The rich and diverse culture of the Sotho people is integral to the unique composition of southern Africa. Approximately 7 million people identify as Sotho today, making them an important part of the demographics of the continent.
Sources: BuzzSouthAfrica.com, EveryCulture.com, TheSouthAfricaGuide.com, SouthAfrica.net, SAHistory.org.za, Britannica.com
Three distinct groups make up the Sotho people the Northern Sotho (also known as the Pedi), Southern Sotho, and Tswana. The vast majority live in Lesotho and South Africa, with the South Sotho concentrated mainly in the Free State, Gauteng, and Eastern Cape Provinces. The Northern Sotho live between the Olifants and Steelport rivers in the Northern Province. The Southern Sotho people make up approximately 99 percent of the population of Lesotho, while the Tswana people are mainly concentrated in Botswana.
While much of the Sotho people’s origins are unknown, oral tradition tells us that early groups were proficient smelters, and Sotho-speaking ironworkers lived in Phalaborwa as early as the eighth century. Ritual dances also tell the story of the Sotho heritage of ironwork.
Sotho communities, like many other African communities, are broken up into villages led by a chief. Within each village, however, different age sets are set apart and each assigned specific tasks and responsibilities, allowing things to function effectively. It was common for towns to be large among some groups, particularly the Tswana, and those organized into Bantu townships in South Africa during apartheid.
In Sotho societies, men are permitted to have more than one wife. Each wife lives separately in her own homestead, and is ranked by seniority. Though the practice is not as common as it was in the past, it still continues to this day.
Sotho economies have long focused on rearing cattle and growing and cultivating grains, specifically sorghum, millet, corn, beans, and sweet potatoes. Cattle came into play in relationships. A substantial bride price of cattle was often necessary in order for a man to marry. Today, however, it is common for Sotho men to be absent from the home, working as migrant laborers.
Due to their proficiency in horse riding – necessary for communities that herd cattle to the extent that the Sotho do – the Sotho people are sometimes referred to as the cowboys of the plains of South Africa. They are also known for their skills at basket weaving and making other artisan products out of wood, leather, iron and other metals.
Sesotho is a Bantu language closely related to Setswana, and is spoken by all ethnic Sotho groups. Northern and Southern Sotho people have distinct regional and ethnic dialect differences. The Northern Sotho dialect known as Sepedi does not use click consonants, while the southern form of Sesotho does. The language has many proverbs and idioms, with special forms and conjugations to display respect for elders.
While many Sotho practice Catholicism and Protestantism, Modimo is the traditional supreme being of the Sotho. Modimo is accessed through ancestral spirits. Many believe that disrespecting ones ancestors will lead to misfortune and illness. Ritual feasts are held to honor and ask the spirits of one’s ancestors to approach Modimo, and often include a man sprinkling home-brewed beer and snuff on the ground to invoke the help of his ancestors in receiving good fortune.
Boys are sent to a lodge away from the village and live in seclusion during their initiation. They are circumcised and taught the proper conduct for marriage, specific Sotho initiation traditions, praise songs, and more. The praise songs are then performed at a community festival where the new initiates, now known as “makolwane,” sing the praises they have composed. They are not considered adult until this rite of passage is completed.
By contrast, the huts for Sotho girls’ initiation proceedings take place much closer to the village, and no circumcision takes place. Some clans, however, do put their girls through tests of pain and endurance, though specifics on the process are unclear. They too are taught the proper codes of conduct for Sotho women, and participate in a ritual festival to culminate the process.
When somebody within a Sotho village dies, the entire community participates in the burial process. Each adult man present takes turns shoveling dirt onto the grave, and dozens of people make speeches at the graveside. Everyone washes hands as a group, and often a funeral feast accompanies the burial.
Sotho was one of the first to be a written language, and Sesotho literature is incredibly diverse and impressive in size and richness. The written language is mainly based on several Southern Sotho dialects – Kwena and Fokeng – though there are variations, especially throughout different regions of southern Africa. French missionaries transmuted Sesotho into writing beginning in 1833, and Thomas Mofolo’s “Chaka,” written in 1925, was one of the first Sotho books written. It is still read today.