With over 120,000 boys and men still to hear the gospel, Lesotho’s herdboys is the largest unreached group in the ‘Switzerland of Africa’ but, as John Barry reports, AIM is making a difference.

A tough start

At midnight the initiates are woken from deep sleep and immediately put under pressure. Each is told to recite, word-perfect and with the correct rhythm and intonation patterns, one song from a repertoire. Mistakes are beaten out with sticks by the initiation school teachers. These privately run initiation schools serve to reinforce traditional African beliefs and witchcraft is a common factor in their ceremonies. Naturally, graduates have a wide command of songs and stories, and the ability to compose the complex songs that faithfully convey cultural teaching for the next generation. At graduation each candidate presents his new praise song and returns to normal life – and for many men that means a return to shepherding.

They are dressed in blankets and gumboots and revel in their own sub-culture – inspiring an awkward respect and fear in villagers.

Where AIM helps

AIM is reaching shepherds through Saturday literacy schools in the Mokhotlong district, run by volunteers and co-ordinated by ‘M’e Matankiso who receives a volunteer salary and travel expenses through AIM’s ‘HELP Lesotho’ project fund. This is the closest many shepherds come to church. There are 15 of these schools covering 450 students, and when students graduate they are presented with gloves, socks and a bible.
Most shepherds have specialised language skills and have learnt complex song rhythms and stories – becoming psalmists in the making. We are putting together a team of missionaries and Basotho (local people) to translate Scripture into the song and story patterns of the shepherds. We’re aiming to train and equip shepherds to share the gospel in the mountain cattle posts, using the rich oracy skills that they have already mastered.

Fear of herdboys

While some shepherds live close to villages and have access to these literacy schools, most do not. The majority live in remote chains of cattle posts in the mountains where the living conditions are sparse but grazing is best. Some men will spend ten to fifteen years in these small communities of five or six men, visiting their home villages once or twice a year for a weekend. These are a people set apart from mainstream village life – marginalised and stereotyped as thieves.

On Saturdays you will see groups of shepherds in the Mokhotlong district of Lesotho drifting into one of 20 small village-based schools. They are dressed in blankets and gumboots and revel in their own sub-culture – inspiring an awkward respect and fear in villagers. These represent the least-reached group in Lesotho.

God’s Shepherds

When Christ was born God chose to reveal Himself first to shepherds – the marginalised, illiterate and poor. We believe that God has equipped Basotho shepherds with incredible skills and pastoral gifts for a reason; calling the shepherds of Lesotho to become shepherds of men.

John Barry

John Barry is AIM’s Unit Leader in Lesotho. He and his wife Shan belong to Guilford Baptist Church and moved to Mokhotlong in 2005. They have three children.