Research Articles

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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14155/190

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Healing, Counselling and Anti-Retroviral Therapy
(In the Name of Jesus: Healing in the Age of HIV, 2013) Leshota, P. L.
Reading the Draft National Disability & Rehabilitation Policy in the light of Foucault�s notion of Governmentality
(African Journal of Disability, 2013) Leshota, P. L.
In the area of disability studies, models have been at the centre of debates, influencing social policies, practices and legal frameworks. The former Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in the Kingdom of Lesotho was not an exception. In its efforts to tackle issues of disability, it produced The National Disability and Rehabilitation Policy: Mainstreaming persons with disabilities into society in 2011. This policy document is rooted in the social model and seeks to address long-standing problems and challenges of people with disabilities in the Kingdom. Using ideas from Foucault, particularly the technologies and regimes of power, which work through language and practice, this article examined ways in which people with disabilities are constituted through state knowledge and government policies, and concluded that these constructions form the basis for alienation and marginalisation in society.
State intervention to revive foreign international languages in Lesotho
(Journal of Humanities, 2013) Thamae, C. G.
The Informal Sector and Human Capacity Building for Sustainable Development
(Scholarlink Resource Centre, 2014) Mots'oene, K. A.
The paper argues that with the increasing urbanization and unemployment in Maseru, the proliferation of the informal sector is visible acrossthe city, but it only serves to mitigate the severity of poverty in poor households by enabling them to meet survival needs ratherthan inducing savings that canbe translated into human capacity building through education and skills. It is through savings that people can be able to finance their development in terms of acquiring knowledge and skills critical to their wherewithal in society. The paper analyses the intricate nexus between the informal sector and human capacity building and sustainable development in Maseru, the capital city of Lesotho. The paper addresses this missing link in the literature, at the same time showing how important the informal sector can be in improving people�s lives through capacity building and eventually lead to sustainable development. Communities of Thibella, Motimposo and Sekamaneng formed the sample in this study where 120 poor households which participated in the informal sector were interviewed.The paper therefore exposes the intrinsic problems of the informal sector in Maseru for failing to make realizable changes in the lives of the urban poor population which often participates in the sector
The Morphology of the Sesotho form /-bo/ : An explanatory study
(Journal of Linguistics and Language in Education, 2014) Moloi, Francina L.; Thetso, M. L.
This paper examines the morphology of the noun in Mashami, a Tanzanian Bantu language (E62) spoken on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, and describes the various ways in which a noun may be formed. Mashami illustrates the continuing modification of the grammatical and semantic structure of the Bantu noun class system, showing that the system has become quite arbitrary and is comparable to grammatical gender systems in many languages of the world. At the same time, an underlying semantic motive is clearly operative and gets exploited in creative ways to derive new forms for the lexicon. And this creativity, based on shifting and expanding worldviews, wreaks havoc to the traditional distinction between inflection and derivation.
Urbanization and Aging : The Survival of the Aged in an Urbanizing City, Maseru, Lesotho
(Scholarlink Resource Centre, 2014) Mots'oene, K. A.
The paper analyzes the elderly survival strategies in an increasingly urbanizing city of Maseru in the period 2009-2012 using the household survey conducted on poor elderly in the three urban communities of Thibella, Sekamaneng and Motimposo. It seeks to understand the impact of rapid urban growth of Maseru on the elderly and the possible range of responses to this change and poverty The analysis shows that the elderly people living in poverty have devised means of survival while a few increasingly depend on social welfare grant provided by the government to cope with poverty. Despite this good effort, more than 50 percent of the population still lives in poverty. The burden of caring for orphans particularly in female elderly headed households exposes them to more poverty. Lifting the elderly group out of poverty will require a continued growth based policy and further expansion of social services. This paper serves as a basis for policy review so that the needs of the elderly are fully addressed. Furthermore, the paper seeks to fill the existing gap in the literature on the elderly survival in Lesotho as no studies have yet been done. The paper is composed of four sections. First, it introduces urban growth and features of poverty in the context of the developing world including Lesotho. Second, it deals with the general perspectives on urbanization and its impact on the elderly in Africa. Third, it discusses the observed repercussions of urbanization on the elderly living in Maseru and their coping strategies. The fourth section presents the conclusion and suggested ways of improving the lives of the elderly living in Maseru. The paper considers the elderly as people who are aged 60 and above.
