Self-Organisation in the Struggle for Economic Democracy in Colonial and Post-Colonial Lesotho, 1870s–2010s

Sean Maliehe

Journal of Southern African Studies, 2022, vol. 48, issue 3, 437-452

Abstract: This article explores a history of self-organisation among the Basotho traders in Lesotho’s colonial and post-colonial commerce from the 1870s to the 2010s. Using historical sources, the article argues that Basotho’s forms of self-organisation – voluntary business associations and co-operatives – are indispensable in their persistent struggle for economic democracy. Under colonial (1870s–1966) and post-colonial (1966–2010s) conditions of poverty, exclusion and authoritarianism, their forms of self-organisation, outside state intervention, blends their economic and political aspirations to have a meaningful say and participation in the economic affairs of their country. Their associational life illuminates particularised normative forms of humanism embedded in the historic and social fabric of their society.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1080/03057070.2022.2066298

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