Reprinted from

AFRICAN STUDIESJournal

WITWATERSRAND UNIVERSITY PRESS

J O H A N N E S B U R G

WHY BASOTHO WEAR BLANKETS*I

DAN BOSKOf

the blanket is life, kobo ke Oofna: a Mosotho

Basotho are preoccupied with bl""k"tr;;ich they wear over their clothes. They are requireddress only on certain occasions, but their afiective value is so considerable that they are wornmuch of the time, even when 'good sense' demands that they be taken ofi. Writing in 1952,Ashton noted that "Merchandise sold by the stores consists mainly (about B0o/") of soft goods,of which about 70o/o consists of blankets. . ." (p. 168). Rasotho can be observed wearing one,sometimes two blankets, at the height of summer, when the heat is oppressive, even by theirown admission. The purpose of this paper is to explain this peculiar fact, and, by so doing,achieve an understanding of Sesotho religious symbolism.

In what follows, I attempt (1) to establish the symbolic equivalence of blankets and thevag"ina, (2) to show that blankets, qua vagina, are the organs used in Sesotho rites de passageto efiect growth, qualitative change, and passage, and (3) to demonstrate that (a) the blanketand kin group are also symbolic equivalents and that (b) the blanket, symbolizing the familygroup, effects its ritual induction of growth in the context, and for the benefit, of that group.

l. SyMsorrc AssocrATroNS oF rnn BreNxrrA Mosotho woman who refuses her husband's sexual advances is said, literally, to refuse topart with the blankets or to refuse to give the blankets to him, ho hana ka lihobo or ho mo titnal,ihobo, respectively. These expressions do not mean refusal to remove one's gannents. "Blanket,kobo (l'ikobo, pl.), means vagina because it clothes a person just like the vagina clothes thepenis", hoapesahoma.Toclotheapersonwithblankets,koa.pesamothohal, ihobo,maymeantodress a person or to extend sexual favours to him, depending on the context. Basotho say"woman is the blanket of a man", mosali ke kobo ea.7/Lonn6r. If a man says he is cold, especiallyat night, he might be told, "There's no reason to be cold as there are many women around".When men say that a woman is sexually hot, ho chesa, or cold, ho bata, they are talking aboutthe literal heat of her vagina.

A man pierces his blanket if he discovers that his bride is not a virgin (Sekese 1975:-7).sBasotho women carry infants on their backs, by means of and in a blanket. This is ho pefa,which also means to give birth. To be delivered, then, is to bring forth a child by means of theblanket, i.e., vagina.

Girls elongate the labia minora, making them blanket-like. A woman without such labia,m'al'ebe, has the hard luck that her husband will be cold. Basotho women are the best becausethey have hot vaginas. The very s5rmbol of woman is an upside down victory sign. The handdisplaying the upside down 'V' is given a shake, symbolizing the hanging and trembling malebe.

t @Witwatersrand Universitv Press lg8l1 Jan Smuts Avenue2001 Johannesburg, South Africa

fMr Dan Bosko, Department of Anthropology, New York University, New York, N.Y. 10003r This paper is based on 18 months' fieldwork, between 1977 and 1979, done primarily among Basotho in two villages

of Lesotho. Sesotho is the language and anything characteristic of Basotho (Mosotho, sg.), the people. I employthe orthography used in Lesotho, except when quoting information recorded in the orthography utilized in SouthAfrica. I wish to acknowledge a grant provided by the National Science Foundation, whose generosity made feld-work possible. I would also like to thank Professors T.O. Beidelman, Owen M. Lynch, and Ms Maryann McCabefor useful comments on dra{ts of this paper,

I Store-bought blankets have come to replace tle skin blankets worn in tle past. The finishing blow was a rinderpestepidemic which decimated Basotho's cattle (Ashton 1952:166). I posit the symbolic equivalence of animal hidesand factory-produced blankets.

t The informatiou noted is based on my translation oI this work of Sesotho. This also goes for the other Sesothoworks I use in this paper.

24 AFRICAN STUDIES, 40.I.81

Such a labium is a "thing that hangs down", lesihla (masihla, pl., Paroz 1974: 459).Interest-ingly, the word is the respect, hlonepho,a substitute for blanket, kobo. Moreover, the categoriesho sihletsa, ho sihlolla, and t{ihlollo, derived from the root sihla, are related to the concepts ofblanket and vagina. Ho sihletsa, whose respect substitute is to dress, ho apara, means to adjustthe blanket on one's shoulders, as when carryring a child on the back (ho pepa, also to beget).Ho sihlolla means to give birth or (Paroz 1974:459) "to deposit (a load which one had on one'sshoulders)". The dictionary goes on to define t{ihlollo as confinement.6 Lesihla has other mean-ings, including medicine for facilitating childbirth.

