Land from the ancestors: popular religious pilgrimage along the South Africa-Lesotho border
Between 1843 and 1869 the Basotho monarchy lost the better part of its cultivable land to the white settlers of the Orange Free State. While various political appeals for the return of this "Conquered Territory" by the successor state of Lesotho since 1965 have proved unavailing, recent ye...
| Published in: | Journal of Southern African studies |
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| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge Taylor & Francis Group
2003
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| In: |
Journal of Southern African studies
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| Further subjects: | B
Pilgrim
B Manners and customs B Borderland B Pilgrimage B Africa B People B Custom B South Sotho B Tree trunk Ethnology B Real estate B Lesotho B Ancestor cult |
| Summary: | Between 1843 and 1869 the Basotho monarchy lost the better part of its cultivable land to the white settlers of the Orange Free State. While various political appeals for the return of this "Conquered Territory" by the successor state of Lesotho since 1965 have proved unavailing, recent years have seen a rapid re-occupation of certain highland caves and their environs by pilgrims who identify them as "sacred to the ancestors". (...) Attempts by the local white landowners to expel the pilgrims have proved fruitless in South Africa's "new frontier" districts bordering Lesotho, as the state is no longer willing to place the sanctity of private property above popular rights of access to religious and heritage sites. (...) Grounded in the post-apartheid context of racialised contestation over the land, the study points to the emergence of a new set of conflicting ideological discourses operating parallel to cooperative forms of practical coexistence between black and white on the Free State-Lesotho border. (JSAS/DÜI) |
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| ISSN: | 0305-7070 |
| Contains: | In: Journal of Southern African studies
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