Departmental seminar: 'The rise and fall of Basotho traders' postcolonial economic solidarity in Lesotho, 1966-1975'

  • DATE

    27 July 2016

  • TIME

    13:00 - 14:00

  • VENUE

    Room 18-26, Humanities Building, Hatfield Campus

The Department of Historical and Heritage Studies invites you to attend the forthcoming departmental seminar, which will be presented by Dr Sean Maliehe.

Dr Maliehe completed his doctoral studies in the Department of Historical and Heritage Studies at the University of Pretoria (UP) and is currently a postdoctoral research fellow in the Human Economy Programme UP. His work focuses on Lesotho's pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial economic history, in particular African entrepreneurship and business history. He is conducting postdoctoral research on money and mobile phones in South Africa, and 'mobile money' in southern Africa.

 
Date: Wednesday, 27 July 2016
Time: 13:00 to 14:00
Place: Room 18-26, Humanities Building, Hatfield Campus, University of Pretoria

 

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

Abstract:

This paper discusses the rise and fall of Basotho traders' economic solidarity during the first ten years of Lesotho's independence, between 1966 and 1975. It critiques the ongoing metanarrative that maintains that the majority of Africa's indigenous entrepreneurs have demonstrated poor performance in business due to a lack of adequate entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen and economic solidarity. This dominant misconception, which was propagated in colonial Africa by European settlers and business communities, continued to exist during the postcolonial period, when policymakers and African governments designed and implemented policies to 'advance' indigenously owned businesses for economic development. Development, operationalised here as the post-WW II intervention theory and practice, assumes that the problems of developing regions can be solved by experts through scientific means. In this pursuit, it assumes that scientific prescriptions can be easily applied, since such countries have no history that can corroborate their ability to develop without assistance from outside. My argument contradicts this assumption. By using historical records, I construct the history of the rise and fall of the Basotho traders' economic solidarity in Lesotho between 1966 and 1975, after independence, and critically argue that there is sufficient historical evidence to demonstrate Basotho's economic solidarity and entrepreneurial flair. However, Basotho traders became victims of the sinister political and economic interests of the postcolonial government, which acted to protect interests of minority European traders – a common phenomenon in postcolonial Africa. 

RSVP: By 25 July 2016 (Click the link to RSVP) https://www.up.ac.za/calendar/event-rsvp/2321596/departmental-seminar-the-rise-and-fall-of-basotho-traders-postcolonial-economic-solidarity-in-lesotho-1966-1975

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