The word blankets refers, par excell,ence, to the elongated labia. Basotho say "she refused togive the blankets (pl.) to him", as there are two labia. According to Mosotho oa Khale (Anon.,p. 177), girls use an ointment while stretching, ho sarolla, their labia. Ho sarolla means tostretch a skin or a thing like a wet skin.

Blankets, qua vagina, are used in rites de passage to mediate the changes from one status toanother. The vagina is an organ of heat and procreation, hence the Sesotho concern about itsheat. So too with blankets, whose thermal qualities are necessary for growth and qualitativechange.

The shades' food, I'ijo tsa balimo, that which they are ofiered at some sacrifices (mekete eabalimo), consists of meat, nam,a., beer, joala, and tobacco, koae. These dominant religiouss5rmbols have one thing in common, namely, the blanket. Meat comes from the beasts whosehides used to provide Basotho with their blankets. In fact, there is a type of sacrifice in whichit is stated that the ox being offered to the deceased is to provide the latter with a blanket,hobo. A crucial step in the beer-making process involves covering, ho bipa, with an old blanket,skin, or sack, sorghum which has been soaked in water. Warmth provided by the coveringcauses the grain to sprout, hence fermentation. Basotho who still make their own tobaccocover it, ho bipa, with an old blanket or cloth. Again, the warmth of a cover effects a qual-itative change, making for a fierce, bohale, tobacco. (Fierceness is also a positive characteristicof beer.) Koae, tobacco, also means penis. The theme is thus restated: ho bipa koaeo is to covertobacco with a blanket or to clothe the penis (with the vagina). Pregnant with her first-born-to-be, one's wife returns to her pre-marital home to have her kin cover her belly with one of anumber of coverings, for example, a sheepskin, a goatskin, etc. Again, this is ho bipa. Theclothing used helps keep the developing child warm. It seems that the blanket effects analogouschanges in beer, tobacco, and the as-yet-to-be-born. It turns tame substances into fierce,intoxicating, and living things. To cover with a blanket is to cause to ferment, to pass from onestate to another. A detailed analysis of the symbolic significance of beer will help to explainwhy the shades'foods are what they are.

BEER

The malt that results after covering soggy sorghum is called'mela,from the verb to grow/togerminate, ho mel,a. Growth is understood in terms of qualitative change, just as sprouted graindiffers qualitatively from unsprouted grain. Basotho praise sorghum beer's nourishing qualityand often refer to it as Sesotho, i.e. they identify it with their life. The blanket is responsiblefor this growth or qualitative change from sorghum into malt. Here is a basis for applying ablanket to persons undergoing rites of passage, in order to mediate analogous, qualitativechanges in their status.

Ground sorghum germ, mohlaba, added to a concoction as leavening agent, tomoso (ftom holomosa, to cause to ferment), is itself a powerful symbol of qualitative change, hence passage.Unstrained beer, also referred to as mohlaba, as genn-containing dregs are still in it, is set asidefor certain rituals whose purpose is to keep the shades away from their living kin. Mohlaba isideal for this, expressing the social passage from the iiving to the dead that Basotho expect ofthe deceased. For example, (l) it is drunk when the shades are offered meat, tobacco, and beer,i.e. after they have been interfering negatively in the lives of their living kin. In f.act, mohl.abais the shades' beer, Par excel,l'ence. (2) It is also imbibed when Basotho end a period of mourning,ho khaola thapo. At such times, some kin groups drink it just as the sun is rising. (3) Some time

. See Kunene, D. P. (1958) otr respect in ttre Sesotio socio-cultural system.5 Lesihla, like many other Sesotho words, is becoming obsolete.3 Cf. Murray (1975) for an aaalysis of the symbol Aoae.

WHY BASOTHO WEAR BLANKETS

after a death, the deceased's clothes are distributed, ho nt{woa l,ikobo. Before this is done, theclothes/blankets are sprinkled with unstrained beer.

