The Thokolosi of Lesobeng: My journey through African heritage and recognition
I have no words to appreciate the whirlwind of moments over the past 14 days. It was a personal experience akin to a tsunami.
The Basotho have a saying that perfectly captures such a culmination of events and the choices to be made when you can only be present in one place at a time. It involves what the Bantu refer to as a mythical, visible-invisible, dwarf-like, omnipresent, short male being called thokolosi, tokoloshe, tokoroloshe, or intokoloshi in different linguistic orthographies.
In Basotho mythology, there was once a thokolosi who was found darting in different directions, talking to itself. Finally, when one individual gained the courage to ask why it was moving in opposing directions, the thokolosi replied, “The villages around have celebrations happening all at the same time, and I have to be at all of them. No sooner am I close to one village than I am reminded of the function in another, and I try to rush there. There are weddings, traditional circumcisions, academic graduations, and christenings, all of which I have to attend.”
This was referred to as the Thokolosi ea Lesobeng, the Thokolosi of Lesobeng Village.
The week before this hectic one ended with the Department of Social Development awarding me the 365 Men Award on Friday, the 15th of November. The following week began with me attending the Transforming Evidence Network in Cape Town, where a key moment was appreciating the yearning of Black Americans to connect with their continent of origin.
This was best explained by one woman who, during our discussion, said, “I am not only in South Africa but in Africa for the first time. When the plane landed in Johannesburg, I wanted to get off and feel my Africa, but we were in transit, and I could not leave the aeroplane.” Those were the words of Rene Battle.
I had the pleasure of welcoming her on stage in song. And what better song than Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World”? I did this after presenting evidence of a different kind, on the skewness of toilet seats and how the laws of symmetry are defied in the loo.
From there, I proceeded to KwaZulu-Natal, where the 4th ISIbalo Evidence Summit was arranged by the Office of the Premier and Statistics South Africa. This fourth summit carried more energy than the first three, held in 2013 with the inaugural theme “Evidence, Research and Statistics”; in 2014 with the theme “Statistical Evidence toward Development in KwaZulu-Natal”; and in 2016 with the theme “Policy and Statistics in Pursuit of Quality Education in South Africa.”
The 4th ISIbalo, held on the 21st and 22nd of November, was “Isibalo for Evidence-Based Decision Making.” My presentation was on “Learner-Centric Tools for Measurement.” That was a rehearsal for my three-minute intervention the next day, the 22nd of November.
On that day, the Chancellor of Unisa, President Thabo Mbeki, awarded nine South Africans Calabash Awards. I was one of them. The Unisa Chancellor’s Calabash Awards “are Unisa’s way of giving recognition to extraordinary South Africans, particularly its alumni, who have made significant contributions in shaping humanity”.
The event is also intended to profile the work of the university and, in particular, inform decision-makers in the public sector, business and civil society about the role and importance of the university to South Africa and the continent’s social and economic development.
I was in the category of The Public Service Award, which recognises South Africans who are making exceptional contributions in government structures.
No one dare challenge me when I say I am an African. I am a product of three countries, from whence I explored the world as my oyster. I was born, bred and educated in Lesotho, further chiselled by Ghana at the United Nations Regional Institute for Population Studies, and I have exercised my entire trade in South Africa.
All three countries have recognised me as such. In 2015, the University of Ghana awarded me a plaque of recognition, three South African universities awarded me honorary doctorates, and on Friday, it was the Unisa Chancellor’s Calabash Award. My country of birth was calling for my presence on that same Friday the 22nd, where my elder brother and former Chief Justice of Lesotho, Mahapela Lehohla, received an award on my behalf on the occasion of the Bicentenary Celebrations of the Mountain Kingdom – Lesotho.
Dr Pali Lehohla is a Professor of Practice at the University of Johannesburg, a Research Associate at Oxford University, a board member of Institute for Economic Justice at Wits and a distinguished Alumni of the University of Ghana. He is the former Statistician-General of South Africa.
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