Academic literature on the topic 'Lesotho – Religion'

Includes bibliographical references.<br>The subjugation of women dates back to ancient times. Through the centuries the suppression of women has taken different forms. With a few exceptions most African societies are patriarchal in character. They relegate women to a minor position and subject them to the guardianship of male partners. Traditionally, men were regarded as senior to women irrespective of age. This tradition of men regarding themselves as superior to women has its roots in our socio-cultural norms in Lesotho. Culturally men are regarded by society as superior to women. This perception of men is transferred to the work situation. Consequently, even at work, men are perceived as 'strong' and 'powerful.' In the higher institutions of Lesotho, there is now awareness that the proportion of academic women in senior positions remains small by comparison to that of men. A large number of women are found at the lower end of the scale. Despite the fact that Basotho women are more educated than their male counterparts The study argues that women's slow progress in upward mobility in the employment sector is attributed to a combination of factors. This study therefore, seeks to: * Explore the factors which constrain women to occupy the senior positions of the academic hierarchy and senior administrative positions within the academy; * Investigates the framework of attitudes and beliefs that undermines the status and the role that women have and continue to have in Lesotho in general, the academic sphere in particular; * Suggest steps, which could be taken towards the amelioration of the present undesirable situation in the academic sphere. Feminist research was chosen as the theoretical/conceptual framework of the study. The importance of this framework is that it uses the concept of gender as an analytical category. Feminist construction methodology through the use of qualitative paradigm was used as an appropriate tool for the purposes of obtaining in-depth information of the situation in Lesotho. As qualitative method comprises different methods, case study method was used to provide an in-depth examination of women's experiences as well as to provide the meaning of their experiences in the academic sphere. For data collection the study used both the primary and secondary methods. The primary includes the method of interviewing techniques. The interviews were in a form of a semi-structured schedule using open-ended questions. The documentary sources include documents relating to the government, public records and reports. Secondary methods include the literature, internet, and journals. A total number of sixteen women were interviewed using an in-depth interview schedule. The analysis of data was informed by the grounded theory. The findings of this study are that discrimination against women is a norm and that women perceived themselves to be oppressed by the patriarchal relations. Women have been brought up in such a way that they feel they are socially inferior to their male counterparts and tend to have a low self-esteem. Basotho customs and religious practices all play a role in reinforcing the lower status of women. All these are transferred to the workplace. In the academic sphere there is that great disparity of sex segregation between men and women. It is indeed possible that the most effective way of influencing employment behaviour is so far as it relates females may be to concentrate on modifying the sex in family rather than by means of legislation directed to the operation of the labour market itself on which government have traditionally placed reliance and emphasis.

Cette étude anthropologique est une interrogation sur la possibilité d’une rencontre entre les Sotho de l’Afrique australe et des missionnaires de la Société des missions évangéliques de Paris au XIXe siècle. Elle est un exercice de « sur-écriture » à partir de l’analyse renouvelée de textes insérés dans les Journaux des missions évangéliques. Trois partis pris principaux guident cette exploration. D’abord, si la rencontre a eu lieu, qu’en est-il de sa répartition ? La première piste suivie invite à se questionner sur les modalités des contacts avec l’ensemble des Sotho, la femme Sotho ou le chef Moshoeshoe. Ensuite, si Dieu a conduit les religieux auprès des Africains, omniprésent, il n’est pas que surplombant. Le second point aborde la question de la matérialité de Dieu comme pour le toucher et éventuellement atteindre la rencontre. Enfin, les Sotho, hôtes des missionnaires, deviennent les otages des narrateurs. Leurs adversaires, les autres Africains, croisés par les évangélisateurs sont-ils l’Autre dont l’absence ne peut que remettre en cause toute idée de rencontre ?<br>This anthropological study is an interrogation about a possible talks between Sotho of Southern Africa and missionaries of the French 'Société des missions évangéliques de Paris' during the 19th century. It is an exercise of transcription from renewed analysis of write-ups published in journals of evangelical missions. Three major preconceptions have guided this analysis so far. First of all, if meetings took place, what was the occurrence of such events? The first trail questions the modalities of the contacts with the Sotho together, the Sotho woman or with the chief Moshoeshoe. Then, if God has led clergymen to the Africans, omnipresent God is not only overhanging. The second point deals with the materiality of God so as to touch him and eventually reach the meeting. Finally the Sotho, hosts of the missionaries, became the hostages of the storytellers. Are the Sotho's opponents, the other Africans who were met by the evangelists, the ones whose absence may lead to reconsidering the idea of meeting?

This thesis finds out how the concepts of the divine in African Traditional Religions are similar or different, particularly in Ghana and Lesotho and in other parts of Africa in general. In doing so, the researcher combines literature review of eminent scholars who have studied the religious and socio-cultural life of the people of Ghana and Lesotho in particular and Africa in general, with personal field study through dissemination of questionnaires, interviews and personal observations. Through this approach he finds out the various religious phenomena that reveal the concept of the divine in the two countries concerned and in other African countries through comparison of their worships and socio-cultural activities in order to come out with the differences and the similarities that may call for synthesis of the concept in Africa. He also finds out how the concept of the divine in Africa has been influenced by foreign religions and culture particularly Christianity, Islam, Western culture and Education. And how their services and disservices have affected the concept of the divine in Africa. The researcher also looks at the issue of monotheism as against polytheism in African religious perspective to find out whether the African Traditional Religions are polytheistic, monotheistic or monolatry. The study reveals that the concept of the divine, in the two countries under study, ends up in one Supreme deity-God- .but that the approach to the concept is not always the same. There are some differences and similarities, which also prevail in other African Traditional Religions and in Christianity. There is also a look into whether the term "African Traditional Religions" is appropriate for the religious belief and practices found in Africa, and whether a synthesis of religious practices in Africa would be possible in future. In the final analysis the study reveals that the African concept of the divine as pertains in the two countries is not different from that of Christianity and Islam but that the approach to the concept differs due to differences in the perception of the divine through sociocultural and religious milieus.<br>Religious Studies & Arabic<br>D. Litt. et Phil. (Religious Studies)