Basotho say tomoso eabelisa, the leaven causes to ferment, causes to boil, the one verb usedfor both referents. Sesotho associates boiling and fermentation. The ground germ, like theblanket, causes a change, a fermentation in that on which it is working, associated with thermalincrease. The fermentation of the beer is (poorly translated) a ripening, a becoming cooked, Zobutsoa, of the pasty mass found in the beer while it is brewing. Again, a fermentation-likeprocess (ripening) involving a change in quality, is linked with the application of heat (cooking).Other things which undergo this transformation, ho bwtsoa, include ripening fruits, vegetables,grain, the shades' food (meat which is becoming cooked, maturing tobacco), and clay vesselswhich are becoming fired. Clay is also a dominant symbol of passage and qualitative change,capable of undergoing a process akin to fermentation.T

Beer-making is analogous to the making of a human being and the re-making of a person inchanges of status. Beer as-yet-to-be-fermented and the uninitiated, i.e. children as yet to befermented, are referred to by one name, lehoele. The analogy goes farther. Ho l,omol'a is toperform rituals aimed at making a child (or those who resemble a child: initiates, for example)grow fierce, bohal,e, (in the sense of having a 'kick'), which, it should be recalled, is also a traitcharacteristic of good beer and tobacco. Ho lomola is to teach a child food, ho rno rutalijo,i.e.to transform the child into a human (fermented, ripened, cooked) being. It will be seen that thedaughter-in-law is also "taught food", in order to cause the fermentation, i.e. excitation of herprocreative potential.

HEAT AND MEAT

Heat is the essential mediator of growth. One informant attested that earth's heat and waterare alone responsible for the growth of seed. Nothing was said of minerals. Blankets provideheat for passage, as does meat, another fermenting agent of sorts, another of the shades'foods.s Without the warmth from a meal of meat, neither the living nor the dead will sleep well.To go to bed with an empty stomach, ho robala le mpa e batang, is, literally rendered, "to liedown with a cold stomach". I made a feast and was heartily thanked afterwards, some villagerssaying that they "had eaten well, felt wann after th€ir meal, and slept soundly". For the deadto "sleep for the living", ho ba roballa, is for them not to disturb the living. In exchange fortheir passage (their sleeping), the shades demand food and blankets so they do not get cold andhungry (see p. 26). The analogy is re-stated: to move the dead through social space and put themat a distance, i.e. to change them from the lingering and intruding into the departed, theyshould be clothed or blanketed with sacrificial beasts w-hose meat and skins provide warmththat fuels their passage.e

CAUL

The womb, popelo, is also referred to as pitsa, a pot. The latter should be kept warm to beconducive to generation. It is for this reason that women, pregnant or not, wear a blanketwrapped round their waists, thekeng. They do not want "wind entering their wombs". Thesymbolism is clear: the developing child is becoming 'cooked' and ripened in the womb. Corres-ponding to this blanket round the waist is an internal, biological blanket covering the womb,maintaining its warmth. The womb is considered to be an intestine (l,ela, sing.) or an organphysically connected to the intestines (mala, pl.). The fatty, apron-like tissue covering the in-testines, mohl,ehlo, is seen as the intestines'blariket, hobo eamala.This tissue, the caul-themost sacred part of a sacrificial victim (Casalis 1861: 250), a symbol of prosperity (Laydevant1952:32) -apparentlyderives its great ritual efficacyfrom the fact thatit serves to blanketthe womb and provide that life-producing pot with the heat of generation. Herein lies thecaul's stritability for its application to those undergoing life crises, i.e. those expected to changetheir social status in a way analogous to the foetus's passage into an infant.

Like the womb, the kidneys are covered with the fat which may be assumed to furnish the

? I intend, in other papers, to deal with clay and the snakeskin utilized by potters. (Anon, n.d. (b), pp, 69, 143).Snakes wittr their sLin-shedding and renewal, are also associated with blankets, qualitative change, and rites ofpassage.

. Sechefo, a Mosotho author, attributes condensed breath to warmth provided by a headcovering. See n.d. (b), p. a.e The hides resulting from the sacrifice of livestock are used in a variety of instrumental and ritualistic ways, e.9.,

as rugs on which to sit and sleep, and as an essential part of mourning rites (see p. 29).

25

26 AFRICAN STUDIES, 40.I,8I

warmth which makes the kidneys the generative organs which it is believed they are,Iiphio litsamaisa mali. This fat is called l,ebipi, from ho bipa, to cover, the belly of a pregnant woman,soggy sorghum, or tobacco. Each of the following, then, is covered and activated by one sort ofblanket or another: belly of pregnant woman, soggy sorghum, tobacco/penis, womb (intestines),and kidneys. Lebipi is another more or less obsolete word. The fat used to be worn round theneck by people in certain circumstances (Paroz 1974:29), probably to express ritual inductionof qualitative, status change in those who were made to wear it, just as in the case of the caul,which is still worn on occasion.

