Ago 07 2013 Lesotho: a forgotten country in the mountains

There is a village where men live in caves, the shelter of a giant rock, alongside the steep valleys of Africa. We had spent many hours searching Coma Cave, because nobody seemed to indicate the path that led to one of the most primitive of the country. But there were, with the cameras pointing at the bare feet of children, the caves excavated one hundred and fifty years ago, threadbare blankets to the elderly who have spent their life with a fire. Yet, not found a single gesture upset.

We were in a village with no memory in one of the most forgotten of the continent. And everyone seemed happy.

Lesotho's history has been forged with the blood of warriors. Two centuries ago, many of the tribes of this region of the world fled, disintegrated or took refuge in the rugged mountains of what is now Lesotho. Un tal Moshoeshoe, of the line of the Sotho, succeeded in uniting the different peoples and proclaimed himself king, which is what took, but the struggle went on for decades. The British called Basutoland to that territory and incorporated it into their colonies in 1868. A half century, South Africans also claimed the sovereignty of a region embedded in their domains, but the Basotho fought the precepts of apartheid and tension lasted many years. The 4 October 1966 it is the independent state of Lesotho, which literally means "those who speak the Sotho language". And although it has long been a contested terrain, British and South Africans have decided to leave them alone in the mountains, there is anyway difficult to live.

And that's what we found, a country abandoned, with the grandchildren of those warriors herding cattle wandering among the mountains. During our stay in Lesotho found that life breaks through the cornfields, as if its inhabitants wanted to hide from the world. The houses cylindrical, they call mohorros, clean, because women insisted on ordering poverty and gallant men were planted in front of the camera, to dignify his race.

That's what we found, a country abandoned, with the grandchildren of those warriors herding cattle wandering among the mountains.

Lesotho is at your own pace, while all around ("All around" is South Africa) has grown too fast. Therefore, to enter their mountain roads you feel the brakes, as if the whole country lived with his back to progress, perhaps tired of so much war and so much promise for the future. The future is limited to a favorable season for their gardens, a calf that is born by, to a more clement winter. The rest is fiction and not even fight for its diamond mines, since white South Africans that will be.

Therefore, when we reach the village of Coma Cave peace noticed that aspires to great things. The people, with its caves, formidable overlooks a valley two thousand feet above sea level. Some cows graze on the slopes, wood is always prepared to fight the cold and in the caves, tiny, Each family shares in bed, a stove and a clean up at the entrance.

Itumele was two and a laugh can turn the darkness of the cave into a home. Like the other children in the village, grow with a blanket to combat storms, in a country moored in the port of oblivion.

During our trip around the world we live in a situation repeated. In the most isolated villages in the world, children welcomed us, while the adults looked at us with suspicion. Which for some was a source of joy at the surprise, for others it meant certain invasive presence. But, Coma Cave, even the largest finished opening the door of their houses without windows.

We spent all morning going up and down the valley, to frame the reality of the place with its context and were always escorted by a group of enthusiastic children. Sang as they scurried around the camera, as if nothing on earth could alter their joy, or cold, or hunger, obscene or distance to the world of which we came.

José Luis, our producer, affected by the unwavering enthusiasm of those children, He bought them several blankets and shoes and school books that they were paying more dances and songs that still continue playing in the mountains of Lesotho, because nothing stops the faith that has nothing.