The Basutos: the mountaineers & their country;: Being a narrative of events relating to the tribe from its formation early in the nineteenth century to the present day
Singing Away the Hunger : The Autobiography of an African Woman
by Mpho Matsepo Nthunya
from Indiana University Press
Southern Africa: South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Lesotho, and Southern Mozambique (Traveller's Wildlife Guides)
by Bill Branch
from Interlink
From the world-famous Kruger National Park in South Africa to Botswana's Okavango Delta, Namibia's Etosha National Park, and Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, ecotravellers want to experience African savannahs, forests, deserts, and other stunning habitats and catch glimpses of some of the world's most spectacular wildlife: hornbills and parrots, monkeys and big cats, frogs and toads, crocodiles and snakes. This book provides all the information you need to find, identify, and learn about Southern Africa's magnificent animal life. - Identifying and location information on the most frequently seen animals. - Up-to-date information on the ecology, behavior, and conservation of the animals. - More than 500 full-color illustrations of Southern Africa's most common amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammal-the species you are most likely to see. - Information about and photos of Southern Africa's major habitat types. - Descriptions and photos of Southern Africa's most frequently visited parks and reserves. Easy-to-carry, entertainingly written, beautifully illustrated-you will want to have this book as constant companion on your journey.
African Painted Houses: Basotho Dwellings of Southern Africa
by Gary N. Van Wyk
from Harry N. Abrams
Prayer and protest come in many guises. The Basotho women of South Africa and Lesotho pray to their ancestors for rain, abundance, and peace by painting and slicing brilliant geometric murals on the mud plaster walls of their houses. "If the prayers are successful," says photographer and author Gary N. van Wyk, "the rains arrive and wash away the paintings." Growing up white under apartheid, van Wyk noticed these vivid houses while traveling with his family through the Highveld below Johannesburg where many Basotho lived and worked on white-owned farms. In the years when links to the outlawed African National Congress party were often severely punished, some Basotho women defiantly splashed their homes with the black, green, and gold colors of the ANC. Van Wyk joined in such protests as an art student by helping paint street murals of state-sanctioned violence. A passion for recording political graffiti led him back to the dwellings decorated in ANC colors, several of which he photographed for this dazzling testament to Basotho lives, ceremonies, history, and art. --Francesca Coltrera
Moshesh, the man on the mountain (The English-readers' library)
In the Time of Cannibals: The Word Music of South Africa's Basotho Migrants (Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology)
by David B. Coplan
from University Of Chicago Press
Coplan discusses every aspect of the Basotho musical literature, taking into account historical conditions, political dynamics, and social forces as well as the styles, artistry, and occasions of performance. He engages the postmodern challenge to decolonize our representation of the ethnographic subject and demonstrates how performance formulates local knowledge and communicates its shared understandings.
Complete with transcriptions of full male and female performances, this book develops a theoretical and methodological framework crucial to anyone seeking to understand the relationship between orality and literacy in the context of performance. This work is an important contribution to South African studies, to ethnomusicology and anthropology, and to performance studies in general.
The Rough Guide to South Africa, Lesotho & Swaziland 3 (Rough Guide Travel Guides)
by Tony Pinchuck
from Rough Guides
INTRODUCTION
South Africa is a large, diverse and incredibly beautiful country. The size of France and Spain combined, it varies from the picturesque Garden Route towns of the Western Cape to the raw stretch of subtropical coast in northern KwaZulu-Natal. It's also one of the great cultural meeting points of the African continent, a fact obscured by years of enforced racial segregation, but now manifest in the big cities. Yet South Africa is also something of an enigma; it has the best travel facilities on the African continent, but also the most difficult surface to scratch. After so long as an international pariah, the "rainbow nation" is still struggling to find its identity.
Many visitors are pleasantly surprised by South Africa's excellent infrastructure, which draws favourable comparison with countries such as Australia or the United States. Good air links and bus networks, excellent roads and a growing number of first-class B&Bs and guesthouses make South Africa a perfect touring country and - with the dramatic slide of the rand in 2001 - a cheap one too for visitors. For those on a budget, rapidly mushrooming backpacker hostels and backpacker buses provide an efficient means of exploring.
However, as a visitor, you'll have to make an effort to meet members of the country's African majority on equal terms. Apartheid may be dead, but its heritage continues to shape South Africa in a very physical way. The country was organized for the benefit of whites, so it's easy to get a very white-orientated experience of Africa. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the layout of towns and cities, where African areas - often desperately poor - are usually tucked out of sight.
Some visitors are surprised to discover that South Africa's population doesn't reduce simply to black and white. The country's majority group are Africans (77 percent of the population); whites make up 11 percent, followed by coloureds (9 percent) - the descendants of white settlers, slaves and Africans, who speak English and Afrikaans and comprise the majority in the Western Cape. Indians (3 percent), most of whom live in KwaZulu-Natal, came to South Africa at the beginning of the twentieth century as indentured labourers.
Crime isn't the indiscriminate phenomenon that press reports suggest, but it is an issue. Really, it's a question of perspective - taking care but not becoming paranoid. Statistically, the odds of becoming a victim are highest in downtown Johannesburg, where violent crime is a daily reality. Other cities present a reduced risk - similar to, say, some parts of the United States; many country areas are safe by any standards.
Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870-1960 (Africa and the Diaspora)
by Elizabeth Eldredge
from University of Wisconsin Press
In Power in Colonial Africa: Conflict and Discourse in Lesotho, 1870–1960, Elizabeth A. Eldredge analyzes a panoply of archival and oral resources, visual signs and symbols, and public and private actions to show how power may be exercised not only by rulers but also by the ruled. The BaSotho—best known for their consolidation of a kingdom from the 1820s to 1850s through primarily peaceful means, and for bringing colonial forces to a standstill in the Gun War of 1880–1881—struggled to maintain sovereignty over their internal affairs during their years under the colonial rule of the Cape Colony (now part of South Africa) and Britain from 1868 to 1966. Eldredge explores instances of BaSotho resistance, resilience, and resourcefulness in forms of expression both verbal and non-verbal. Skillfully navigating episodes of conflict, the BaSotho matched wits with the British in diplomatic brinksmanship, negotiation, compromise, circumvention, and persuasion, revealing the capacity of a subordinate population to influence the course of events as it selectively absorbs, employs, and subverts elements of the colonial culture.
A South African Kingdom: The Pursuit of Security in Nineteenth-Century Lesotho (African Studies)
by Elizabeth A. Eldredge
from Cambridge University Press
The Basotho kingdom emerged and consolidated in the dramatic and dangerous environment of nineteenth-century South Africa. Elizabeth Eldredge explores its transition from chiefdom to kingdom to the British colony of Basutoland. She provides a rich description of local agriculture and craft industries, including an analysis of the roles of women in production and politics. Emphasizing the resourcefulness of the Basotho, the book describes how they united in their struggle to sustain their society and economy in the face of political and environmental threats.
The Basotho kingdom emerged and consolidated in the dramatic and dangerous environment of nineteenth-century South Africa. Elizabeth Eldredge explores its transition from chiefdom to kingdom to the British colony of Basutoland. She provides a rich description of local agriculture and craft industries, including an analysis of the roles of women in production and politics. Emphasizing the resourcefulness of the Basotho, the book describes how they united in their struggle to sustain their society and economy in the face of political and environmental threats.
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