The impact of retrenched returnees on gender relations in rural Lesotho

International migration is one of the critical pillars of Lesotho's political economy. As agricultural production experienced serious decline especially since the 1930s, male migration of the South African mines has become the mainstay of livelihood for Lesotho's rural population. The sub-subsistence nature of the agricultural productivity in Lesotho's rural economy suggests that migrant earnings take a larger proportion of the gross incomes of most rural households. Three main schools of thought in the migration debate are the neo-classical theory, the next Marxist theory and the structuration theory. Although migration has been portrayer in the literature as a male affair, women have been historically involved in this process as well. However, women migration to South Africa was blocked and curtailed by the colonial policies, traditional authorities and males themselves driven largely by patriarchy and the ideology of domesticity. Consequently, women were left behind in the impoverished rural labour reserves tending after precarious agricultural production as their husbands were engaged in wage employment in the South African mines. Although male migration had been on the increase up until the mid-1970s, it is now on a decline due to various factors. Retrenchment is one of the important features of the current changing migration patterns. This phenomenon has set in motion a social transformation, which undoubtedly recasts gender relations in Lesotho's rural economy. While prior to accelerated retrenchment, the power of rural women, as de facto heads of households, tended to be on the increase, with retrenchment this power is on the decline as demure heads of households return. This social transformation has a tremendous impact on not only the social fabric of the rural households, but on the very survival of the rural folk in the context of dwindling sources of income?. The social problems posed by retrenchment on the rural households are likely to be accentuated by the extension of permanent residence status to foreign migrant miners by the South African government in 1995. Given that Basotho migrants are already applying for permanent residence permits in south Africa, the implications of this on gender relations in Lesotho rural economy are of enormous importance for this study.