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| Title: | The State and national identity in Lesotho |
| Author: | Quinlan, Tim |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Periodical: | Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law |
| Issue: | 37-38 |
| Pages: | 377-405 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Lesotho |
| Subjects: | nationalism chieftaincy |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/07329113.1996.10756488 |
| Abstract: | The political and economic history of Basutoland incorporated a process in which national identity was disassembled from the State. The political consequences of this disassembling were apparent when Lesotho became an independent State in 1966. Sotho nationalism could not be sustained in the face of the incapacity of the State to improve the existence of its citizens. The State, moreover, had little command over a population whose existence, and, indeed, national identity were based on the bonds between chief and subject, and on links between rural home and urban South Africa, rather than on any substantive affinity with the State. The author outlines recent interventions of the State to show that the State's efforts to impose its authority on the populace have created considerable political tension. He examines the historical process which has led to the rupture between State and nation, focusing on chieftainship which, he argues, has been a key referent in Sotho efforts to sustain a national identity. Rural Basotho have held up the chieftainship as an illustration of the type of society which they have sought to construct in the face of external threats. As such chieftainship is itself subject to popular reassessment. It is a 'modern' institution, and therein lies the crisis facing the State today. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |
