Uncovering the Spiritual Dimension of the Basotho Objection to Resettlement

Abstract

Experience shows that Africans are often, if not always, opposed to landrelated projects which include resettlement as one of their concomitant
effects. One project that has recently met this kind of opposition from some
of the local people in Lesotho is the Lesotho Highlands Water Project. This
is the project aimed at harnessing the water resources of the Highlands
of Lesotho to the mutual benefit of both Lesotho and South Africa. This
paper attempts to look at what spiritually may be taken as what underlies
such opposition. The paper argues that underlying the Basotho’s refusal to
be resettled is the fact that for Africans there is more to land than appears
on the surface. It attempts to explain this in terms of African holistic
cosmology. The paper argues specifically that Basotho’s veneration of their
ancestors’ graveyards, the dependence of the living upon their ancestors
for their material welfare, and the Basotho’s traditional healers’ mystical
identification with some aspects of nature, all of which give the spiritual
value to the land, are the source of the problem.