Taboos in the Upbringing of a Mosotho Child
(Journal for Folklore Studies, 2014) Thetso, M.; Qhala, T.
Communication by Non-Humans : The Case of the �Talking Drum� in the Bokossi Community
(US-China Foreign Language, 2014) Ekanjume, Beatrice. Ilongo.
As an aftermath of globalization and also as a response to the call of the UNESCO to preserve our languages and cultures as part of the intangible heritage for humanity, many African countries have become keenly aware of the need to document their languages and cultures. The knowledge of such cultures can fully give a strong basis to African future generations to propose better legal practices for Africans that are rooted in their own cultures. It is in line with this that the present paper seeks to document one of the traditional practices of the Bakossi people who make use of the talking drum to exchange various messages. The paper explores different usages of the talking drum by the Bakossi people and shows that it is indeed a means of communication within their community.
An investigation of negative representation in media
(Journal of Linquistics and Language in Education, 2014) Halahala, Mokhoele A
The aim of this paper was to investigate negative representation of the National University of Lesotho (henceforth NUL) by the Scrutator in the weekly newspaper, the Lesotho Times. With a view that negative representation is a form of the media framing which seems to be increasingly taking up different dimensions worthy of attention for further conceptual understanding, we set out to examine the phenomenon. We set out with an assumption that the findings of the study would shed light on media operation, in general, and also help the media audiences observe how one of the local print media houses, the Lesotho Times, represents certain groups of Basotho society. The concept of negative representation is probably one of the phenomena which have drawn much attention from scholars of different disciplines within the social sciences, linguistics and communication studies. Adopting Content Analysis as a research instrument in selected issues of the Lesotho Times from 2010 to 2011, we investigated the Scrutator‘s negative representation of the NUL community in this particular newspaper. We, therefore, observe that negative representation is a perspectival projection of the newspaper; it is probably a strategic tool of manipulating people and making them develop a certain attitude towards the University as well as the University community despite its role as a leading tertiary institution in the Kingdom of Lesotho.
Housing Implications on Sustainable Development in Maseru, Lesotho
(Journal of Sustainable Development in Africa, 2014) Mots'oene, K. A.
The main argument of this paper is that lack of housing threatens prospects for sustainable development in Maseru. With the increasing urbanization most of the population from other parts ofLesotho move to Maseru, the only city in the country where employment and education opportunities and basic services are concentrated.Housing as a requirement for sustainable development far lags behind this burgeoning population and instead there is increasing poverty in the city. This requires a concerted effort from all stakeholders including the government, the private sector and civil society to come up with policy to address housing problems in Maseru and lead to attainment of sustainable development. This paper serves as a basis for such policy debates and as a guide towards addressing the housing problems in promoting sustainable development in Maseru. The paper is presented in six sections: introduction, methodology, literature review, findings and discussions, conclusion and recommendations.
Narratives of Personal Experiences: the Construction of Identity in Basotho Accordion Songs
(South African Journal of African Languages, 2014) Phafoli, Lehlohonolo; Zulu, N. S.
This article analyses accordion songs of the Basotho people as small narratives of self-identity. The songs are constructions of the way the singers think of and experience themselves as Basotho, of their home country, Lesotho. They communicate this message to their listeners. The focus of the constructed self includes parentage and ancestry, clan totems and chiefs, social conditions, places where the artists were born and grew up, marriage problems, and experiences as migrant labourers in South Africa. These songs foster individual, national and collective identity in Lesotho. It is observed that in all the narratives, the singers tell about their associations and social relationships relating to shared locations, language and culture.
Lessons on Old Age Pensions as Welfare Investment for Sustainable Development
(Scholarlink Resource Centre, 2014) Daemane, M. M. M.; Mots'oene, K. A.
This article argues within the context of alternative pragmatic developmental perspective that while known for a fact that higher income reduces the number of the absolutely poor and raises living levels, self-esteem, freedom and non- dependence on aid, old age pension amount currently given in Lesotho is observably too low to effect realizable sustainable development. Equity in income distribution when looking at the inflation, other allowances to other sectors of the population especially the politicians in the institutions of ruling, is still a far fetched idea. Supplementary and complementary poverty-focused policies and strategies beside pension for the aged to acquire uplifted levels of living encompassing sufficient life sustaining goods, adequate health, quality education or advanced life-sustaining/productive skills and adequate access to social services are still needed in Lesotho. The low pension income (R450) must effectually be replaced by increased real income, that is, with real purchasing power and not only nominal value, as is now the case, in order to reduce poor health and low nutrition. Furthermore, induce saving, labour saving technology acquisition, high investment propensity, jobs creation, population or fertility control, thus low dependency ratio and increased freedom and ability in material gain, choice making, trading and non-dependence on aid.
