski Resort a Violation, Says Lesotho’, Cape Times (Cape Town), 21 January 1977.
32 SANA P, BAO 2/1753 T8/9/6/2/3 Border Fence Lesotho 1973–1981, Minutes of meeting in Pretoria, 11 September 1978.
33 SANA P BAO 8/295 X43/3/8 Bantu Administration, Agreements on Lesotho, 1978–79, ‘The Boundary Between South Africa and Lesotho’, J.C. Heunis, Law Adviser, 11 July 1979.
34 J. Le May, ‘Border Row Kills R20 Million Ski Resort: Equipment Worth R5 Million Rusts on Durban Docks’, Sunday Express (Johannesburg), 5 April 1982.
35 M. Pherudi, ‘The Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA): Formation, Mission and Schisms’, South African Historical Journal, 45, 1 (2001), 266–277.
36 ‘SAP Holds Lesotho Terrorists from Libya’, Rand Daily Mail (Johannesburg), 18 January 1979.
37 ‘Lesotho Bomb’, Guardian (Manchester), 7 August 1979; ‘Fuel Tanks Blasted in Lesotho’, The Friend (Bloemfontein), 19 December 1979.
38 The British National Archives (hereafter TNA), FCO 105-359 Lesotho-South Africa Relations 1980, Telegram Leahy, Embassy Cape Town to FCO, Maseru, New York, Washington, Bonn, 28 February 1980.
39 Department of International Relations and Cooperation Archives (hereafter DIRCO), Pretoria, BTS 1/159, 87/3 Events Surrounding the Zozo Weather Station: Khoptjoane Border Issue, 11 January 1978.
40 DIRCO BTS 1/159/3/3 Report on the Incident Experienced by the Party of Mr. H. Fors and Three Black Employees of the Oranje Vaal Administration Board in QwaQwa on Sunday 5th April 1981 on Top of Rabies Gully.
41 DIRCO BTS 1/159/3/1 Letter Director-General of Foreign Affairs and Information to Director-General of Cooperation and Development, 1 October 1982.
42 SANA P BAO 8/295 X43/3/8 Bantu Administration, Agreements on Lesotho, 1978–79, ‘The Boundary Between South Africa and Lesotho’, J.C. Heunis, 11 July 1979.
43 SANA P BAO 8/295 X43/3/8 Bantu Administration, Agreements on Lesotho, 1978–79, ‘The Boundary Between South Africa and Lesotho’, J.C. Heunis, 11 July 1979.
44 Interview, David Ambrose, Ladybrand, 28 October 2021.
45 C. Hoag, The Fluvial Imagination: On Lesotho’s Water-Export Economy (Berkeley: University of California Press: 2022), 114–115.
46 Interview, BN, Ha Belo, Lesotho, 30 October 2021.
47 DefenceWeb, ‘SANDF Receives First Upgraded Border Safeguarding Base’, https://www.defenceweb.co.za/sa-defence/sa-defence-sa-defence/sandf-receives-first-upgraded-border-safeguarding-base/ accessed 6 April 2022.
48 Interview, DK, Caledonspoort, Lesotho, 30 October 2021.
49 Ibid.
50 Interview CT, Ha-Belo, Lesotho, 30 October 2021.
51 M. Lelimo, The Question of the Conquered Territory: It’s Time for an Answer (Morija: Morija Museum and Archive, 1998).
52 Interview, TM, Qalo Village, Lesotho, 31 October 2021.
53 Interview, MM, Elite, QwaQwa, 22 Apr 2023; Interview, PP, Clubview, QwaQwa, 22 Apr 2023; Interview, anonymous, Blugumbosch, QwaQwa, 22 Apr 2023. This has been found for Basotho domestics in Bloemfontein as well: M.E. Moletsane, ‘Between Two Worlds: Everyday Life of Basotho Labour Migrants in Bloemfontein, South Africa’, (MA Thesis, University of the Free State, 2016), 101–102; L. Griffin, ‘Unravelling Rights: “Illegal” Migrant Domestic Workers in South Africa’, South African Review of Sociology, 42, 2 (2011), 83–101.
54 Interview, JP, Caledonspoort, Lesotho, 30 October 2021.
55 Interview, TP, Phuthaditjhaba, South Africa, 14 January 2022.
56 Informal conversation with spaza shop owners, Butha Buthe, Lesotho 31 October 2021.
57 Interview, JP, Caledonspoort, Lesotho, 30 October 2021.
58 Informal conversation with RS, Mohokare crosser near Caledonspoort, Lesotho, 30 October 2021.
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Funding
Notes on contributors
John Aerni-Flessner
John Aerni-Flessner is an associate professor in the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University (USA) and a research fellow in the Department of History, University of the Free State (RSA). ORCID: 0009-0007-5063-5150
Grey Magaiza
Grey Magaiza is a senior lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Head of the Community Development Programme at the University of the Free State, QwaQwa.