This approach, which promised slow but inclusive growth, slowed the latter and delivered nothing on inclusivity

Tono — an accepted notion among Basotho men that there should be a pecking order in governance. In economic governance, such a notion is etched in policy. A colonial magistrate in what was referred to as Basutholand was frustrated by assault cases that streamed into court after work parties that followed wheat mowing in summer, sorghum thrashing in winter or festivities where tjontjobina (Sesotho sorghum beer) was imbibed, often in extravagant measure. Out of anguish, the magistrate counselled the Basotho men, saying: “It looks to me that there is a simple solution to your problem — why don’t you start by drinking tono and then take the rest of your sorghum beer.” The folly of this is that tono, like a complex economic phenomenon, does not have a simple solution. The problem, of course, was that the white magistrate did not know that tono is the remnant at the bottom of the clay pot containing sorghum brew, so it will always be drunk last.