Nielson�s Critique of Rawl�s Difference Principle : A Socialist Evaluation
(The Nigerian Journal of Philosophy, 2014) Manyeli, L.
Postcolonial Reading of Nineteenth Century Missionaries Musical Texts: The Case of Lifela tsa Sione and Lifela tsa Bakriste
(International Journal of Black Theology, 2014) Leshota, P. L.
Using the refining optics of postcolonial hermeneutics, this paper is an attempt to show how missionary legacies, in the form of musical texts, have been and remain a talisman of imperialistic endeavors. They reflect, as it were, the superiority of the colonizing culture and religion while at the same time demonizing and promoting negative stereotypes about Africans (Mosotho) and their world. Specifically, this paper represents a reconstruction of the image of a colonial African (Mosotho) savage as depicted by the missionaries in their musical texts as contained in the Lifela tsa Sione and Lifela tsa Bakriste, in order to justify the necessity of Christianity as a superior form of life. The flipside of this reconstructive endeavor is the creation of space for the emergence of a voice that had been drowned out by Eurocentricideological hegemony. The release of this voice provides an opportunity to re-label and re-define a Mosotho Christian�s identity through word and song.
Report on institutions' constraints and successes of French language education in Lesotho
(European Journal of Foreign language Teaching, 2018) Mokhele, Itumeleng Rethabile
The aim of the baseline study is to find perspectives of various institutions involved in the teaching of French language in Lesotho. The student-teachers from the National University of Lesotho who specialise in French language education failed to implement the teaching methods that they acquired theoretically during their internship program in various local schools which offer French language. They indicated that in-service teachers did not let them use the communicative approach to teach French language. As the study is interested in institutional constraints and successes of French language in various institutions, qualitative methodology was used because it allows the researcher to have the personal contact [sic] and insight , getting close to the people , the situation and the phenomenon under study (Sarantakos, 1998:47). Focus Group Discussion comprising of eight participants was used as the data collection tool while the stakeholder theory constituted the theoretical framework for the study. Findings show that all the participating institutions experienced both successes and challenges even though the latter outweighed the former. It is concluded that challenges in one institution affect operations in another in various ways hence it is recommended that stakeholders meet regularly to review their progress in relation to solutions envisaged by this study.
The use of Sesotho language in comminicating public health issues related to the aids pandemic in Lesotho
(2018) Kolobe, Maboleba; Muringani, Bertha
Health is one of the fundamental needs of human beings. As a result, it is important for ministries of health and other relevant authorities to effectively communicate health information to everyone in their nation in the local language. But the question is: How effective is the use of local languages in communicating health issues such as AIDS? This study takes a closer look at the use of Sesotho to communicate AIDS information to Basotho in Lesotho. The focus of the study is the communicative strategies employed by this speech community. To achieve this, a thematic content analysis of corpus collected from music, mass media, theatre for development and others such as public speaking is done. An analysis of the Sesotho speech community is made to find out communication patterns used in the coverage of the AIDS pandemic. The study reveals that Sesotho speech community employs various communicative strategies to conscientize Basotho on this pandemic. This study therefore, proposes a more intense approach to fighting AIDS especially by using local languages to reach everyone.
Poetry as a strategy in courting
(ORCID, 2018) Thetso, Madira; Kolobe, Maboleba
The aim of this article is to examine the oral Sesotho poem that was used by Basotho boys as a courting strategy. In most African societies, including Sesotho society, boys used to adopt several approaches to propose love to girls. They would perform heroic actions to attract girls, engage in traditional songs and dances in which they would choose potential partners, or recite poems to the girls to express their feelings. While the former were performed in public, there would not be any audience for the latter. In Sesotho, there was one communal poem that was used by boys to propose love. Using textual analysis, the article sets out to explore this popular Sesotho poem by an anonymous poet to understand the language used in it and to interpret the meaning expressed with the chosen diction. The findings reveal the uniqueness and richness of language attained through the use of metaphors in which the poet uses concrete objects to express his abstract feelings. He identifies himself with the four important objects in the daily lives of the Basotho. Through the use of metaphor, the speaker portrays his character as well as the persona of the wife he anticipates as a suitable life partner.
