Early and pre-documentary litaba communicative praxis and influences in the creation of the written culture of Lesotho, circa 1820s-1888

Nkomo, Sibusiso

Early and pre-documentary litaba communicative praxis and influences in the creation of the written culture of Lesotho, circa 1820s-1888

Thesis / Dissertation

2026

Publisher

University of Cape Town

Department

Department of Historical Studies

Faculty

Faculty of Humanities

Abstract

This thesis focusses on the emergence of Sesotho written culture from its earliest origins to the publication of the first Sesotho language newspaper, Leselinyana in 1863. It demonstrates that Sesotho written culture has deep roots in the period before colonialism through indigenous litaba (dialogical conversation, news communication and storytelling) communicative praxis. Litaba communicative praxis was at work in many aspects of life on the eve of colonialism: in politics, diplomacy, navigation of the landscape, technology usage, and in the maintenance of intelligence and news networks. It influenced local Africans long before the pen and press, and even missionaries and incoming colonists before the first documents were printed and it had influence for long after the first press arrived. This thesis takes on the enormous challenge of historical research into the predocumentary past and the sparsely documented early contact years. It focuses on early texts in Sesotho and makes imaginative and methodologically novel use of missionary and colonial archives, and landscape, to develop a view of African modes of communication, and intellectual and political praxis, and of the ways in which they accumulated and changed over time. In so doing it foregrounds African experiences and viewpoints in the creation of early written culture. Between the 1820s and 1863 Sesotho written culture was made in a space full of the negotiations and intrigues of various groupings, between the Cape and the Molopo River, competing for space, control, and safety. When print technology penetrated the interior of south Africa and the areas surrounding the Maloti Mountains, it entered a region abuzz with litaba activity. The thesis foregrounds what the existing communicative activity involved, its accumulations and consequences over time, and how these shaped Sesotho written culture. The accumulations include contributions on precolonial travel routes and other news in villages and towns provided by, amongst others, transient African interlocutors, traders, royals and advisors, spies, children, women and missionaries. The people resident these valleys and highlands understood well that the circulation of information, stories and news would allow them to make informed decisions about their rapidly changing world. This influenced their approach to the new technologies of writing, printing, and publishing and underpinned the patronage, mentorship, and support that Moshoeshoe and his people extended to missionaries. Basotho and missionaries alike adapted oral language forms and litaba communicative praxis and made it work for the new period resulting in a newspaper like Leselinyana. The newspaper is an exemplar of what happened when precolonial Southern African practice and modes came together with print technology

Keywords

Lesotho

written culture

Reference:

Collections

PhD / Doctoral

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