When I was in Basutoland I often had to travel to posts in the mountains
to “show the flag”. On one occasion I travelled to Marakabei with my
interpreter, the recording equipment, a number of relevant law books in a
travelling case (euphemistically called “the library”), a clerk, and food, etc.
only to find, as often happened in Basutoland, that the rivers were down in
flood and the witnesses had been unable to make it to the court. It so
happened that a District Commissioner had also travelled up the mountain
road to carry out an administrative task and he asked me if I would like to go
along with him on a visit to a village in the mountains while I was waiting for
my witnesses to arrive. I was very interested and gladly agreed. We
climbed to the top of a nearby mountain to where the village he was going to
visit was situated.
In Basutoland houses are built on mountains and high hills because the
valleys are generally misty and considered unhealthy (despite the fact that
houses built on the mountain and hill tops are frequently the subject of
lightning strikes during storms).The purpose of the District Commissioner’s
trip to the village was to find out if they would like to have water on tap. As
we climbed the mountain we saw a number of women climbing it too with
paraffin tins on their heads. They stopped from time to time to rest and to
chat. They had to go down to the river each day to fetch water for the
village and our purpose was to relieve them of this chore. When we arrived
at the village we sat down on stools provided for us while the men of the
village sat around to hear what the District Commissioner had to say. He
spoke Sesuto fluently and was brief. The idea was to install a pump at the
river down below and to pump water up the side of the mountain to the
village so that they could have water on tap whenever they needed it. To
my surprise there was much discussion among the men (the women are
never allowed to take part in village councils, unfortunately for them as it
happened on this occasion) because the advantages of implementing the
suggestion seemed so obvious. Finally, the chief stood up and said they did
not want the water tap installed. He was asked why, and he replied:
“Because it will make the women lazy.” So that was that. We made our
way back down the mountain to the rest hut where we were both staying.
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