The Sesotho

Sesotho is also known as Southern Sotho and belongs to the Bantu group of languages. It is in the same grouping as Tswana, or Setswana, which is also known as Western Sotho, and Sepedi, or Northern Sotho.

Sesotho is spoken in the Kingdom of Lesotho and in South Africa. It is concentrated in the Free State, Gauteng and Eastern Cape Provinces, with small groups of speakers in Namibia and Zambia. Approximately 3 600 000 people use it as their home language in South Africa

The Sotho inhabit the interior Southern Africa and are distinguished from the Nguni, Venda and Tsonga, the other main cultural groups, by a clearly defined language, differing only in dialect, and by details of custom and social organisation. Sesotho speakers comprise about 30% of the Bantu-speaking language group in Southern Africa.

The major Sotho groups are the South Sotho, the West Sotho or Tswana, and the North Sotho. The South Sotho, commonly called the BaSotho or Basuto, live principally in Lesotho and surrounding districts of South Africa. The Sotho people were originally cattle farmers who also cultivated sorghum, millet and maize.

Early Sotho history is unknown. Traditions point to the Magaliesberg, named after the Kwena founding father Mogale, and to the watershed between the Limpopo, Molopo, and Harts Rivers as the earliest Sotho occupation and the centre of dispersion. A hill called Ntsuanatsatsi, between Frankfort and Vrede in the Free State, was settled by early Magaliesberg Sotho, and is thought to be the hill of origin of the ruling lineage of Lesotho. Some of the earliest Sotho speakers, the Kgalagadi, retreated towards the Kalahari Desert as other Sotho immigrants established themselves. Sotho people were, in fact, in possession of the eastern half of their present territory long before 1600 AD.

Ironworkers, who were probably Sotho-speakers, were at Phalaborwa from the eighth century and at Melville Koppies in the Johannesburg area from the eleventh century. Oral tradition has it that the founding lineage knew the art of smelting and ancient ritual dances are associated with it. Archaeologists have produced indisputable evidence of Sotho-speaking people smelting at widely dispersed places in Gauteng, the North West Province, the Northern Province, and Botswana.

Most archaeologists presume the Sotho were the main body of early stone builders in this part of the country, because Iron Age sites studied by them resemble the areas reported by early eyewitnesses very closely. Oral traditions celebrate the founding father of the Rolong, or Morolong, as 'the forger' who 'danced to iron'.

Early travellers reported their skill in carving ivory and wood and said their leatherwork was 'as soft as chamois leather'. They could stitch and sew skin and fur cloaks meticulously and their ostrich feather parasols caught the appreciative eye of early traveller, Daniell.

The Sotho had developed a strong trade by the nineteenth century. Fragments of Sung celadon ware from the twelfth century, found at Mapungubwe, indicate a connection with China through the Limpopo waterways long before Europeans set foot in south east Africa. The traditional conical Sotho hat also indicates oriental influence.

There is no evidence that the Sotho ever kept or traded slaves when slave trading was rife in East Africa. Some nobles kept vassals who earned a form of wage by acting as porters, by curing and sewing pelts or by herding, hunting, and cultivating for their patrons. In return, they were allowed to purchase cattle, women, weapons, grain, tobacco, and beads.

Chiefdoms split repeatedly, usually as a result of rivalries between contenders for the position of chief. Irregular infiltration of fugitive groups occurred from the highveld to the lowveld, and from Swaziland and northern KwaZulu Natal into the interior. The Lobedu, the southward moving gold-mining Venda, and small groups of Tsonga from Mozambique settled among the Sotho and a long process of cultural interaction took place.

There are major cultural differences between the Sotho and the Nguni. The Sotho tend to group their homesteads in villages and have a technology and society that differs from the Nguni peoples. Probably the greatest difference between Sotho and Nguni society is in contrasting marriage customs.

A Sotho-speaking man often seeks a bride from a group to whom he is already related or knows well, while marriage to kin in the Nguni society is frowned upon.
The Nguni are grouped in clans, while totems, or praise-names taken from animals, distinguish the Sotho-speakers. These totems may once have ensured that groups adhered to birth, initiation, burial customs, and certain taboos, but today the links are tenuous and mainly limited to hospitality and fellowship.

In the past, the livelihood of the Sotho was mainly based on hunting, cultivating crops and iron smelting. It is thought that their rituals reflected hunting relationships, each distinctive group being linked with a wild animal with which they were closely associated. For instance, on ceremonial occasions the Kwena recognise the crocodile, the Pedi the porcupine, the Phiri the hyena, the Tlokwa the wild cat and the Tlaru the python. There is much less stress on the lineage group than is found in Nguni peoples.

Traditionally, the Sotho give allegiance to a paramount chief and are controlled by a hereditary district chief assited by community headmen. Administration of justice is still, in some respects, in the hands of these leaders. In former times, the legal code was based mainly on custom.

All Sotho groups perform initiation. Unlike Xhosa, where initiation is performed in a local ceremony with young men of the neighbourhood, among the South Sotho, Tswana and Northern Sotho, initiation is performed on a chiefdom scale. This is carried out under the control of the chief or a prominent headman who calls for the ceremony when one of his sons has reached puberty.

Sources:

Howcroft
http://www.sesotho.web.za/nalane.htm