Bernice Tlalane Mohapeloa

Bernice Tlalane Mohapeloa (1899–1997) was an educator and activist from Lesotho.

Born Nee Morolong in Mafeteng, she received her primary education there, passing her standard six examinations in 1913. The next year she began teacher training at Thabana Morena Girls' School, completing the course in 1915, in which year she went to South Africa to attend Lovedale High School. Receiving her junior certificate in 1918, she went to Fort Hare University College in 1919, obtaining her teacher's diploma in 1922.[1] In 1930 she married Joel Thabiso Mohapeloa.[2] In 1943 she began teaching at Basutoland High School.[3] In 1944 Mohapeloa founded the Basutoland Homemakers' Association, modeled on similar clubs, such as the Home Improvement Club at Fort Hare University College, which she had encountered in South Africa.[4] For this, she received the British Empire Medal in the 1946 Birthday Honours, in the same year becoming the first African woman to receive the Dorothy Cadbury Fellowship.[5] Mohapeloa was one of the most influential women in Lesotho's modern history; among those who counted her as a role model was politician 'Matlelima Hlalele.[1]

References
  1. Scott Rosenberg; Richard F. Weisfelder (13 June 2013). Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press. pp. 540–. ISBN 978-0-8108-7982-9.
  2. Lesotho. Dept. of Information (1966). Personalities in Lesotho.
  3. David Ambrose (2007). The history of education in Lesotho: six brief subsectoral studies. House 9 Publications, National University of Lesotho. ISBN 978-99911-37-39-1.
  4. Kathleen E. Sheldon (2005). Historical Dictionary of Women in Sub-Saharan Africa. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 978-0-8108-5331-7.
  5. The Delta Kappa Gamma Bulletin. Delta Kappa Gamma Society. 1962.
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