Lesotho is a small country of about 30,000 square kilometres. It has a total population of approximately 2 million people, which has been growing at an annual rate of about 3%. The sex ratio of Lesotho's population is skewed in favour of women: there are approximately 100 females to 81 males (Goebel and Epprecht 1995, 4). Lesotho is one of the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and it is heavily dependent on external sources of capital formation. The recent Human Development Report of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) ranks Lesotho as 130th in the whole world under the category of countries with low human development (UNDP 1996, 136). Severely lacking in natural resource endowment, Lesotho's only natural resources are water and labour.
Lesotho has a very weak industrial base, which is dominated by `foot-loose' foreign capital. Sustainable development of this sector and its increased labour absorptive capacity are in doubt, given the steady capital flight to South Africa since the 1994 political changes in that country. The agricultural sector is also experiencing serious decline in productivity, thus eroding the mainstay of rural subsistence. About 81% of Lesotho's total population resides in the rural areas. Arable land has been shrinking over the years due to various factors, including massive soil erosion; unplanned human settlements which have claimed large chunks of farmland; high rate of urbanisation which also takes part of the arable land; and general environmental degradation (Witzch 1992). About 87% of the total land area in Lesotho comprises rugged foothills and mountains suitable largely for livestock production rather than crop farming. Arable land has shrunk to a mere 9% from 13% in 1996. Landlessness is becoming a serious threat to the livelihood of the rural folk. The proportion of landless households is estimated to have grown from 12.7% in 1970 to 25.4% in 1986. In 1990 it rose further to 40%. This trend, combined with various other factors, has accentuated the incidence of poverty in rural Lesotho. The World Bank estimates that 54% of the rural population lives below the poverty datum line (1995, vii). The World Bank report further states that 90% of Lesotho's poor households reside in the rural areas.
The structural weaknesses of the productive sectors in Lesotho (i.e., industry and agriculture) help us understand the phenomenal employment crisis and rural-urban migration. Lesotho has a labour force of about 800,000 people and an unemployment rate estimated at 30%. Of the 30,000 job seekers who enter the labour market annually, the formal sector absorbs only 10,000. The residual labour either remains unemployed or engages in informal sector activities. This brief expose of Lesotho's economic situation underlines the significance of international labour migration to the Republic of South Africa today.
Lesotho is not only one of the poorest countries in Africa, but worse still it is also completely landlocked by another country - South Africa - and dependent on that country for its basic necessities of survival. That heavy external dependence, the impoverishment and the land-lockedness, emphasise Lesotho's economic vulnerability and political susceptibility to various powerful external forces. Given its weak agricultural base and the slow rate of industrial growth, Lesotho has always remained an adjunct of, and fully integrated into, the South African economy from time immemorial. This relationship has been a complex one marked, in the main, by a domination-subordination syndrome. Put differently, Lesotho remains an economic appendage of South Africa in almost all aspects of its social milieu. Its economy is a typical enclave labour reserve, which is more of a distributive - cum- consumerist than a productive economy. It is no wonder, therefore, that the country relies heavily on external sources of capital formation: foreign aid, dividends from the Southern African Customs Union and migrant labour. Our major interest in this research project is in labour migration.
That Lesotho is a labour reserve par excellence brooks no denial. Of its meagre natural resources, water and people rank high. Both are exported to South Africa mainly for financial return. By far the most important of these transactions is the migration of unskilled Basotho labour to the South African mines, although in recent times brain drain to South Africa has been on the increase (Matlosa 1995). Although different aspects of this phenomenon have been studied by various scholars, the glaring missing link in the migration debate is its interface with gender relations. This study seeks to fill this lacuna in migration discourse by investigating the gender configuration of power and authority in Lesotho's rural political economy in the context of the changing patterns of migration.
