Land, Migration and Belonging is a study of an enclave of the Basotho people in one of Zimbabwe's rural districts called Gutu. As Joseph Mujere shows in this book, the Basotho community is composed of descendants of Sesotho-speaking migrants who moved from South Africa to Zimbabwe (then known as Southern Rhodesia) following the British occupation of the region in the 1890s. Although most of the Basotho pioneers moved to Southern Rhodesia as evangelists working with missionaries of the Dutch Reformed Church, some were independent migrants in search of opportunities in the emerging colony. In 1907 and 1909, a group of Basotho immigrants combined their resources and purchased two farms which they used for cattle rearing and the production of milk, cream, and other products.

Despite having a relatively cordial relationship with local representatives of the colonial administration who viewed them as ‘progressive Africans’, the Basotho lost both of their farms in the 1930s when the government set the area aside for white farmers’ use under the auspices of the 1930 Land Apportionment Act, which divided the country along racial lines (19). In a development that reflects the Basotho's determination to stay together as a community, most of them relocated to the so-called Native Purchase Areas that the colonial government created in the same district. Notably, some teamed up again and bought a farm they named Bethel, in line with their ‘Christian faith and their strong desire to project themselves as such’ (49). In addition to building a dip tank and a clinic at Bethel, the Basotho set aside a portion of their earnings for the construction of a multi-denominational church, which simultaneously became a site of cooperation and tension between members of their community and Dutch Reformed Church missionaries. The local Basotho also built a school where Sesotho was the only vernacular language taught along with English, despite the fact the majority students came from non-Sotho families in surrounding communities. They used another portion of the farm to construct a cemetery where Basotho from Bethel and the surrounding farms buried their deceased relatives. Although the school and clinic were forced to close, due to financial and other management-related challenges, the farm has continued to testify to the Basotho's presence in colonial and postcolonial Zimbabwe.

In examining the history of the Basotho community in Gutu District, Mujere makes significant contributions towards the study of migration and the politics of belonging in Zimbabwe and Southern Africa more generally. To begin with, the book reminds scholars that although South Africa has drawn enormous numbers of migrants and been a major focus of migration studies in Africa, the country has also been a source of migrants who have played important roles in the history of other countries in the region. By exploring the complicated relationship between members of the Basotho community and the Dutch Reformed Church missionaries, Mujere also makes a strong case for the importance of African evangelists affiliated with mainstream churches in the spread of Christianity on the continent. In telling the story of how the Basotho community developed from a small group of evangelists and free immigrants, Mujere not only shows how these people struggled to integrate into Southern Rhodesia, but also reveals their attempts to preserve the language of their ancestors and other aspects of the Sotho cultures. At a general level, this book provides a very good background for understanding colonial land policies and their legacies in present-day Zimbabwe.

Although I would have liked to learn more about how the interactions between the Basotho and the African groups they found in Gutu District changed over the years, Land, Migration and Belonging constitutes an important addition to existing studies on migration and the politics of belonging in Southern Africa.