RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 The Rise and Fall of African Indigenous Entrepreneurs’ Economic Solidarity in Lesotho, 1966–1975
JF African Economic History
JO Afr Eco His
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 110
OP 137
DO 10.3368/aeh.45.1.110
VO 45
IS 1
A1 SEAN MALIEHE
YR 2017
UL https://aeh.uwpress.org/aeh.uwpress.org/content/45/1/110.abstract
AB This article examines the rise and fall of African indigenous entrepreneurs’ economic solidarity in Lesotho between 1966 (independence) and 1975. It rebuts the historical metanarrative that the black African indigenous entrepreneurs (the Basotho) lacked adequate entrepreneurial spirit, business acumen and economic solidarity. Using historical records and oral histories, this article demonstrates that there is sufficient historical evidence to argue otherwise. Rather, Basotho traders became victims of sinister political and economic interests of the first postcolonial government, which acted to protect interests of minority European traders—a common phenomenon in postcolonial Africa. Furthermore, the article makes two significant contributions—first to the growing literature on the history of African business and entrepreneurship, and secondly, it uses the constructed economic history of Basotho entrepreneurs to critique the dominant nationalistic and geo-political view that Lesotho’s position as landlocked by South Africa is predominantly responsible for the country’s sluggish economic growth, poverty and lack of economic independence.