Labour migration from Lesotho to the South African mines has a fairly long history. It is as old as the South African mining industry itself. The broad socio-economic impact of this exodus of labour on Lesotho's political economy has been a matter of extensive debate (Murray 1981; Bardill and Cobbe 1985). The present study focuses, however, on the interlinkages of this phenomenon with the gender relations of production, reproduction, power and authority. The key problem that the study investigates can be summed up as follows: centuries of male migration have effectively increased the power of women who have become de facto heads of households although authority for strategic household decisions still rests with the absent male head. The massive retrenchment of migrant miners, since the 1987 workers' strike, has shaken up the rural gender power relations in a way that shifts the balance in favour of the de jure male head. This worsens the already precarious position of women in rural Lesotho. This is illustrated in our conceptual model below.
Figure 1. The conceptual model
Pre-retrenchment Gender relations
Migration to 1987
= = Empowerment/
Disempowerment
Post-retrenchment Social structure
Migration since 1987 and ideology
Explanatory Note: Prior to the accelerated retrenchment of Basotho miners, which was triggered in part by the 1987 workers' strike, migration increased the household decision-making power of women. This was, however, held in check by the country's social structure and patriarchal ideology. The current retrenchment process changes the configuration of gender relations of power as migrants, de jure heads of households, return home. Traditional heads assume their socio-culturally-determined roles and responsibilities as women get elbowed further and further to the margins of power and authority. When this phenomenon is combined with the already debilitating social structure, attitudes and patriarchal ideology, the point that power of rural women is being effectively whittled is brought into sharp relief.
Flowing from our general research question (How changing migration patterns impact upon gender relations) are the following hypotheses:
(a) Male migration increases the power of women in Lesotho's rural economy, although the social system, patriarchy and ideology of domesticity restrict the boundaries of this power.
(b) Retrenchment of Basotho migrants leads to diminution of power of rural women and when this combines with the patriarchal social system and ideology of domesticity, the marginalisation of women is further deepened.
In our research design, migration is the independent variable and gender relations constitute the dependent variable, and changes in migration over time influence the linkages between these two variables. From employment and income perspectives, migration patterns are changing for the worse. Our task is to determine how a change in the independent variable affects the dependent variable.
This study traces the historical metamorphosis of male migration over a thirty-year period (1966-1996) since Lesotho's political independence. The roots of migration will form the background, not the major thrust, of the research exercise. The study identifies theories and patterns of migration. It assesses the impact of migration on gender relations in rural Lesotho under different sets of historical conjunctures. It uses the household as a unit of analysis. It provides empirical evidence of the empowerment-disempowerment dynamic of migration on rural women in the Mafeteng District.
The overall objective of this study is to investigate the nature of the gender division of labour in Lesotho's rural households and how migration tends to transform this division of labour over time.
Drawing from the broad objective above, the specific objectives of the study are: (a) to elucidate the theoretical discourse on migration thus far; (b) to explain methodological instruments and approaches used in the study to collect and analyse data; (c) to map out historical conjunctures and patterns in migration that have in turn influenced changes in gender relations; (d) to bring out measurable indicators that highlight the empowerment-disempowerment dynamic of migration on rural women; and (e) to project the possible futures of migration and gender relations in rural Lesotho.
That migration has historically become the lifeblood of the Lesotho economy is an indisputable fact. This accounts, in part, for the massive literature that exists on this subject. This literature can be classified into two diametrically opposed schools of thought: (a) the neo-classical (rational choice) theory and (b) the (neo-) Marxist structuralism theory. An expanded treatise of these theoretical constructs is provided in Chapter Two. While very much inspired by these approaches, the analytical thrust of this study is anchored on the structuration theory which, unlike the new-classical and the neo-Marxist approaches, combines structural factors and the human agency in our broader understanding of migration and gender relations in Lesotho's rural economy. The case study of Lesotho is important for the simple reason that Basotho miners comprise the largest contingent of foreign labour complement on the South African mining industry.
Using the household as a unit of analysis, the authors conducted field research in the Mafeteng District during the period June 1996 to June 1997. During the data collection, a total of 18 villages were selected randomly, and in those villages 250 households were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. We chose Mafeteng District as the focal point of this study. Initially we had intended to carryout our research in at least two districts - one in the lowlands and the other in the highlands. The choice of Mafeteng District was a result of limited financial resources and time. Furthermore, Mafeteng is one of the districts with high incidence of poverty and with larger numbers of migrants to the South African mines. Thus, the research methodology and findings of this study could, with all likelihood, be replicated elsewhere in the country. Given its low industrial development, major economic activities in this district are inextricably tied, in one way or the other, to subsistence agriculture and migration. Women play a major role in subsistence production and males largely engage in international migration to the South African mines. Primary data was analysed over a three-month perio June - August 1997. Funds and time permitting, it is the intention of the authors to carry out a similar study on a national scale.
