Lesotho’s educational system and development are largely influenced by missionaries and colonisers who taught the three ‘Rs’ (reading, writing and numeracy skills) to the Basotho. Most of those enlightened Basotho were to carry on the duties of either educating others or as missionary workers. Some became clerks, interpreters, police officers, nurses and Sunday school teachers. This article is an account of a functionally literate Mosotho male adult learner who was herding livestock and taught himself reading and writing skills. In his narrative, Hlalefang (not his real name) compares literacy to money and a watch or a clock. He further expresses how people like him have managed to muster some basic and restructure the cognitive and oral history and archival memories, through intuitiveness. The story is based on the work of Paulo Freire where culture influences the discourse of literacy. A qualitative narrative story-telling approach was used to relate Hlalefang’s lived-experiences as he navigated his ways and challenges using orality acquired through various life encounters. This inspirational cultural narrative demonstrates that culture and social uses are imperatives in functional literacy. The article challenges those in adult education, literacy, development practitioners and policy-makers to consider some aspects of culture and to be innovative in their approaches to multi-literacies.
Lesotho is a landlocked and mountainous country completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. Studies show that 90% of the total area of Lesotho’s 30 350 km is only suitable for ruminant grazing (Zvomuya
Because of its topographical landscape, the country experiences severe cold winters with the highlands and foothills experiencing snowfalls and freezing temperatures sometimes dropping below zero degrees Celsius. It is during the four winter months’ period of May to August when the grass is dry and scarce in the lowlands, that livestock is driven to the uninhabited mountainous parts of the country for livestock management. The Lesotho Disaster Management Authority (DMA
The Social Uses of Literacy (SOUL) research conducted in the 1990s emphasised the importance of secondary orality as a social practice in people’s understanding of what they do, the values they attach to their actions, and the ideologies and practices in their everyday lives (Prinsloo & Breier
Based on Paulo Freire’s literacy work in Latin America, the narrative relates the practical, critical and reflective knowledge where Hlalefang’s beliefs and cultural practices were shaped into knowledge through critical reflection and indigenous knowledge systems (Freire & Macedo
The country has ten administrative districts, and three distinct geographical and climatic regions; the lowlands, foothills, and highlands. With the mountain terrain and the effects of climate change, uncontrolled overgrazing and desertification and soil erosion, the country is experiencing a gradual decrease in livestock. The ‘formal education system in Lesotho follows a 7-3-2-4 structure with seven years of primary schooling, which is divided into lower primary (Standards 1–4) and upper primary (Standards 5–7)’. The author further observes that schooling is not compulsory particularly in the highlands and foothills where the difficult terrain presents a serious challenge for the provision of infrastructure, including for education (Setoi
Lesotho has adopted the universal definition of literacy which says ‘A person is a literate who can with understanding both read and write a short simple statement on his everyday life’. A person is ‘a functionally literate who can engage in all those activities in which literacy is required for effective functioning of his or her group and community and also for enabling him or her to continue to use reading, writing and calculation for his or her own and the community’s development’ (UNESCO Commission Lesotho
Unlike many developing countries, there is a notable demographic of higher illiteracy rate of 17% for males comparable to only 5% for females. Many studies attribute this to the cultural practice where males in the foothills and highlands herd livestock while girls attend school. The migrant labour issue also contributes to the plight of boys after herding livestock; they go to the mines leaving the women at home to run the household. This has largely been influenced by this traditional practice where males herd livestock from a very tender age, after which they leave for the mines in South Africa (Government of Lesotho
For decades, the Government of Lesotho was under the impression that women have overwhelmingly outnumbered men in literacy programmes. This study, although based on the narrative of an individual man, is inclined to confirm Setoi’s findings that Basotho men, in fact, have a lot to offer in terms of ‘literacy or literacies’ and rich orality culture.
Literacy or illiteracy is a concept with many interpretations by different scholars. All of them agree that the concept can best be defined according to social uses and their functionality and that the literacy construct is linked to formal, non-formal and informal education domains. Different theories, models, and approaches to literacy have gained currency and the debate about which model is the best continues. This article discusses three theoretical models of literacy as they are related to and understood in the narrative of Hlalefang. Each model has its own advantages and shortfalls at personal, national and multinational levels.
The Lesotho’s Ministry of Education and Training (MOET
Rogers, Patkar and Saraswathi (
The autonomous or missionary view of literacy as observed by Street (
Literacy is an ideological concept. Cook-Gumperz (
A workplace literacy programme which is initiated to encourage workers in a particular work environment to learn, be it a new policy in the company, or a new procedure or practice, would reflect the company’s ideological needs, control and benefits (Searle
Since 1976, the UNESCO’s definition of literacy has not changed much; it has remained the same albeit its modifications and additions. Literacy is about development, and in its Strategic Planning Report (2014:36), UNESCO takes an ‘integrated, holistic approach to literacy, recognising that it is acquired and developed throughout life via formal, non-formal and informal learning processes’. UNESCO recognises that:
there is a continuum of literacy levels and that the minimum level of basic skills varies with individuals’ life context. Notions of what constitutes a minimum threshold of functional literacy are changing as a result of progress in science and technology. (UNESCO,
An integrated view of literacy as described by Kalua (
This article focuses on the cultural aspects that are brought about by the narrative of counting livestock as a literacy tool, in other words, cultural and social uses of functional literacy.
