Basotho and the Bantustans: Long-Term Impacts of Historical Borders on Borderlands Communities in QwaQwa and Lesotho

Drawing on archival work conducted in South Africa, the UK and Lesotho, and on oral histories collected in 2021–2023, this article historicises the experiences of Basotho living along the Lesotho–South Africa border. It focuses primarily on the part of eastern Free State designated during the apartheid era as the Basotho ‘Homeland’ of QwaQwa and the adjacent Lesotho district of Butha Buthe. Rugged and mountainous, official border markings and crossings are few, but border crossing has been a feature of this region as long as borders have existed. Governments on both sides have long resisted rationalising these crossings, instead showing remarkable continuity over almost 150 years of securitising the border and relying on the rhetoric and logics of nationality to police the crossing of these borders by local residents. Governments have resisted working with local communities, approaching them only when their testimonials might enhance the geopolitical position of the national governments. While today most borderlands residents claim Basotho ethnicity, the realities of the border have strained long-standing ties across the border in the name of national sovereignty and governments have weaponised nationality to claim the loyalty of borderlands residents without reciprocating the relationship by facilitating easier border crossings.