2. T:c'Y BreNxrr rN RrrES oF PASSAGEDEATH

Basotho furnish the dead but hardly departed with a metaphorical blanket. Without it, thedead are not likely to depart, lacking the warmth necessary for their journey, i.e. their changeinto new statuses, those of shades. I base that analysis on aforementioned evidence and on thefollowing facts. Basotho induce this passage by providing the dead with a sacrificial beast,mohoha -from ho hohela, to attract (the dead to the dead) (Ashton 1952:108)-as soon aspossible after death. Rasotho state that an ox furnishes the deceased with a blanket, kobo, sothat he or she will not be cold. The provision is said to make likely the deceased's departure;the beast that bears it is said to accompany, ho fel,ehetsa, the deceased.

In the past, the dead were literally wrapped in ox-hides, according to Ashton (1952:102). Henotes that at the time he was in the field, the deceased were clothed in European dress, includinga blanket.

Yet another type of blanket is put into use to assure passage. Months or even years after afuneral, another, mohoha beast is offered "to make the grave firm", ho tea lejoe. The men receivea strip of the caul and tie it round their necks or wrists or pin it to their blankets. "This is a'sacred' rite, so nothing modern may be used . . . lthe caul] should be worn until it drops off . . ."(Ashton 1952: 110-11).

BIRTH

The institutionalization of birth includes the provision of a blanket, i.e. a metaphorical vaginafuelling with its heat the passage into the world of the living.

Some time after a birth, a sheep is slaughtered, ho fuoa ngoana. In the past, the skin of thissheep was used by the mother to carry the child on her back. This skin is responsible for thesocial birth of the infant. (l) It allows the mother to carry her child on her back, ho fepa.Recalling that this verb also refers to giving birth, it may be said that the sheepskin permitsthe mother to give birth, ho pepa. (2) This sheepskin is called thari, a word whose other referentis "afterbirth". So it may be said that the skin's provision is tantamount to the birth of aninfant, symbolized by the provision of afterbirth. This is borne out by the expression ho timamotho thari,literally meaning "to refuse to give an individual afterbirth/the skin used to carr5ra child on the back", said, for example, of the shades making a woman barren. (3) The sheep-skin, qua afterbirth, is responsible for the birth in yet another related manner. fnformants saidthat the afterbirth of an animal, mohlana, was the blanket of an ofispring, kobo ea ngoana, beforeparturition. Along with the caul and the blanket wrapped around a woman's waist, the placentaand foetal membranes encasing the prenatal child warm the developing foetus, contributingto its passage into the world of the living. (4) The sheepskin accounts for birth in yet anotherway. The child cannot be received, hamohelo, by its living kin until a sheep is sacrificed,kananelo. Otherwise the shades will take the child. The child's social birth, expressed throughits getting a (sheep) name at this time, lebitso la nku,Lo is contingent on the skin-providingsacrifice. (5) A folk tale lends further evidence. In "The Story of Monyove" (Liguori-Reynolds1965), a doctor instructed a childless couple to hang a baboon skin in their hut. As foretold,the ". . . skin was responsible for Monyove's birth".

10 Not all kin groups are required to link a name-giving with a sacrifice oI a sheep, as these groups do not all partakeof the same exact practices. For example, not every group subscribes to the practice ol covering a pregnant woman'sbelly. This is not to say that this would then be a meaningless thing to the members of such a group. Girls of thisgroup might be married to boys from a group whose members do cover the bellies of those pregnant for the firsttime. As this ritual takes place at a girl's pre-marital home, her kin would be obliged to cover her belly, as demandedby their in-laws'ways. Though different groups have their various ways, they generally use the same substancesand accomplish the same ends. For instance, aloe is universally used in purification rites, though its manner ofuse differs. It is in such a sense tbat it is valid to speak about these groups as if they were identical.

WHY BASOTHO WEAR BLANKETS

Social birth, then, requires the provision of a social organ, a blanket, to effect passage intothe world of the living. This passage used to be aided by that biological blanket, the caul of thesacrificial sheep, which was stretched and coiled round the child's neck for a few moments(Ellenberger 1969: 256; Laydevant 1952: 32).

MARRIAGE

Passage from the pre-marital to the marital state is so contingent on the blanket that evensome Christian brides get so wrapped in a blanket on the day of their church wedding, as tobe hardly visible.

