Domesticity and piety in colonial Lesotho: the private politics of Basotho women s pious associations

African women's Christian pious associations in southern Africa, or manyanos, have tended to be regarded by both European observers and elite African men as a ‘bizarre’ phenomenon. Their apparently irrational and excessive piety and legalism, their sometimes woolly theology, and their often dogged resistance to ‘modern’ ideas or leadership, were also commonly denounced by male church leaders. Yet they remain the most visible and widespread of all women's voluntary associations in the region, often with a reputation among African communities for considerable, even dangerous powers. This article examines in historical perspective the kopanos (manyanos) of Lesotho, a predominantly rural area which suffered from inordinately high male absenteeism until very recently. It seeks to understand the material as well as the social or spiritual elements of domesticity and piety as understood by Basotho women themselves.