Adventures in Lesotho: I Spy

Sometimes living in Lesotho is like a real-life version of the “I Spy” books. (Shout out to mom and Scholastic, Inc. for getting me hooked on these books as a little girl!) Each day we are on outreach, I find myself looking up at the surrounding mountains going, “I spy with my little eye…” Somehow I am always surprised when way up near the peaks, surrounded by green shrubs or brown grass, I see little white specks…Sheep! Goats! I quickly play the I spy game with myself, trying to search for the darker spec that is the shepherd guarding these packs of animals. One shepherd is called a “modisa”, the plural is “bodisa”. Lesotho doesn’t have very much wildlife, and since I don’t really live on or near a farm, I sort of obsess over seeing sheep, goats, cattle, and donkeys herded along the road or up the side of a mountain (You would think living in the Midwest the past 5 years would’ve acclimated me to the agrarian lifestyle a little bit more!).

Can you find the sheep in these pictures?

Being a modisa in Basotho village culture is like a right of passage into manhood. Their ages typically range from 9-18 years old, you very rarely see an older man herding animals. One time everyone in our outreach car burst into laughter because we saw two little boys, probably only 6 years old, herding calves…small bodisa, small animals! Occasionally we see shepherds herding animals up the road in the early morning or late afternoon, but usually you just find them sitting on the mountain watching their animals graze. I’m pretty sure most of the shepherds we see are bored out of their minds, I sure would be!

Bodisa are everywhere in Lesotho and they are really easy to pick out simply based on their appearance. Basotho often wear large blankets pinned to make coats, and the shepherd’s blanket is always grey. Sometimes they have their blankets embroidered with bright thread at the edges, but this is rare because embroidery is expensive. They also wear gum boots (or rain boots as we would call them), which I imagine is not very comfortable on their long-distance treks through the mountains. I often wonder why and how gum boots came to be the footwear of choice for the shepherds. Maybe they are easy to clean and keep dirt out, but they definitely don’t provide any traction on the mountainside. I find it kind of funny that many of them make a fashion statement by wearing white boots, too, which turn brown from dust and dirt almost immediately. I also think it’s funny that on Notre Dame’s campus girls make a fashion statement by wearing rain boots (quite often actually thanks to South Bend weather), whereas I haven’t seen a single female in Lesotho wearing them. I guess the purpose of gum boots here isn’t to protect from rain at all…cultural differences at play!

A modisa with some cattle pulling bails of wheat.

Some shepherds ride horses while herding their animals.

This boy has his mulamu in hand.
This one is less decorated than
some of the others.

There are two other articles that distinguish a shepherd from the average person. On my first day of outreach, I was actually a bit frightened every time I saw a shepherd because they look like robbers! Instead of wearing a typical winter cap these boys wear “balaclavas,” a full head hat with a slit only for the eyes. Being out of my comfort zone to begin with, I thought to myself, “Stay away from these dudes!” Seeing only their eyes staring at me and not being able to guage their facial expressions really freaked me out at first. Now I am pretty used to the shepherds’ balaclavas, but every once in a while I see them and get the urge to run in the other direction. Their second distinguishing item also makes me want to run on occasion. Shepherds carry around mulamu, a thick wooden stick usually decorated with colorful bands of wire. Mulamus are a traditional martial arts weapon used for stick fighting, which some boys learn as they are growing up. I actually saw a boy being taught how to properly use the mulamu as we were driving by a field full of cattle just last week! Bodisa carry them as a symbol of being a young man. They use the mulamus to direct their herds rather than to fight…that is when they aren’t throwing rocks at the animals to get them to move (U.S. animal rights activists would be furious!). Some shepherds also have dogs (that often look sickly with big red eyes) to help gather their herd. I chuckle a little when I witness a shepherd running after an animal that’s gone rogue, but he must get it back to the herd because those livestock are his livelihood! (The cattle here are used mostly for milk and meat, while the sheep and goats are kept for their wool.)

Mulamus in the process of getting wire bands...The mulamu maker with a bunch of mulamus in fighting position!

Found one shepherd making his own mulamu by shaping wood.

So as you might’ve noticed in some of the pictures, a few villagers keep their animals in a pen made of rocks just outside their rondavel. Many, however, have shepherds guard their animals in pens high up on the mountains in the grazing areas. For this reason, many shepherds live in Motibos, or small temporary dwellings where they must take care of themselves and the livestock. This lifestyle worries me a bit because as I’ve witnessed at home, young teenage boys are not always great at feeding and taking care of themselves. It is also worrisome because this lifestyle means the shepherds are not going to school. An outreach worker once told me that a few villages have night school for shepherds who watch livestock all day long, but I haven’t had much confirmation of that from anyone else.

A Motibo on a mountain overlooking Mokhotlong.

This modisa is holding a whip rather than a mulamu.

Yesterday I decided to hike up the mountain behind TTL for a workout and hadn’t planned on playing I Spy. That was until I heard a voice shouting over the music I was listening to. I turned around to see a couple shepherds watching me and yelling back and forth to each other between mountain peaks. Unlike the rest of Mokhotlong, being a modisa is a full-time job…they don’t get off work on Sundays! I read online that because shepherds are often bored and alone, they learn to project their voices really well in order to have full conversations with other shepherds on nearby ridges. I think the shepherds watching me were either nervous that I was getting too close to their Motibo, or they were just trying to figure out why in the world I would be hiking up a mountain for fun. People here are forced to walk everywhere and don’t ever work out, so they find it hard to understand why we get enjoyment out of hiking and running (my translator thought I was crazy when I told her about my hike!). I actually didn’t complete my I Spy game on the hike (bummer!) because I couldn’t find their animals anywhere…

I hiked to that peak, and this was taking from 1/3 up the mountain!

The beauty of camera self-timers.

Can you see the shepherd standing on the ridge?

I only have two weeks left to play I Spy and take in the sights of Lesotho…I’m very sad it’s coming to an end. I hope you enjoyed this tidbit of Basotho culture, I will try to post many more during the next two weeks!

Tons of pics of shepherds and their livestock from outreach!