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So you were surprised that Sesotho is an official language in Zimbabwe? That school-children sit down and write Sesotho exams in a language that resembles the style of the Sesotho of Lesotho? That there are radio stations that broadcast in Sesotho in Zim? Former National University of Lesotho (NUL) History lecturer, Dr Joseph Mujere, now a lecturer at the University of York in the United Kingdom (UK), takes us through a fascinating journey.
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Name of the book: A HISTORY OF THE BASOTHO IN SOUTHERN RHODESIA - Land, Migration and Belonging: A History of the Basotho in Southern Rhodesia c. 1890–1960s. By Joseph Mujere. Suffolk, UK: James Currey, 2019. Pp. 197. hardcover (ISBN: 9781847012166).

In the late 1800s, groups of Basotho moved from what is today Lesotho and parts of South Africa into Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). They moved with families, with livestock, with their language, their faith, and their strong sense of who they were. This history is carefully told in a book by Joseph Mujere, a former lecturer at the National University of Lesotho (NUL), reviewed by Lotti Nkomo in the Southern Journal for Contemporary History .

Let’s break this history down simply.

The Basotho migrated mainly in the 1890s. Some were escaping land shortages and economic pressure in South Africa. Others moved alongside Christian missionaries, hoping that education, farming, and Christianity would open doors in new colonial spaces. They settled mainly in Gutu District, a rural area in Southern Rhodesia.

But moving was only the first step. The real challenge was belonging.

For the Basotho, land was not just soil. Land meant security, identity, and a future for their children. Unlike many African groups under colonial rule, the Basotho managed, through careful negotiation, to buy freehold land in the early 1900s.

This was rare.

Owning land allowed them to say, “We are not visitors. We belong here.”

Even when colonial laws later forced them off some farms, they regrouped and bought Bethel Farm in the Dewure Purchase Area. This farm became the heart of Basotho life in Zimbabwe:

• It had homes

• A school

• A church

• And, importantly, a cemetery

One of the most powerful ideas in Mujere’s book is this: graves create roots.

As they buried their dead at Bethel Farm, the Basotho tied their ancestors to the land. Funerals became moments where Sesotho was spoken, hymns were sung, and Basotho customs were practiced openly. Through graves and rituals, the Basotho were saying: our past, present, and future are here .

The Basotho did something very clever.

• When dealing with colonial officials, they presented themselves as “progressive Africans”: educated, Christian, peaceful, and productive farmers.

• When among themselves, they protected their Bosothoness; language, kinship, and customs.

They joined local councils and farmers’ associations to integrate, but they also used Sesotho in their school and ceremonies to remain distinct. Belonging, the book shows, was not fixed. It was negotiated, depending on who they were dealing with.

However, the Basotho community was not always united. There were disagreements over money, schools, church control, and even where people should be buried. Mujere does not hide these tensions. Instead, he shows that belonging is often messy, emotional, and contested; even within the same community.

In the 2000s, Zimbabwe experienced heated debates about who truly “belongs.” Migrant communities were sometimes labeled as outsiders. Mujere’s work reminds us that these questions are not new. The Basotho had already been negotiating identity, land, and belonging for many years.

The lesson is simple but powerful:

Belonging is built over time; through land, memory, struggle, and choice.

This book tells the story bigger than the Basotho who make a tiny fraction of a truly multicultural and beautiful country called Zimbabwe. It is about migration everywhere. It shows that migrants are not passive people drifting through history. They actively shape where they live, while holding on to where they come from.
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Based on the review of Land, Migration and Belonging: A History of the Basotho in Southern Rhodesia, c.1890–1960s by Joseph Mujere, reviewed by Lotti Nkomo in the Southern Journal for Contemporary History

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