The Impact of The Second World War on Basotho Women: Agricultural Subsistence and the War Effort

Abstract

This is a study of the agricultural aspect of a historical account of Lesotho's “sacrifice” on the homefront focussing on the lives of Basotho women during the Second World War (1939-1945). The central argument is that wartime Lesotho is a classic case of a colonial labour reserve forced into war by its dependent status, a war that was none of its making. The impact of the conflict is presented as a chapter in the country's overall underdevelopment under British rule, and as a paradox of an “unprotected” protectorate being forced to aid a belligerent colonial power and neglectful peacetime protector. Most of all, the crux of the study is that it was Basotho women, young and old, who were “left behind” to assume the main burden of the war effort amidst the harsh daily reality of life under wartime conditions.


(Review of Southern African Studies: 2000 4 (1): 1-18)