Scientia Militaria (Aug 2011)

MILITARY LABOUR MOBILISATION IN COLONIAL LESOTHO DURING WORLD WAR II, 1940-1943

  • Nombulelo Ntabeni

DOI
https://doi.org/10.5787/36-2-51
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 36, no. 2

Abstract

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In 1940, Great Britain’s wartime exploitation of the human and materialresources of its colonial empire was extended to colonial Lesotho (then known asBasutoland). The aim of this article, therefore, is to trace the four-year militarylabour mobilisation process in that colony, with special attention to the timing,number and procedures of the recruitment campaigns that were launched, thereasons for Basotho men’s willingness or resistance to enlist, and the overallimplications for Lesotho of large-scale absenteeism of able-bodied men as migrantand military labour.