A 1980 photo shows me rappelling down a rock, harness intact, hands free. This is called a “trust fall,” just one of the Outward Bound activities preparing me and others to become Peace Corps volunteers in Lesotho, Southern Africa.
While there, I learned of Lesotho’s Outward Bound Program that brought together staff and laborers from the mines in apartheid South Africa. A centerpiece of this program involved rock climbing and rappelling, with a white boss and a black laborer taking turns holding the ropes for one another – ultimately holding a life in their hands.
Because Lesotho offered few employment opportunities beyond subsistence farming, about 40 percent of the men worked in South Africa as miners, returning home only for holidays.
Before Peace Corps, my international travels were limited to Canada, and I thought of a border like a cell wall in our bodies, where fluids pass easily from one cell to another. I had little knowledge of the political implications in many areas of the world.
Because we flew directly to Lesotho, it was months before I crossed the border into South Africa, which completely surrounds Lesotho. Upon my arrival, I was caught up in the newness of this small nation: of the Maluti mountains and huts mimicking their conical shape, of mounted chiefs wrapped in capes with airplane patterns, of women with straight spines and thick neck muscles, balancing full buckets of water on their heads.
But in reading and discussing current social issues, I learned how dependent the Basotho (name for citizens of Lesotho) were on their more prosperous neighbor. Ex-patriates, myself included, journeyed without restrictions to South Africa for supplies or for sight-seeing.
The Basotho were subject to apartheid laws while working there as miners or domestics, sending money home to buy food, clothes and to pay mandatory school fees for their children. They lived in townships relegated to servants. South African legislation restricted all non-whites to separate homelands, segregated by tribes, such as the Xhosa, or the Zulu. It is the old idea of divide and conquer.
Lesotho didn’t have an elaborate system of laws restricting people because of skin color or ethnicity. Two countries: two worlds.
I developed further empathy for those born into authoritarian regimes and trapped in rigid roles. The oppressed struggled in substandard housing, schools, jobs and health care. The oppressors were debased by their beliefs and their actions to “Others.”
I often returned to the idea of the South African boss and the laborer supporting each other with ropes. The rock exercise serves as a powerful metaphor for breaking down racial, ethnic and class prejudices.
The responsibility of safekeeping a life is embedded at a deep level.
How fortunate we were to be given language, political and cultural training before we started our jobs. How fortunate we were to live and work alongside the Basotho. Our daily interactions in high schools, agricultural and business settings created bonds and dissolved cultural barriers.
Of course, we had moments of frustration when a cultural difference arose. But those moments didn’t overshadow our respect for the Basotho and our privileged window into their history and current lifestyles.
I can never forget Basotho hospitality; they welcomed us unconditionally. Once while hiking, a friend and I were caught in a cloudburst and sought refuge in a nearby village. The village chief and his family fed us and sheltered us for the night.
I can never forget the children singing in harmony, from the early age of 4. My cassette tape of their voices skips because I played it so much. I can never forget mothers singing in the fields, with their babies tied on their backs.
On Independence Day, volunteers were invited to visit the grave of the revered leader, Moshoeshoe I, who helped the modern Lesotho nation emerge. Posed on a mountain top, women performed a traditional pick-axe dance, and we heard the narrative of Moshoeshoe I, who rose in diplomatic status when he provided land and protection to refugees, his beaten enemies.
This strengthened the growing nation, a British protectorate, which gained independence in 1966.
I think about Nelson Mandela’s ability to create a post-apartheid government in South Africa, based upon reconciling with former oppressors. I like to believe that Moshoeshoe I was one of Mandela’s influences.
I long for a world with more Moshoeshoes, Mandelas and leaders of differing backgrounds who, instead of offering insults, “will hold the ropes for another.”
Sally Vogl of Fresno, who served in the Peace Corps, retired from Fresno Unified School District, where she taught vision-impaired students. Now she teaches poetry as part of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Arts-in-Corrections program. She also instructs Osher lifelong learning classes at Fresno State. Connect with her at sjoanvogl@gmail.com.
Peace Corps mission
The National Peace Corps Association has designated the month of March to emphasize service and advocacy by returned volunteers. Projects include speaking at schools and civic groups and writing articles, also addressing Congress. A major goal of the Peace Corps is “to promote a better understanding of other peoples by Americans, in order to advance world peace and friendship.”