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There is no doubt that there is a need for new traditions, that is, wisdoms for enhanced responsible business in Africa. As one of the oldest world economies, Africa has a rich history of responsible indigenous business traditions that have sustained and supported her people’s principled business entrepreneurship over the centuries. However, there is little knowledge about these African responsible indigenous business traditions in the international literature. Currently, internationally familiar Western responsible business traditions dominate global responsible management knowledge and practice. The chapter explores responsible indigenous business traditions amongst the Sesotho-speaking people of Southern Africa called Basotho, bringing to light an aspect of responsible indigenous business management knowledge and practice from Southern Africa. These Basotho’s responsible indigenous business traditions embedded in Mokorotlo business model are Seahlolo, that is, communal, or mutual aid sharing, Letsema, that is, communal work party, Tsimo-ea-lira, that is, the field of enemies, Moelela, that is, food paid for work at threshing time, and Mafisa, that is, communal livestock loaning. The chapter concludes by suggesting that these Mokorotlo business traditions are prima facie attractive to be taken seriously in the global responsible management knowledge and practice.

This paper aims to discuss the notion of resilience in the context of the Basotho of Lesotho who managed prospering as a nation in the era of uncertainty during the “VUCA” world of the nineteenth-century southern Africa.

Using historical data from leadership and organizational behaviour perspectives, the theoretical context of the paper is established to inform discussion on the resilience of the Basotho during the “VUCA” world of the nineteenth-century southern Africa.

The paper has established that the notion of resilience was synonymous to Basotho’s way of life and livelihood during the “VUCA” world of the nineteenth-century southern Africa. The paper has also established that resilience became the key quality of Basotho as they continued prospering as a nation in the era of uncertainty during the “VUCA” world of the nineteenth-century southern Africa.

From both leadership and organizational behaviour perspectives, the paper uses mainly historical data that are considered to be most relevant, valid and reliable to inform discussions on the notion of resilience as it relates to the Basotho as a nation during the “VUCA” world of the nineteenth-century southern Africa.

This paper aims to explore, with the view to establish the prospects of applying Ubuntu-Botho African approach to stakeholder corporate social responsibility (CSR) for business organisations in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the experience of Basotho of Lesotho in using Ubuntu-Botho African principles and practices to pursue their socially responsible development fashioned in social responsibility (SR) terms.

Using data mainly from desktop research, the theoretical or conceptual content of the paper was established to inform the discussions on the prospects of applying Ubuntu-Botho African principles and practices to stakeholder CSR for business organisations in SSA.

Ubuntu-Botho African approach to stakeholder CSR could generate a very different notion of ideal SR of business organizations in the context of SSA as the experience of Basotho of Lesotho reveals. Whether or not one is persuaded by this Ubuntu-Botho approach to stakeholder CSR, the discussion serves to illuminate the need to broaden the terms of the debate over the appropriate role of business organizations, at least in the context of SSA, regarding their CSR and performance within which they operate.

The paper mainly uses secondary data that is considered to be most relevant, valid and reliable to inform discussions on the prospects of the application of Ubuntu-Botho African ethics to stakeholder CSR for business organisations in the context of SSA. The author’s knowledge of Lesotho – where he lived, studied and worked – informed the writing of this paper, as well as discussions on the prospects of applying Ubuntu-Botho African approach to stakeholder CSR for business organisations in SSA using the experience of Basotho of Lesotho in engineering their socially responsible development to become the granary of Southern Africa in 1900s.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the intersections of gender, development and globalization through an investigation of the ways in which a large‐scale, internationally financed multi‐dam development project, the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP), impacts gender relations through its physical presence in the highlands of Lesotho, Southern Africa.

Field research including interviews with men and women impacted by the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) in Lesotho in 1997 and 2000‐2001.

The paper finds that, by positioning themselves as sex workers for foreign development workers, non‐elite women are able to access development monies indirectly. The devaluation of women's labor on farms and in the household excludes them as legitimate receivers of “development”, reproducing male ownership and patriarchal authority, and ultimately pushing some women into work that is precarious, low wage, risky, and often demeaning.

This research highlights the complicated and contradictory gendered gains and losses in the development context and how they mirror larger globalization processes and their effects on gender inequality. Further research with sex workers is needed.

