Although the Basotho have deployed a number of strategies to construct and assert their belonging, questions have continued to be asked about their origins and where they ‘actually belong’ in daily conversations with their non-Sotho neighbours. In the course of my fieldwork for this book, one of the members of the Basotho community shared with me his experience of constantly being asked about his ‘unusual’ surname, first at school, and afterwards at work. He highlighted how, each time he introduced himself to people, they invariably quizzed him about his origins, given that his surname is considered uncommon in Zimbabwe. Faced with such uncertainties, some of the progenies of the original Basotho migrants who settled in the country in the 1890s have turned to retracing their roots in South Africa and, in some instances, applying for South African citizenship. While some have turned to this option because of the tumultuous economic and political conditions in Zimbabwe since 2000, there are also examples of others who made efforts to retrace their origins in South Africa much earlier. I intend, here, to show how the Basotho, in the present, are using history as a resource in their struggles to reclaim South African citizenship while at the same time holding on to their belonging in Zimbabwe.

The strong kinship ties among the Basotho, based on years of practising endogamous marriages as well as attachment to their family farms, has meant that a large number have continued to have some kind of attachment to the Dewure Purchase Areas. Moreover, the Basotho's communal ownership of Bethel Farm and the practice of burying their dead at Bethel Cemetery have also meant that even though some individuals have migrated to other areas, they still consider the Dewure Purchase Areas their home and a number continue to bury their dead there. They even continue to refer to Bethel Farm as ‘our farm’. Thus for them, Bethel has remained a key reference point in their construction of belonging in Zimbabwe because it is where some of their relatives are buried and also because a number of their kinsmen still live on farms in the area. However, in spite of their attachment to Zimbabwe in general and the Dewure Purchase Areas in particular, the Basotho feel strongly about their historical roots in South Africa more than a century after their forefathers migrated into what is now Zimbabwe.