DOMESTICITY AND PIETY IN COLONIAL LESOTHO - THE PRIVATE POLITICS OF BASOTHO WOMENS PIOUS ASSOCIATIONS

African women's Christian pious associations in southern Africa, or ma nyanos, have tended to be regarded by both European observers and elit e African men as a 'bizarre' phenomenon. Their apparently irrational a nd excessive piety and legalism, their sometimes woolly theology, and their often dogged resistance to 'modern' ideas or leadership, were al so commonly denounced by male church leaders. Yet they remain the most visible and widespread of all women's voluntary associations in the r egion, often with a reputation among African communities for considera ble, even dangerous powers. This article examines in historical perspe ctive the kopanos (manyanos) of Lesotho, a predominantly rural area wh ich suffered from inordinately high male absenteeism until very recent ly. It seeks to understand the material as well as the social or spiri tual elements of domesticity and piety as understood by Basotho women themselves.