Ke Ngoanana Oa Mosotho: A Decolonial Feminist Analysis of Girlhoods in Lesotho

Mohlabane provide the first presentation of Sotho girlhoods and exposes the complexities and richness embodied by indigenous conceptions of girlhood in Lesotho contexts. Drawing on intimate conversations with Basotho women about their upbringing as young Basotho girls, this work analyzes what it has meant in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries to be a Mosotho girl within the diverse spatial and temporal contexts they inhabited. The author engages a decolonial African feminist analysis with the aim of revealing, interrogating and rectifying persistent colonial biases that plague the definition of girlhood in postcolonial Lesotho. Focusing on the narratives of sexuality and functionality, ‘Ke ngoanana oa Mosotho’ concludes that indigenous girlhoods are critical decolonization forces that successfully dismantle coloniality characterising Girlhood Studies.