Lebollo is the Basotho initiation tradition known as a male rite of passage.
Among the Basotho of Lesotho and neighboring parts of southern Africa, initiation has traditionally involved instruction, seclusion, and teaching about adult responsibilities. The word Lebollo is used for the initiation institution and its associated practices, rather than for one single universal ceremony with exactly the same schedule everywhere.
Initiation schools historically helped transmit community values, social expectations, and knowledge from elders to younger males. Their organization and continuation have varied across time and communities, and some practices have been debated because of health, consent, and human-rights concerns.
Lebollo is distinct from Eunoto, the Maasai transition from warriorhood to elderhood, and from the Hamar bull-jumping ceremony. Those traditions belong to different peoples and social systems, even though all are discussed as rites of passage.