Basotho and the Bantustans

On April 14^th, APC welcomed Dr. John Aerni-Flessner, Associate Professor of African and World History at Michigan State University, who presented a paper co-authored with Dr. Grey Magaiza, Lecturer and Head of the Community Development Programme at the University of the Free State, titled “Basotho and the Bantustans: Long-Term Impacts of Historical Borders on Borderlands Communities in QwaQwa and Lesotho”. Examining the experiences of border residents, Flessner’s and Magaiza’s paper offered rich historical, political and economic context to life on the Lesotho-South African border, tracing the complicated ways these facets come to interface with ideas of ethnic origin and citizenship. This lab was the first APC has held in-person since the start of COVID, and was held in hybrid format to facilitate participation from colleagues further afield. Following Dr Flessner’s introduction of the work, a rich discussion followed over these multiple formats, animated particularly by members of APC’s Lesotho Research Group, on questions of landscape, resources, and the relationship between the border experience and the broader histories under examination.