This dissertation aims at finding out the religious significance of Basotho ritual practices at births, weddings and funerals in Lesotho. The researcher combines literature review of scholars who have studied the Basotho socio-cultural life, with personal field study through dissemination of questionnaires, interviews and personal observations. Through this approach he finds out the various ritual practices that dot the Basotho life through the rites of passage, and then studies their religiousness in terms of traditional beliefs. He also finds out how these ritual practices have persisted in the face of Christian influence and western education, and how far they have been influenced. There is also an attempt to look into the importance of ancestor veneration in connection with Basotho beliefs and practices. The study reveals that the religious connotation of the ritual practices lies in how people seek transcendental meaning to life through the ritual practices.<br>Religious Studies & Arabic<br>M.A. (Religious Studies)

The study is concerned with deconstructing the effects of patriarchal discourses on the identities of women experiencing domestic violence in marital relationships. It is explored within a feminist pastoral care framework within the Basotho culture. This is seen through the lens of Basotho culture and the Christian church as understood in an emerging postmodern culture. The study explores and deconstructs patriarchal beliefs around the identities of Basotho women experiencing domestic violence in marital relationships through discursive conversations. This study has sought to benefit any Mosotho woman who suffers under the control and abuse of her husband. The study does this by giving her a voice to deconstruct the silencing and disempowering patriarchal stories/identities. In turn it hopefully allows her to construct her own empowering preferred multiple identities without blaming anybody. However, by the very nature of this study,’ the effects of patriarchy on identities of Basotho women experiencing domestic violence in marital relations’ there was partiality and subjectivity throughout my discussions and reflections, as I found it hard to stand back from my resentment.<br>Philosophy, Practical and Systematic Theology<br>M. Th. (Practical Theology)

This study explores the operations of Sesotho masculinity: its dominant ideas and practices and their effects on Basotho women and men and this latter‟s resistance to a gender-ethical consciousness gaining momentum in Lesotho. It challenges a deep running belief among the Basotho that being born male necessarily means being born into a superior social position and status that is naturally and divinely sanctioned. It investigates how the dominant postcolonial discourse called sekoele (a return to the traditions of the ancestors) and the Christian churches‟ discourses of the “true”/“authentic” Christian life, framed by the classical biblical and confessional dogmatic traditions, actually support and sustain this belief and so reinforce the imbalance of power in favour of men in the order of gender relations in Lesotho. On the contrary, through the principles of the contextual theologies of liberating praxis, social construction theory, a narrative approach to therapy, gender-ethical consciousness and participatory approach, the study argues that masculinity and ways of being and thinking about men are socially constructed through historical and cultural processes and practices. It is in these processes and practices that Basotho men have been and continue to be advantaged and privileged over women. This study has challenged this situation by tracing the existence of alternative, more ethical ways of being and thinking about men in those historical and cultural processes and practices; ways which are more open to women and children and their wellbeing in the everyday life interactions. In this way, the study argues for a gender-ethical consciousness, which, in particular, invites Basotho men to engage in a reflection on their participation in a culture and practices which oppress the other, especially women and children. It invites Basotho men to accountability and responsibility. In this sense a gender-ethical consciousness is understood as watershed of masculinity in Lesotho. The participation of a group of Basotho men who offered to reflect on their relationship with the dominant masculinities, demonstrates how Basotho men are struggling to transform yet they fill us with the hope that change is possible.<br>Humanities Social Sciences and Theology<br>D. Th. (Practical Theology with specialisation in Pastoral Therapy)

This dissertation attempts to identify the aims of Religious Education in Lesotho secondary schools. The time of missionary .enterprise in the Nineteenth Century has been followed in the second half of the Twentieth Century by dynamic political and socioeconomic change. This period is marked by considerable uncertainty about the aims of religious education.

Lesotho, like any other country in the world, has suffered economic problems that saw many Basotho able-bodied males migrating to the Republic of South Africa, in search of employment since the nineteen century. The mass exodus of men to become migrant workers left a vacuum of responsibilities at home, which women and men used to share. This imposition of men's responsibility on women has become a burden which they were never prepared for, and for that reason, many women find it impossible to cope with this double burden in the absence of their husbands. Besides creating disharmony in the family, it has also caused gender clashes between women and their husbands who will not let go their role of headship ofthe household. Rather than let their wives take over full responsibility ofthe household, in their absence, husbands feel threatened and try to be in charge of the household through 'remote control', while in the mines. Because many men refuse to affirm women in their new responsibility, results in a big crisis for women, who feel that their husbands do not respect and trust them. The purpose of my research, therefore, is to try and address women's crisis through counselling. Because many of these women are members of the church, I feel the church faces the biggest challenge to alleviate the women's crisis through counselling. It is my hope, then, that women in turn, will avail themselves of counselling finding it a good tool to deal with their crisis.<br>Thesis (M.Th.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1999.