Feminist inquiries into globalization, particularly those focused on militarization and economic restructuring, have revealed the gendered effects of globalizing processes as they take place in particular locales (military bases, industries, corporations, factories). The ways in which the presence of sites of development creates particular gendered dynamics have been understudied. Incorporating analysis of the presence of large‐scale development projects in local areas offers opportunities to link the investigation of development in a larger context of globalization, and reveals a more nuanced reading of the gendered politics of development.

This chapter explores African indigenous wisdom and its orientation to the common good in the practices that characterise responsible leadership and entrepreneurship. Traditionally, a wise leader was grown from the community and steeped in its communitarian traditions which led the leader to apply practical wisdom in seeking the collective good. These considerations of such wise practices are central to responsible management. Based on a qualitative literature review that is complemented with a micro-study (semi-structured interviews) of African sages and on the analysis of wisdom found by chapter contributors to this volume, insights indigenous to Africa are presented and then discussed. The countries referenced across the two studies are Kenya and Uganda (Eastern Africa), Ghana and Nigeria (Western Africa), Egypt (Northern Africa) and South Africa (Southern Africa), thereby providing some geographical spread though far from being exhaustive.

This paper aims to study the different factors that determine the performance or success of small-scale, non-farm enterprises in Lesotho. Evidence shows that small-scale enterprises in developing countries are confronted with different challenges and problems that make them less viable. As a result, the capacity of small-scale, non-farm enterprises in employment creation, income generation and providing the means of livelihood to the poor people is not significant. In Lesotho, many people who are retrenched from the South African mines are absorbed in small-scale, non-farm enterprises to make a living. However, small-scale enterprises are faced with different challenges. The research findings suggest that factors leading to success/performance of rural non-farm enterprises in Lesotho include gender of the entrepreneur, age of the entrepreneur, ability of the entrepreneur to establish wider social networks, large population/market, availability of communication networks and infrastructure, participation of enterprises in the international market and costs of doing business and competition. In this regard, the paper makes policy recommendations that can be used to improve performance/success of small-scale, non-farm enterprises.

This research uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods to analyse data.

The main finding of the research is that foreign competition hinders the success of non-farm enterprises in Lesotho. The research findings further reveal that enterprises owned by women make the highest turnover compared to those owned by men.

This study brings in different factors that can ensure or hinder success/performance of small-scale, rural non-enterprises.

The research paper is of value in that it is the first study in Lesotho that considers different factors that determine business success in relation to employment creation, turnover and profitability.

In recent years, access to schooling for children orphaned and made vulnerable by AIDS has emerged as a major humanitarian concern, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. International discourse largely fails to define what “vulnerability” means, while also depicting “orphans and vulnerable children” as passive victims of complex social processes. This ethnographic study of a “typical” secondary school in semirural Lesotho investigates the research question: At the secondary level, how does “vulnerability” shape the educational participation and home life of young Basotho? Through extended observation, in-depth interviews, and student diaries, the study reveals that “vulnerable” children in Lesotho, who are locally defined as those without strong adult caregivers, actually exercise a high degree of autonomy that is often manifested through “stubbornness.” “Stubborn” students resist adult control and are closely associated with early sexual debut and high-risk behaviors. As a result of their resistance, they are often singled out by teachers for corporal punishment, increasing the likelihood that they will drop out of school. This chapter adds to the literature on youth agency by demonstrating that “acting stubborn” is one way in which “vulnerable” children can exercise control over their own lives and resist the status quo. In addition, the findings point to the failure of the school model, which is highly authoritarian, to retain “vulnerable” students and teach them valuable life skills, including HIV/AIDS prevention. Finally, this study demonstrates that local and culturally inflected definitions of “vulnerability” may not always align with international definitions and policy prescriptions.

As the small Southern African country of Lesotho grapples with implementing one of the five largest dam-development projects in the world today, the local people impacted confront the challenges of resettlement, loss of means of production, and changed access to natural resources. This chapter reveals the ways in which the Lesotho Highlands Water Project (LHWP) serves to reorganize and commodify rural resources for the benefit of the nation-state in gendered ways. Based on interviews of rural households conducted during 13 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Lesotho, this chapter analyzes impacted people's experiences of the gendered implications of the extraction and sale of water from the rural highlands of Lesotho to South Africa. This case study documents the gendered environmental and social impacts of the LHWP on local communities, and illuminates the everyday lived experiences of the affected people as they effectively subsidize this international project with their environmental resources, labor, money, and, in some cases, their nutritional status.