Mafeteng District is located in the south-western part of Lesotho. With an area of 2090 square kilometres, it is one of the smaller districts. Agro-ecologically, the district has two zones: lowlands and foothills. In the previous decade, Mafeteng's migrant population was 11.4% of the total district population (154,339). This population was slightly higher than the country average of 10.6% (Huisman and Sterkenburg 1982; Huisman, 1983; Huisman and Sterkenburg 1984; Sechaba Consultants 1994).
Two principal research techniques were used to collect data: (i) observation, and (ii) purposive or judgmental sampling method. Structured and unstructured interviews formed part of data collection. As appendix "A" clearly illustrates questions were concerned primarily with two broad categories of information: first, to ascertain, according to agreed upon measurements, the general impact of migration on women in the Mafeteng District. Second, to ensure that respondents respond to questions that bring out the empowerment/disempowerment dynamic in which we are interested. Rigorous observation was used over and above the questionnaire in order to get at respondents' perceptions as well as at different gender perceptions on what the changing migration patterns actually mean, i.e., the changes and adjustments envisaged. This technique acted as a back up to the non-probability quota research methodology. Structured and unstructured interviews targeted household heads, either de jure or de facto, irrespective of gender.
Like all other empirical studies, the present study has its own specific limitations which have to be brought to the fore in order to guide the reader. First, the study does not pretend to cover the broad subject of migration in its entirety. Generally speaking, migration has four broad areas: refugees, undocumented migration, brain-drain and contract migration. This study is limited to the last aspect only and uses Lesotho as a case study. Second, this study does not discuss gender in its own right as a field of inquiry, nor does it interrogate gender theory as such (for a discussion of feminist theories, see Williams 1997). We are concerned with gender only in so far as it interfaces with migration patterns. This is so because in this study migration is taken as an independent variable while gender and gender relations are considered a dependent variable.
Third, the study does not cover Lesotho as whole, but rather uses the Mafeteng District as a case study from which some useful extrapolations which may indicate national trends could be made. While our assumptions and research findings do not necessarily represent the general trend throughout the entire country, it is our hope that processes identified in this study could yield generalisations which may be applicable in other parts of the country. It, nevertheless, represents a good starting point for further research in this important area. Fourth, while migration is not considered a sensitive subject in rural Lesotho, gender is considered very much a private affair which most, if not all, respondents were hard put to discuss openly with strangers. This explains why the most difficult questions during the interviews were those related to gender relations.
Fifth, judging by the types of responses to the questions, at times it was difficult to ascertain whether some respondents had a similar understanding of some questions to that of the researchers. This problem was aggravated by the fact that questions had to be translated from English to Lesotho, so the translation my have slightly twisted the meaning and essence of the question. Finally, other subjective factors not related to our research methodology also acted as limitations. The extent of poverty and unemployment in rural Lesotho may have influenced some responses where respondents thought that we were government officials who could offer them jobs or other means of improving their livelihood. In some villages, for instances, we would be held for hours discussing various individual and village problems which did not have any bearing whatsoever on this study simply because villagers were convinced that we could proffer some solutions.
This study is divided into five distinct, albeit intertwined, chapters. Chapter One introduces the study, defines the socio-economic setting of Lesotho, and outlines the methodological aspects of the research. Chapter Two presents the conceptual framework of the study and a brief survey of the relevant literature. Chapter Three sketches out the migration-gender problematic by exposing the complex interface of the two phenomena in the context of changing patterns of migration. Chapter Four reveals the statistical evidence of our major research findings. Both chapters Three and Four are the key anchor of this study which could be read on their own especially for those readers already well versed with the historical and conceptual material on gender and migration. Chapter Five is a summation of the key findings and a brief discussion of the uncertain futures confronting most rural households given the current changes which are reshaping the migrant labour system.