African traditional or customary education is largely acquired through informal processes. The language behaviour, and values for individuals to become effective members of their communities are learnt through tribal legends, proverbs repeated by the fireside, and are passed on orally by the elders to the young ones. Riddles, myths, idioms and folktales are repeated so that generations can know their histories and be able to relay them to the subsequent generations to come. In Lesotho, such traditional practices are upheld through traditional, customary and informal education. This rich legacy of informal processes has since evolved and been adapted to other modern informal processes or socialisation. Modern technology, multi-media, and social media have become informal processes that have replaced many of the oral, communal ways of transmitting knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Nafukho, Amutabi and Otunga (2006) observe that in precolonial Africa, education including literacy emphasised social responsibility; job orientation; political participation and spiritual and moral values. It is, therefore, pertinent to acknowledge that African literacy was meant for a specific purpose and use – that of creating a functionally literate person, able to fulfil moral obligations including being able to provide for themselves within their surrounding environment.
Literacy is influenced by social, cultural, economic and political dimensions in every society and, in turn, it influences how such dimensions are structured. An example provided by Breier, Taetsane and Sait (
In Uganda, Rogers
This study adopted a qualitative ‘narrative story-telling’ as a methodology in an effort to relate a life story of a Mosotho man who started acquiring reading, writing and numeracy as a herd-boy and continued to explore literacy and orality through cultural and social uses throughout his life. De Vos
The interviews were done over a period of two years with Hlalefang, a 52-year-old Mosotho man who only went to school up to Standard 4, the end of the lower primary level (Setoi
The researcher analysed Hlalefang’s stories iteratively, going back and forth to verify some of his narratives. His conversations were unstructured, and sometimes where contradictions arose, the researcher was able to address questions to verify the trustworthiness of his responses. He was allowed to talk about his numerous indigenous experiences as a herd-boy, a young married man and his current welfare. The researcher selected some of these experiences that were suited to the cultural and social uses, as a focus of the research. Some conversations which were considered not relevant to the study, were not used in this article. The researcher took some notes as the conversations continued, and codes and themes were formulated according to their relevance to the study, and its theoretical framework. Themes such as livestock literacy, weather and the clock metaphor, autonomous, ideological and integrated models were some of the themes used for the study. Within a period of two years, seven interviews were held with Hlalefang, where he related to childhood experiences with livestock as a herd-boy and his self-drive in literacies with livestock and time.
The researcher prepared an ethical consent form for Hlalefang and read it to him and explained that in research, Hlalefang must consent to the processes. The ethical issues included his right to remain anonymous, confidentiality of information and the right to withdraw.
Hlalefang started his narrative by setting the background for his story. Most of the findings were reported as direct interviews by Hlalefang. But because they were conducted in Sesotho, the researcher translated them verbatim:
I used to live in the lonely mountains surrounded only by my flock of sheep, goats, cattle, horses, donkeys, mules and my guard-dogs for those four to five winter months from May to September. The whole flock sometimes was estimated at a total of 2000–3000. I did that for almost 10 years because I started at the age of 10 years. A ranch (motebo in Sesotho) extends for many kilometres with rich grass for grazing, and, despite the severe cold, I was always happy to see my animals feeding well and coming back from the ranch fat and ready to be slaughtered for cultural festivities. I was proud because I knew my boss was also happy. My neighbour on another ranch was about 8 km away; your only company is your flock of animals or passers-by who would also pass after a long period of silence, except when you talk to your animals.
‘How did you count your livestock and keep a record of your estimate counts with such large numbers? How were you able to know how many cattle and sheep you have?’ The response:
When you first arrive at the ranch, you must have a plan of how you [are going to] arrange your animals (flock). This includes sleeping arrangements for different types of animals. You set rules for them by arranging them accordingly. For a few days, in the beginning, that is the main task, until they know how they should assemble at the kraal (open space). Animals are like people; they are taught rules and obedience. Once the first task is done, others follow the course.
The second task is to observe how they make friends with each other and how they determine their own order. It is most likely that there will be a pattern you easily pick up on how they relate to each other. It is these sleeping patterns that will make you realise immediately when one is missing or has changed positions. Another important aspect is to know the décor [colour] of your flock. Big animals especially (cows, horses and donkeys) have colours and through that one is able to know them. Similarly, small animals (sheep, goats) also have their own marks which you can use to differentiate them from each other. Once these basic preparations are done, after maybe the first month, then you can start counting your livestock. Among all these [animals], there would also be pregnant females about to or already giving birth; the preparations include a nursing ‘mothers’ kraal. The stock-taking is therefore done monthly.
