I Thought It Was Going To Perish: The Remarkable Revival Of An Endangered Language In Lesotho

Concentrated among 1,000 people in the remote Daliwe valley, siPhuthi has gained a dictionary, a Bible translation and official recognition thanks to intrepid linguists and activists Tsotleho Mohale was addressing a group of people gathered on a mountainside still damp from an intense rainstorm that morning. The peaks on the other side of the steep valley were draped in cloud. Mohale was speaking in siPhuthi, a language spoken by just a few thousand people in parts of southern Lesotho and the north of South Africas Eastern Cape province, about the plants he used and the ailments he cured as a traditional healer. The questions came from Sheena Shah, a British linguist, and were translated into siPhuthi by Mohales grandson Atlehang. Shahs German colleague Matthias Brenzinger was filming the exchange. The two academics have been travelling regularly to Daliwe, a remote valley in Lesotho about 15 miles from the nearest paved road, since 2016, working with local interpreters and activists to document siPhuthi. A view of homes in Daliwe valley in southern Lesotho