ABSTRACT
Of all emerging countries, few have a greater need for economic development than Basutoland. Even Basuto peasants are aware of this need. They know South Africa and see their country's shortcomings by comparison. Common as these failures are, they have never been assessed, partly, no doubt, because existing governmental machinery is not equipped for self-criticism, but largely because it is felt that the analysis of failure would be fruitless. There is an assumption that nothing can be done about it, and it is this assumption that must be contested. Historical, ethnographic and general theoretical material is given only in so far as it illuminates those Schemes and, by extension, the problems and processes of development. The British Administration, a few long-established trading families and the white element of the Missions together number only about three thousand. Nearly all Basuto are subsistence farmers; every family that has any possibility of scratching a piece of land plants maize.