The arrival and reception of the bride, mediated by the blanket, is formally similar to thebirth and reception of a child. She does not enter the groom's village till night-time, so thatwhen she makes her first public appearance on the following day, it is truly as if she hadappeared from the void. On arrival, the as yet locally unborn (eloped) bride is not introducedby name. She is referred to as "the child of a person", ngoan'a motho, or "a visitor", moeti. Shelies down, completely covered with a blanket, ho khurumefsa. According to informants, she doesthis as she is a "new person" , motho e rnocha. As yet unemerged, she may not eat. She remainspersona non grata until she is ofiered meat from a sheep called hoae, on the follo'*{ng day. Thishoae is a fermenting agent of sorts, helping to bring about a qualitative change in the bride'sstatus. Recali that the word hoae has the other referents tobacco and penis, each of which iscovered with blankets and is in its own right a powerful slnnbol of change and passage. Thepresentation of the sheep's meat (koae) helps turn the bride into daughter-in-law, just asincorporation of the penis (koae) can impregnate, and just as snufi (koae) can renew (thesenses), h,o thoasa, i.e. clear the head, h,o bul,q. methapo. With the slaughter of this sheep, thebride undergoes a social birth, expressed by her reception of a new name, one by which she willhenceforth be known at her husband's place.ll The bride's reception is a gradual afiair. Afterthe sheep is slaughtered, she is undressed and then re-dressed in the clothes of a wife. Fromnow on, she must wear a dress which falls below the knees and a kerchief covering her head.She is provided with a blanket which she is prescribed to wear over her shoulders for some time,depending on the ways of her husband's kin group. The blanket must be worn at all timesduring this period. Eventually, her mother-in-law removes the blanket from her shouldersand puts it round her waist. After more time, the blanket is exchanged for a shawl, after whichthe daughter-in-law is no longer constrained to wear it.

"The Story of Takane" (Martin 1969) is a formal representation of a daughter-in-law'sarrival and public presentation at her parents-in-law's place. The tale encodes her social deathand rebirth, mediated by a blanket. A girl's blanket, which has caught on to a tree growingout of some water, saves her from drowning. A small party rescues and returns her to thevillage at the dead of night. In daylight, she is presented to the villagers, who presumed herdead.

Basotho see the fact that a new daughter-in-law has to be covered in terms of her having torespect her (classificatory) fathers-in-law. So too do they explain a wife's always having towear her kerchief.

To cover or dress something or someone with or in a blanket or clothes is to activate thatsomething/someone for passage to a new status, chemical (beer, tobacco) or social. The idiomsof undressing and dressing, in that order, are extensively employed in Sesotho rites of passage.To undress a percon is to obliterate that person in the roles performed up to that time, asBasotho identify the bearer u'ith the skin or clothing, including blanket, borne. With newclothes, including blanket, comes a new person. To be undressed, ho hl,obol,isoa, and then to bedressed, ho apesoa, expresses passage from one status to another. This is what happens to thenew daughter-in-law (see above).

Recall that Basotho "teach" the child f.ood, ho lomola, in the process of making him/her intoa human (fermented, ripened, cooked) being. The childlike daughter-in-law is also taught foodwhich has previously been taboo to her, in a ritual apparently aimed at ripening her fertility.l8Another symbolic analogy is efiected: sheep's intestines/womb (food which she begins to begiven) are to the daughter-in-law whose "fermentation" will produce children, what malt is to

11 Some groups do not name daughters-in-law till they give birth.rz Sheep's intestines help with fertility, no doubt related to the ritual identification of sheep with infants, most apparent

when the infant is given the sheep in whose skin he/she will be carried about.

27

2f3 AFRICAN STUDIES, 4O.I.8I

the concoction that will turn into a fermented beverage.In the marriage feast, based on the slaughter of the tl,habiso ox, necklaces and bracelets made

of the ox's caul are put on the marrying couple (Laydevant 1952: 66). In any case, Basotho maytalk about admission to one or another abode in terms of having one's marriage dress, seaparosa bohali. Those without dress are not received.

INITIATION

The death of boyhood and the birth of manhood are mediated by blankets. According toLebollo (Anon., p. l1), (male) initiates will reappear with a different skin as men; the skin ofthe uninitiated will have fallen off.

Boys, initiated away from the village, take their clandestine departure, undergoing theirsocial death, in the following manner. Two or three of the boys are clothed in the blankets andhats of young men and escorted by six or more young men some distance out of the village.Some of the young men remain with the boys while the others return to the village with theblankets and hats by means of which the other boys will be brought to join their peeis. This isdone till all of those to be initiated have been removed from the village. Lebollo notes that thismethod serves to conceal the departure (p. 12).

The initiates' emergence, in terms of blankets, takes place thus: when the rites which takeplace at the lodge, mophato, have come to an end, the lodge is set on fire. In the past, theroughly tanned hides (mokhahl'a, sing.) worn by initiates would have burned with the lodge.Nowadays, poverty compels Basotho to salvage all but tattered hides. After coming down fromthe mountains, the initiates are clothed in new blankets. They must wear them for a giventime.

