January Issue #3
We belong to one another.
What’s Inside 👀
Events: Letsatsi la Mosali oa Mo-Afrika 2023
Leoma Monaheng’s essay on the pressures of living abroad
Interview with Moluoane, a literary arts organization
Catherine Ingram’s essay on cultures of postpartum Care
Sounds of Home: 5 Songs to inspire you to keep going
What’s on your mind? An invitation to add to the newsletter
From the Editorial Desk 🖥️✍🏿
Mahlohonolo a selemo se secha, bana beso!
Rona ba Lesotho Diaspora Newsletter re u lakaletsa khapu-khapu ea lerato le nyetle-nyetle ea thabo ‘lemong sena. May everything good from God be yours.
To kick things off, this issue’s Sounds of Home feature is a playlist of 5 songs that will give you the courage to chase after your wildest dreams and hold you when your nightmares chase you instead. Because it is important to look back at where we have been to imagine where we might go, Nthatisi Bulane takes us back to August 2023 at the colorful celebrations of Letsatsi la Mosali oa Mo-Afrika in different districts. We also spoke with one of our editors, Lerato Mensah-Aborampah to chat about the literary arts organization she founded and directs, Moluoane. Our conversation left us hopeful for the future of writing and reading in Lesotho, especially looking forward to the launch of a large project this year.
Leoma Monaheng’s essay reflects on the many pressures of living away from home and how he’s learning to stay true to himself in spite of it all— managing finances, relationships, work, and health is hardly easy for anyone, much less those of us who’ve moved across continents. It’s a theme we’ve written about several times, like in Maseeng Masitha’s essay about the less-than-glamorous side of studying abroad. In that same vein, ‘mé Catherine Ingram narrates her heartbreaking story of postpartum mental illness — how a lack of communal care turned what should’ve been a celebration into a traumatic period that threatened both her and her son’s lives. She mourned having none of the postpartum care she’d seen her mother and grandmother give new mothers growing up in Lesotho, reminding us all that we need one another.
Finally, as you map out what this year might look like, would you consider adding to the newsletter? We would love to read something you wrote or see pictures of events you attended. To be loved is to be known, and we would like to know you. So, if you’d like to join the community that creates this newsletter, shoot us an email at lesothodiaspora@gmail.com.
At the heart of this issue — and this newsletter, really —is our desire for community with Basotho, wherever they are in the world. We hope you can see it in every article and picture and artwork we share because it’s why we do this at all. The desire to belong to and commune with others, to share your life with people is profoundly human. Writing this, I’ve been trying (and failing) to find a good translation of the words ‘community’ and ‘belonging’ in Sesotho. Ekare ‘bo-sechaba’ kapa ‘bonngoe’ kapa ‘ho ba ‘moho’ ha li re qi! hantle. It certainly isn’t because we don’t have a conceptual understanding or lived practice of these words. Maybe these things that come with neatly-packaged labels in English are so intrinsically a part of our culture, so deeply settled into our bones that they are difficult to name. Perhaps they are so central to how we do our lives and taken for granted as a way of being that we’ve rarely had to interrogate them or hobble together words to name them.
Like when teachers came together to give learners gifts of school supplies in ‘mé Nthatisi’s article. And, the isolation we feel because those who know us and remind us who we are are oceans away, as in Leoma’s article. And, the heartbreak in ‘mé Cathy’s article at the gaping deficit of the care she’d seen in her community, tangibly missing for her and her little one. And, our invitation for you to join us, in whatever capacity you’re able, in creating this newsletter. And in Arti Corner and this issue’s cover art, Lehlohonolo Tefo Tlhaole remembers growing up at Ha Seoli, singing along with others to lipina tsa mokopu — a chorus of strangers-turned-neighbors. That’s community. That we belong to one another. It is easier to say than to make it so. This year, we wish you an abundance of many ways belonging and community can be true.
Ba tsena,
Nthatisi Bulane, Lerato Mensah-Aborampah, Lehlohonolo Tefo Tlhaole, ‘Matlhabeli Molaoli le Makhethe Vuma.
Sounds of Home: 5 Songs by Basotho Musicians to Inspire You to Keep Going.
For many, there is something about January that inspires a refreshing of one’s goals, a reigniting of one’s dreams and a restoring of the will to pursue it all. And so, we bring you 5 songs by Basotho musicians that can accompany you into 2024, and hopefully encourage, comfort and inspire you to keep moving forward.
Lesotho celebrates “African Woman’s Day - Letsatsi la Mosali oa Mo-Afrika”
In 2023, the Lesotho Association of Teachers chose the theme “Giving Back to the Community.” On African Woman's Day, they sparked ten beacons of lights around the country as they celebrated giving back to their communities across several districts.
Basotho ba Ngola: An Interview with Moluoane, a Literary Arts Organization
Here's an exclusive interview with Lerato Mensah-Aborampah about the literary arts organization she founded and directs, Moluoane. Lerato shares her hopes for the work Moluoane could do, and teases the launch of an exciting project that catalogues contemporary Basotho writers.
Survival: Navigating the Pressures of Living Abroad
These are several things that I can readily say that I am most proud of: starting organizations and giving to charity, for example. 2023, however, was the most difficult for me as I had to come to terms with the sheer scope and pressure of living abroad.
The Cultural Postpartum Care I Witnessed Growing Up
When I was growing up in the 60s at Thibella, Maseru, postpartum care was a very significant practice that served an important function to the wellbeing of a new mother and her newborn, as well as the community. When I became a new mother in the US, I had none of that support.
What's on Your Mind? Add to the Newsletter!
When we started this newsletter a few months ago, we dreamed that it would become many things. This year, would you help us with these dreams?