Race Relatons

Lesotho is not a very diverse country; especially coming from the point of view of a San Franciscan. You have your expats; you might see some Afrikaans every now and again and many of the successful business owners are Indian or Chinese.

The Basotho do not like the Chinese. Usually I would not make such a blanket statement but in this case I feel pretty confident in saying so. Today one of the Peace Corps Drivers came by house to drop off some things; among them a gas tank that needed to be filled. He took me to the “Chinese Shop” to fill the tank. Now this particular driver is a very nice, well educated man; so it came as a complete shock to me when we arrived at the store and before I even spoke to anyone he began to warn me about how difficult it is to communicate with “these people”. I spoke to the young woman behind the counter and the transaction went just fine but the entire time we were waiting the driver continued to talk badly as if the two young ladies tending the store weren't standing right in front of us. I tried to express my opinion the the man as loudly as possible so that all could hear but he just continued to berate.

After paying for my gas a man put it on the truck for me and I waited outside for the driver. I wanted to go back in and apologize to the ladies. Tell them that I was sorry for what he'd said and let them know that I didn't share his opinions but a lot of me just thought they wouldn't have given a damn. The look at me and see another Masotho; not an American so what good would it have done.

This wasn't the first time I'd experienced something like this. A couple of weeks before training was over I was in a Chinese owned internet cafe for a quick email check. A Masotho woman came in shortly after me and proceeded to ask me questions in Sesotho. After explaining to her in my broken Sesotho that I didn't speak the language very well she continued in English to explain that the only reason she came to this particular internet cafe is because the other one wasn't working and. She then went on the yell at the young man that was trying to help and complain that his Chinese computer was going to give her flash drive a virus. I was surprisingly calm throughout this entire exchange; even after she asked my age and then proceeded to tell me that she has a son my age that I could marry.

I'm not entirely sure what the reason behind the hatred is. I think a lot of is it has to do with business sense. Many of the successful businesses in this country are owned by the Chinese. I have concluded that most of the Basotho businesses owners in this country don't really have a head for business or know how to compete in the business world. For example: In my training village; there were 2 general stores; essentially right across the street from one another. The sold exactly the same products for the same prices. They didn't really keep records of what they sold so they weren't keeping track of what sold well and what didn't. They just continued to by the same things. At one point when we were going around as a group getting to know the village we asked them about selling different things or slightly lowering their prices for more business. These concepts were completely foreign to them. I think it angers the Basotho that they are essentially giving their money away to the Chinese and Indian shop owners so in turn they treat them in this horrible manner that makes me wanna cry. I think I might have a big problem with this over the next two years. Not sure how to handle it. Any thoughts??