The dawn of the day after which the initiates come down, they are made to spit medicated,unstrained beer, letsepe, at the rising sun and so ". . . greet the dawn of their new life" (Ashton1952: 53; Anon., Lebollo, pp.24-25).

Girls' initiation rites were believed to engender fertility (Ellenberger 1969: 288), the biologicalcondition which acts as a model for passage rites. In one of their performances for the publicat large, the initiates ask for snuff, (&o qela) hoae (also meaning penis and the sheep receiving adaughter-in-law), that powerful symbol of passage whose potence is brought out by the blanketin which it is wrapped (talking about snufI, koae), or by the blanketlike vagina in which it isclothed (talking about the penis, hoae). Once they have "smoked"/incorporated it, they fall tothe ground, knocked out by the snuff's/penis's fierce potence.

Female initiates' emergence is also in terms of blankets. When the initiates appear in publicwhile returning from initiation, ho tebuka, some of them are made to wear round their necks thecauls of the stock slaughtered on this occasion. The initiates are also provided with new blanketsafter they have "come out".

OTHER RITES OF PASSAGE

Females undergo another type of initiation, childbearing. They go to their pre-marital hometo have their first child, taking with them a heavy blanket called "the thigh of a woman whohas recently given birth", serope sa motsoetse. When they are about to return to their maritalhomes, they leave this blanket with their mothers. Their kin replace the blanket with anotherserope sa motsoetse, with which they return to their husbands. Basotho cover the belly of awoman pregnant for the first time, ho bipa, as described before. According to Ashton (1952:27-28), a sheep may be killed for her, its gall-bladderls or caul fastened round her neck. For theperiod of her confinement, a woman reclines and keeps her child and herself covered with ablanket when she is not working.

A woman whose husband dies is limited to a wardrobe of one set of black clothes and oneblanket for the duration of her mourning. When this period is over, she is stripped, ho hlobolisoa,of these clothes, which are subsequently burned. Her blanket, though left intact, is exchangedfor a new one. A beast is slaughtered and, according to Sechefo (n.d. (a), p.11), the widow wearson her neck and wrist the caul of the animal. A woman whose child has died lies down and keepscovered with a blanket until the funeral. She is also obliged to wear one set of clothes and a

18 Gall is used in many of the rituals I have discussed. I have uot talked about it as it is not directly relevant to tJrisPaPer.

WHY BASOTHO WEAR BLANKETS

blanket for the mourning period. When the time is over, she is undressed and then clothedanew. Once again, stock is slaughtered.

Those who are visiting or stafng at the homestead where the corpse is being held (boklohong)till burial are expected to wear a blanket.

Twins, mafahl'a, are one being. Consequently, a twin predeceasing the other is said to havegone away unseen, ho thoba, rather than to have died. The surviving twin is in mortal dangerof being reunited with him/herself, i.e. the twin who has "slipped away". Basotho rectify thisby exchanging the twins' blankets before interring the deceased with his/her sibling's garments.Once done, the deceased, though still not dead, w-ill "sleep for" the surviving twin,

A stilt-birth is wrapped in a blanket.Basotho also clothe an individual to express his achieaement of a status. For example,

prisoners in modern-day Lesotho are clothed in a red blanket which remains with them for theduration of their imprisonment. This blanket represents the new person.

Entry to and advancement in various churches and church groups is expressed in terms ofbeing clothed. The secret prayer group Thapelo ea Sephiri is an example. Each status withinsuch a church has its associated clothing. To be promoted, one has to be clothed by the masterof the local church attended (mong 'a l,et\a). Only the master may make these clothes and sellthem to the one being promoted. The president, mookameli, of the local church I attended fellout with his superior, the master, by telling members that the master was selling Sephiriclothes at prohibitive prices so as to retard their advancement in the organization. It is clearthat for Basotho there is something about the act of clothing per se that is necessary forqualitative change to be effected. Along these lines, it is interesting to learn what Setiloane(1976: 217-18) has to say about ". . .finitiation] into the membership of lThapelo ya Sephirfi. . .the new member is brought in fthis is often referred to as being 'put into the pot' or as being'cooked'] . . .fmembers are] recognisable as having come 'through the pot'."14 Admission to thissociety is conceptualized in terms of a clay pot, symbol of the womb in which the child becomes"cooked and ripe", i.e. qualitatively changed.