Lexico-semantic analysis of names and slogans of Lesotho newspapers
(NISC, 2019) Kolobe, Maboleba
This article examines the naming of Sesotho and English newspapers published in Lesotho. It looks at the rationale behind names given to these newspapers. In cognisance of newspaper names as proper names, the article analyses the lexico-semantics of these names. It extends the analysis to the relationship between the name and slogan of the paper that is usually appended next to the name of such a newspaper within the framework of a hermeneutic content analysis. The article purposively sampled 21 newspaper names, with slogans appended to them, from the National University of Lesotho library archives. The findings revealed that newspaper names and their slogans are strategically chosen to become ambassadors of such newspapers through meanings embedded in their condensed form, which is a point that qualifies newspaper language as an interesting linguistic area for research
Investigation of Problems of Sesotho Oral Reading Fluency in Primary and Post-Primary Schools in Lesotho
(2019-04-04) Phafoli and Thamae, Lehlohonolo and George
The research on the Investigation of Problems of Sesotho Oral Reading Fluency in Primary and Post-Primary Schools in Lesotho is a joint venture between by Dr. Lehlohonolo Phafoli –Principal Researcher Faculty of Humanities and Dr. George Thamae – Co-researcher Faculty of Education from the National University of Lesotho. The researchers first approached the Ministry of Education for permission and its assistance with regard to the research. They were further asked to help identify schools in each district which could be listed for interviews. Criterion for the selection of schools was as follows; best performing schools in Sesotho and those that do not do well in Sesotho. Assistance from ECOL was also sought on the Sesotho performance in schools. ECOL provided researchers with results for 2015 to 2017 from Standard 7, Junior Certificate and Cambridge Overseas School Certificate. Six research assistants were identified and afforded a one day workshop in relation to the logistics of the interviews and oral reading tests. Research assistants were trained on the following; testing Sesotho oral reading fluency through passages, number of words read correctly per minute, conducting oral interviews from both teachers and students in schools, punctuality and social approaches when conducting a research. The activities related to the actual business were done through pre-arranged appointments which were followed by visiting primary and high schools in the lowlands and rural areas. In each district interviews were conducted in two primary schools and two high schools in this manner; one primary in lowlands and one primary in rural area, and one high school in lowlands and one high school in rural area. The team visited 39 schools and managed to interview 39 teachers and 164 students from the ten districts in Lesotho. The interviews were later compiled per districts and classified according to the two levels primary and high schools. They were further grouped based on the rural and lowlands, and the analysis also focused on the gender aspect, that is, the performance based on the female and male students at different levels. The compiled information was edited and followed by type-setting for public consumption and currently stored in both the soft and hardcopy. With regard to accountability, the Principal Researcher made regular financial accounting of activities done that enabled the release of funds on a regular basis until the last cent. In conclusion, it could be said that the exercise was a success. The hardcopies have been spiralled in a form of booklet for further proof-reading and production of final copy. The main obstacle was that the funds dried up before further activities could be completed. It is hoped that the final product will be received by most of the stakeholders through internet by the National University of Lesotho Library.
Integration of the French language teacher-trainees experiences of the teaching practice into the course quality enhancement at one university in Lesotho
(International Knowledge Sharing Platform, 2019-05-31) Mokhele, Itumeleng Rethabile
The study focuses on integrating student-teachers’ experiences of the teaching practice into the quality enhancement of the course on Curriculum and Teaching of French language at a university in Lesotho. It was noticed during the lesson observations that students’ teachers who have registered for the course struggled to apply teaching methods learnt theoretically in practice. This called for immediate intervention in the form of research undertaking as the situation impacted on the quality of the course. Hence the investigation centres on “how does the integration of teacher -trainees’ experiences of the teaching practice improve the quality of the course on curriculum and teaching of French language at the university?” was conducted. The nature of the study called for both qualitative and quantitative data, hence mixed methods approach is used. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection because the study sought both experiences, opinions on how the course could be improved as well as the aggregation of some responses. Fourth year students undertaking the course on curriculum and teaching of French language during the 2016/2017 academic year constituted the population for the case under study. Findings indicate that most student-teachers of French language found the teaching practice to be challenging. In conclusion the study shows that integrating student teachers’ experiences of the teaching practice can contribute to the quality enhancement of the course under investigation.

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