Land Spiritual Value: The Underlying Cause for Basotho's Objection to Resettlement.

Abstract

The Lesotho Highlands Water Project is an undertaking aimed at harnessing the water resources of the Highlands of Lesotho to the mutual benefit of South Africa and Lesotho. One of the major obstacles that the project has had to face is the objection of those whose areas have been affected by the project to resettlement. This article sees the spiritual value which is attached to the land by Africans as the real cause of the objection. It goes further to explain some objection in terms of an African holistic cosmology which seems to have been overlooked by the project's authorities in their Compensation Plan.


Review of Southern African Studies Volume 3 No. 1 June 1999, pp. 164-176