3. IonwrmrcATloN or Btewxrr wrrH KrN GnoupI have not yet presented the context within which growth makes sense to Basotho. Growth isnot aimless; it seems, in most cases, to be growth/or the benefit of the kin group, except in sucha case as initiation, which involves a supra-kin context (see p.30). In the rites under discussion,the blanket, responsible for growth, is linked with diacritical marks of the kin group performingthe rite. By means of the blanket, which symbolizes the group, the notion of growth is boundup with the kin group. Sociologically speaking, useful growth is that which takes place insidethe family group.

It is apparent that the blanket symbolizes the kin group. I have established that the vaginaand the blanket are s5rmbolic equivalents. To have sprung from one vagina/blanket is to befamily. The members of a family (and by extension into the past, the members of a kin group)have one vagina/blanket in common. Moreover, the family owes to the blanket its existence in asocial sense, in so far as blanket:cowskin:cow. The cow is mother of the Basotho, 'MaBasotho,

as cattle (are exchanged for a wife and) legitimize offspring. So it is that the family is createdby means of cattle, the blanket-giving beasts.

Basotho commence and terminate their mourning period by cutting their hair. The membersof the concerned kin group cut their hair communally. Only.they have the right.l5 On theseoccasions, it is attempted through various machinations to exclude from or include in thefamily one or more persons (by trying to prevent such person(s) from cutting their hair, and/ortrytng to get others permitted to cut theirs). The hair, which is collected, must be cut over anox-hide. To have one's hair cut is literally "to enter onto the hide", ko kena lehohong.In thefinal analysis, the family consists of those who have been included.rvithin the edges of one ox-skin. The idiom is familiar. For example: (l) Koboanel,a seems to express a concept of peoplethought of in a corporate sense. The word is undoubtedly a composite of the word for blanket,hobo, and the verb to spread out or cover, ho anela. (2) Kobo-tata refers to a blanket covering anumber of people. (3) The followers of a chief may be referred to as "the lice in his blanket",

29

1'Setiloane's book is on the "Sotho-Tswana". The Basotho and the Tswana are kin peoples.16 The ostensibly patrilineal Basotho may include their sisters' sons in this hair-cutting ritual.

30 AFRICAN STUDIES, 4O.I.8I

l,inta tsa kobo ea ,no/ena.. Here, a body of people is conceptually encompassed within the area ofa blanket.

Basotho used to mark their skin mantles and stock with the emblems of their various tribes(Ellenberger 1969: 241). It is apparent that the blanket may symbolize clans, chiefdoms, thenation, as well as the corporate kin groups it most usually represents.

The blanket, s5rmbolizing the family group, effects its ritual induction of growth in thecontext, and for the benefit, of that group. When the belly of a woman pregnant for the firsttime is covered with a skin or other covering, ko bipa, this is done with the type of covering andin the manner prescribed by her husband's kin group. Moreover, those covering her also put onher certain "charms" which are diacritical marks of her husband's group, khoetsa. The purposeof these rituals, in addition to warming the foetus so that it grows, is to impart membershipin its father's group to the child-in-the-making. After the child has been born, these very samecharms are put on it at the time that it is given the sheep whose skin used to be the infant'sblanket.

Recall that ho lomola is to perform rituals aimed at making children and those who resemblethem, grow and undergo qualitative change. Now Basotho will say ho lomola ha khoetsa, toperform these passage-fuelling rituals in terms of diacritical marks of a given family group.Growth, then, is contingent on its kin group context. Children die if, during these growth rites,they are treated with the diacritical marks of the wrong family. A child who may not beclaimed by the group of its genitor will not grow, i.e. it is as good as dead to that group, socio-logically speaking. A daughter-in-law is introduced to new f.oods in the manner of her husband'sgroup, so that she grows for her husband's family into a fertile daughter-in-law benefiting hermarital relatives only. A child is also introduced to certain foods, the foods varying with thegroup involved, in the manner of its father's kin.

A necessary part of the rites I have been discussing is the recitation of the praises, lithoko,of the kin group. There is a rite in which a group asks for fertility, i.e. (ho qela) thari, which isafterbirth, "the foetus's blanket", and the sheepskin used to carry a child. At this time, grouppraises are recited and the daughter-in-law is addressed by her marital kin group's appellation.The rite in which a child used to be provided with thari, the skin of the sheep slaughtered afterits birth, included the child's being addressed by the group name.