After every 10 counts, you take a stone and put it in a bag; you do that after every 10 counts until when you have to say 10 stones in your bag, you know you have 100 sheep. Stock-taking can take up to a week, because after sheep-counting, you have to know how many lambs there are as well. So you systematically use stones as milestones so that when the owner comes, you are able to recall the sequencing and explanations of each stone. Sometimes you use different sizes of stones. If you were clever, before leaving home you bring along the exercise books and a pencil to jot down notes. If you had forgotten it at home, on the ranch, there are no shops where you can buy an exercise book and a pencil for notes.
Kalua’s (
In the context of this article, the livestock herd-boys use similar processes and mechanisms, including generative stones in their functional and integrative approach to literacy. This study posits that such literacy concepts should be taken seriously as evidence-based approaches to literacy as UNESCO (
Contrary to Cardiero-Kaplan’s (2002) opinion that the functional literacy approach does little to engage texts and stories critically or to engage the historical and lived contexts of [students] lives, this narrative proves that, in fact, texts and stories relate to lived contexts in primarily oral literacy.
This article argues that the literacy approaches in the context of Lesotho should be able to relate to what the culture can offer through livestock, weather and time issues, not primarily with reading, writing and counting, however, universal such factors may be. The challenges are not with learners but with appropriate interventions, such as curriculum design and development and whether educators are willing to use their learners’ experiences, resources, contexts and environments. If taxi drivers and herd-boys can read, write and count using materials around their professions then literacy educators should be ready to adapt and use such experiences to take literacy to the next level with the learners (Breier
Weather and the clock ‘metaphor’ – cultural approach to literacy:
The best time to count the flock is when animals are sleeping because one is able to go round them without movement or interruptions. At night when the moon is bright, one is able to do the counting very well. It is done with the use of the moonlight.
Hlalefang said he would predict weather conditions by observing and assessing the behaviour of his animals and their reaction to certain sounds, being restless or sleepless including the quietness of the night itself; sometimes his dogs’ barking denoted certain weather conditions; listening to the voices of the birds in the sky; if an intruder is nearby or in the vicinity (either a wild animal or another person). These were some of the many things (literacies) that Hlalefang learnt from the rural environment. In the four month winter period, Hlalefang learnt weather patterns using the rural environment, animals, and their behaviours. Weather conditions are very important to the Basotho and livestock in winter, as stated by the Lesotho Disaster Management Authority (
Weather and time are important aspects of livestock management. One lives by knowing when to do things. During the day, a herd-boy will tell you what the time is by observing the direction of the sun, people’s shadows and the mountains.
Years after his experiences, Hlalefang was still able to tell the correct time without wearing a wristwatch or looking at a clock. This article asks the question: whose ideology is literacy benchmarking? Are we interpreting literacy according to its social and cultural uses or a universal ideology, according to the western culture? This article is not denying that illiteracy exists, but it interrogates the interpretation of illiteracy and the influence of ideology in the definition of literacy. The literacy weather model is being neglected by both the Lesotho Disaster Management Authority (DMA) and other literacy organisations including the Government of Lesotho, because they are looking at literacy as being able to read and write for universal reasons, not for what herd-boys need.
Cardiero-Kaplan (2002:375) puts it that a functionally literate person is generally considered an individual who can read and write ‘well enough to understand signs, ads, newspaper headlines, fill out job applications, make shopping lists, and write [cheques]’. This is taken from the context of the modern world and therefore, the definition falls short in that it does not really consider other literacies like that of livestock counting, and or driving literacy. UNESCO’s (
For decades, research studies agreed that in Lesotho women are more literate than men. The latest studies are reviewing this old paradigm to question some of the discourses. This study takes Setoi’s (
The literacy agenda should be brought back to the drawing board where policy-makers, researchers, literacy educators and practitioners should consider the indigenous ways of knowledge and skills embedded within the Basotho literacies and primary oral communities. The Basotho complacency about literacy issues should be counteracted with the awareness of their rich indigenous and cultural approaches to literacy. If Basotho men can teach young herd-boys to predict severe weather conditions, snow fatalities that happen every year can be avoided. This study recommends that the Lesotho DMA should work with literacy organisations like the LDTC and others to develop livestock-weather-related literacy curriculum to circumvent the loss of lives for herd-boys in the winter season in Lesotho.
This article concludes that Basotho men, particularly those in rural areas who were brought up as herd-boys, have much to offer with their indigenous knowledge and literacy skills, and this should be further researched and supported. Lesotho as a country should further revisit its own definition of literacy and broaden its scope to include the multi-literacies and experiences such as the livestock and weather and time literacies. The UNESCO’s Education Strategy for
The author declares that she has no financial or personal relationship which may have inappropriately influenced her in writing this article.