The basotho people at the mountains.

Basotho pictures on rites of passage

                               The basotho boys on initiation from boyhood to men.

Rites of passage in Basotho culture.

Women give birth with the assistance of female birth attends. Traditionally relatives and friends soaked the father with water when his first born child was a girl. If first born was a boy the father was beaten with a stick. The philosophy of this is that Basotho people noticed that life of males is occupied warfare, females by domestic duties such as fetching water. For two months or three months the child was kept secluded with the mother in a special marked hut. The seclusion could be temporarily broken when the baby was brought outside to be introduced to the first rain.
Rite of initiation boys and girls will be introduced into adult hood. Boys initiation involves a lengthy stay in a lodge in a secluded area away from the village they taught appropriate male conduct in marriage, special initiation traditions, cords words and signs and praise songs. In basotho the initiation is marked by the community festival during which the new initiates (mokolwane) sing the praises they have compose. Traditional belief a man who has not undergone the initiation is not considered as adult.
Initiation for girls (bale) also involves seclusion but ritual huts of the bale are generally located near village. Bale wear masks and goat skin skirts and they smear thier bodies with a chalky white substance. They may sometimes may be seen as a group near the home relatives singing dancing and making requests for presents. Among some clans the girls are subjected to tests of pain and endurance. After the period of seclusion the initiates now called litswejane, wear cowhide skirts and anoint themselves with red ocher initiation for girls does not involve any surgical operation in basotho.
In Basotho a period of working in mines was considered a kind of rite of passage that one as a man. Lastly in Basotho when someone dies the whole community takes part in the burial. Speeches are made at the grave side by relatives and friends. Then adult man take turns shoveling soil into the grave with silence. After all things are done as a group to wash thier hands, there may also be a funeral feast.

The Basotho people in their different costumes geared to perfom in certain activities because they value thier culture.

Arts and Crafts of the Basotho

Basotho people are renowned for their crafts. Thier traditional products have a reputation for quality individuality and variety. They have a universal appeal and have help to give Basotho a strong identity. Basotho people has a justifiable reputation for thier fine wool and mohair weaving. Tapestries which are works of art that display thier own unique character and noted for thier beauty softness and strength. The artistic talent of many Basotho women also finds expression in the fine knitwear including scarves and other personal items.
The traditional Basotho Hat called mokorotlo is the best known of a fine range of grass works made by Basotho. Its a conical shape is seen everywhere in the kingdom and is recognised symbol in Basotho society. The Hat's shape was inspired by the profile of Mount Qiloane the legendary conical mountain close to Thaba Bosiu and described by Masupha as Mother and Father. Other locally made gold and silver jewellery decorated with seeds and stones and local pottery that demonstrates the skills and creative art of the village potter.

Basotho people and culture

Although the Basotho people work out side thier country they still contain thier local village and traditional culture is still strong. The family is still the dominant unit and respect for the elder generation is important. Basotho culture is centered on village life and most traditions and festivals relate to local village and seasons of the year.  No traditional wedding is complete without colourful dances. Each village of basotho has a chief or head man who still fall under the chief for the area. The basotho are agriculturists. The chief allocates the fields around the villagers. Different types of crops are cultivated including sorghum,  beans and vegetables. Many local herbs are gathered as green vegetables which the basotho call moroho which give them good health and make them stronger thats thier philosophy. Animals are very important in basotho society. The Basotho pony represents the best form of transport in the mountains and donkeys are often used as pack animals. Most Basotho families have some more cattle and oxen are used to plough the sloping mountain fields. They are also used to supplement thier deit and cows they are killed during some special ceremonies.

Basotho Religion

In pre-conial times the Basotho people worshiped the balimo, the ancestor spirits. They believed that the spirits had power to heal defferent diseases and punish those  who disobeyed laws and customs of the society and balimo can bring misfortune and illness to the community if disobeys the spirits. Their religion was shaped by thier environment in that they are so isolated from others that they were somewhat on thier worship for time and greatly relied on each other rather than outside influences because they are built from unity and peace.

The Basotho religion they was no sacrificial ceremonies like the Ibo tribes made sacrifies to thier gods and ancestors. The Ibo people had many gods whom they worshipped along with the ancestor spirits, whereas there is no mention of the Basotho having any direct gods whom they rely on.

The Basotho were never colonized like many other African tribes, the Basotho appealed to Great Britain in the mid 1800s for help and protection during civil unrest. They independent religion still, yet some have accepted thier British friends Christianity. The British influence of thier religion is from imperialism,  which is the domination of culture over another. As for now, 90% of the Basotho claim to be Christian, most of them being Roman Catholic. Many have combined and intertwined the original religion of the worship of balimo along with practices of Christianity.

How to wear basotho blanket

This video shows how Basotho people wear thier blankets.