Recovery from illness is similarly understood. The members of the patient's grotp praise himby their group name and say "Shades, leave our brother in peace so that he may sleep for us".At this point, they put the caul (the intestines'/womb's blanket) round his neck (Sekese1975:16). The use of a bianket (caul) is juxtaposed with the use of a group's praises. Recovery/growth, aided by the caul, is for the sake of the kin group. These rites are performed withrespect to the shades of a kin group. Another example concerns the marriage feast in whichthe caul of the sacrificial ox is used to fashion necklace and wristlets for bride and groom. Thefat is put on them; both parties "...rvere therebysolemnlyrecommended to the care of theshades of their ancestors" (Eilenberger 1969:275-76).

4. Cor{crusroNWhat I have argued can be diagrammatically expressed as follows:

WHY BASOTHO WEAR BLANKETS 31

VAGINA,

symbolizedby

IIII{

BLANKET

animal skin

caul

kidney fat

placenta/foetal mem-branes

elongatedlabia

heat

covers,envelops,boils/ferments,cooks

I

generatiae processgrowtkf change

(inert) -->

sorghum ->

plant ->

flesh (of hide-bearing ->livestock)

penrs

intestine

foetus

kidney

individual

neonate (precarious)

child

single girl

dead (lingering)

neophytes of allsorts

(activated)

malt

tobacco

meat (warming,fillirrg, producingcontentment)

semen producer

womb

neonate

generative organ

kin group member

+ child

+ adult

-+ married

-+ departed (distanced)

-+ initiated, re-integrated

Blankets give the warmth which turns inert substances into beer and tobacco. Blanket-liketissues covering the intestines, kidneys, and foetus also provide the heat which changes lifelessinto life-producing entities. One blanket-like organ in particular, the vagina, envelops the penisand furnishes the heat for the greatest transformation of all, birth; it also provides the passage-way for the emerging child. Consequently, the vaginai-like blanket is made use of in rites ofpassage, where it fuels the generation of persons. The blanket is utilized in conjunction with thediacritical marks of the kin group performing the rites. This expresses that growth, mediatedby the thermal properties of the blanket, should take place in the context, and for the benefit,of the kin group.

The literature is replete with references to Sesotho fertility rites. But fertility per se does notinterest Basotho; rather it is their fertility as kin group members which concerns them.

Sesotho elongation of the labia accommodates a social reality which overrides a physicalreality, i.e. the vagina must be blanketlike. Likewise, Basotho may wear one or two blankets inoppressively hot weather even if they are not required. By so doing, they celebrate the elaboratesystem of meanings attached to the concept of blanket. The meanings' importance transcendscosmically some consequences of the biology of bodily heat-maintenance. Blankets help Basothosurvive their winter, which can be bitterly cold., but this instrumental significance of theblanket hardly suffices to explain Sesotho preoccupation with the blanket.lo It is no accidentthat blankets were used to cover the altar at a confirmation ceremonv which I attended at aCatholic mission station.

16 For example, it is a sign of great misfortune for a girl's blanket to get even slightly scorched by fire (Sechefo n.d.(a), p. 2l). Aside-from this, blankets are not accorded any special treatment outside of ritual contexts, exceptfor the remarkable attention to which they are subject as items of great value.

32 AFRICAN STUDIES, 40.I.8I

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African Institute.CAsetrs, E. 1861. The Basutos; or,Twenty-three Years in South Africa. London, James Nisbet.ErrBNsrncnR, D. Fnrp. 1969 (1912). History of the Basulo. New York, Negro Universities

Press.

LevoBvext, Fneugors. 1952. The Basuto. Roma, [Basutoland], The Social Centre.Lrcuonr-RrrrNolDs, R. 1965. Tales of the BIue Mountains. Johannesburg, APB Publishers.MenrIN, MrNlIrB. 1969 (1903). Basutoland,: Its Legend,s and, Customs. New York, Negro

Universities Press.Munnev, Cor,rN. 1975. Sex, smoking and the shades: a Sotho symbolic idiom. In Whisson,

Michael G. and West, Martin (eds), Religion and Social Change in Southern Africa: Anthro-pological, Essays in Honour of lVIonica Wilson. Cape Town, David Philip, pp.58-77.

PARoz, R. A. 1974. Soutkern Sotho-Engl,isk Dictionary. Morija, Lesotho, Morija Sesuto BookDepot.

Srcunro, Jusrrnus. n.d.(a). Customs and Superstitions in Lesotho. Roma, Lesotho, The SocialCentre.

n.d.(b). The Old Clothing of the Basotho. Mazenod, fBasutoland], The Catholic Centre.Sexrsr, AzenrBn. 1975. Mekhoa le Maele a Basotho. Morija, Lesotho, Morija Sesuto Book

Depot.SnrnoaNr, Gennrrr. M. 1976. The Image of God. a?nong the Sotho-Tswana. Rotterdam, Balkema.