26th September 2008

Just when I thought I was high in the north being in Mokhotlong, I had a lot further to go. I had heard of the diamond mines in the north of Lesotho, and about the prized quality of the diamonds which Lesotho concealed, and I was keen to learn more about the industry. I somehow felt like all diamond mines and foreign-owned industry was a means of exploiting Lesotho’s recourses.

The chief's home in Ha Matebeleng. it was a lovely stay with this family. Many friendly faces

The chief's granddaughter in Matebeleng

The chief's family in Matebeleng

Chief's daughter in Matebeleng

Mother and daughter, Matabeleng

Again in Matebeleng, hanging out in the sun with the cheif's daughters

The three very long days it took to walk up to the Lêtsêng Diamond mine, were relatively hassle free, oh besides one herdboy who made me nervous and wouldn’t leave me alone.

About two thirds of the way though the first day out of Mokhotlong, a group of little kids decided that wanted to walk with me for a while. We danced along the road being silly and trying to talk to each other, until a serious looking herdboy decided to leave his gang and come down to join us. I was suspicious of him from the start, as he didn’t have that friendly air and smile of most herdboys. He asked me all of the conventional questions while the children where still walking with me, but when they left he started asking me questions like, are you alone and aren’t you afraid of being alone? I asked him why I should be afraid and he simply said because he was a boy and I was a girl. Obviously he was indicating that I should be afraid of rape, but I pretended to be oblivious and questioned him as to why I should be afraid of him. My bad Sesotho then got in the way and I simply said that I was not afraid. I think that if you are confident by yourself and everyone else is afraid, then they will be suspicious of you and will think you are concealing a secret weapon. Of course I did have a secret weapon which he didn’t know about, the maice in my pocket. Soon I started to tell him that I didn’t want to walk with him anymore and that I wanted to walk alone. He wasn’t happy with this and was asking to visit me in the village where I was planning on spending the night. Because I was walking alone, I had set up my saddle bags in a way that I could ride if the need arose. The need arose, I felt, so I hopped on and started to trot away. He then started saying that ‘it is not good, it is not good’. Then he started saying ‘sheba, sheba (look, look)’. And when I didn’t he started to ask me if I was afraid of looking. I knew what he was doing but didn’t dare give him the satisfaction of me looking. Apparently mischievous/bad herdboys flash girls. And this is what I think he was doing, but I’ll never know because I didn’t look. I trotted off towards the next hill and was rid of him.