WORLD EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMME RESEARCH

Abstract

Initial participation by the Basuto in the money economy in the early19 century was not through wage employment but through the selling of wool, mohair and their surplus of grain to South Africa. Basuto for a long time supplied the grain requirements of the free State and the Cape Colony and Lesotho came to be called ‘the granary of South Africa’ (Germond, 1967). The missionaries appear to have played a significant role in promoting this prosperity by encouraging the peasants to concentrate on more exportable products rice, wheat (in preference to sorghum), fruit and vegetables and, of course, the rearing of sheep and goats for wool and mohair. The missionaries also encouraged the use of the steel plough for efficient production and the use of the ox-wagon to facilitate transportation of their products. The missionaries encouraged earning money mainly because it enabled the Basuto to buy European clothing to look like good Christians, as well as to acquire a way of life practiced by the missionaries themselves