History of Lesotho

Moshoeshoe and the Basotho

Until the end of the 16th century, present-day Lesotho (then Basotholand) was sparsely populated by Qhuaique Bushmen. Between the 16th and the 19th century, people fleeing from the conflicts in surrounding regions consolidated in this area, giving gradual formation to the Basotho people.

Moshoeshoe (pronounced Moh-shweh-shweh) is the pre-eminent figure in the history of Lesotho. He was born in 1787 under the name Lepoqo, and rose to prominence in 1809 when he conducted a hugely successful cattle raid on Ramonaheng, a rival chieftain and cattle thief.

Returning with hundreds of heads of cattle, Lepoqo boasted that he was the blade that had shaved off Ramonaheng's beard. This feat earned him the onomatopoeic nickname Moshoeshoe, meaning "the shearer".

Moshoeshoe's rise to power coincided with that of Shaka, the Zulu King. Shaka's series of raids along the east coast of Southern Africa caused many tribes to flee his growing influence, and to battle the tribes on whose land they trespassed. This rippling displacement led to the series of wars known as the Mfecane (pronounced m-feh-kah-neh).

Moshoeshoe became chief of the Basotho in 1820 and settled at Butha-Buthe, where he received and gave asylum to the refugees fleeing the Mfecane. However, Butha-Buthe was not immune to the conflicts.

After a particularly severe attack in 1824, Moshoeshoe concluded that it was not safe to remain, and relocated to the mountain of Thaba Bosiu. Though attacked many times, Thaba Bosiu was never taken.

From Thaba Bosiu, Moshoeshoe expanded his kingdom by converting other clan chiefs to his allegiance. His reputation for wisdom and generosity, particularly towards defeated former enemies, earned him an almost mythical reputation that survives to this day.

Missionaries and Peace Treaties

In 1833, having heard that missionaries brought peace, Moshoeshoe welcomed three missionaries from the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society to Lesotho, and settled them at Morija.

Though he never converted to Christianity, he was actively interested in their work, and the Morija missionaries founded what is today the Lesotho Evangelical Church.

However, Morija was destroyed in 1858 in an attack by the Orange Free State government, whose soldiers also assaulted Thaba Bosiu but failed to capture it. A series of battles, instigated by the Orange Free State, resulted in the loss of a great deal of Basotho land, and these spoils were sanctioned by British treaties.

Though Thaba Bosiu was never captured, in 1866 Moshoeshoe was forced into a peace treaty that signed over most of his good land to the Orange Free State. The war resumed in 1867, only to be stopped when Britain assumed control of Basotholand in 1868.

Moshoeshoe's reign as king ended on his death in 1870. Britain then transferred control of Basotholand to the Cape administration, which began taxing its new subjects, establishing a series of tax collection points that became present-day Lesotho's small towns.

A rebellion occurred in 1879 when the administration tried to confiscate all Basotho firearms, resulting in the Gun War - two years of raids and skirmishes that severely weakened the Cape government and led to its eventual downfall.

Independence

Like Swaziland and Bechuanaland, Basotholand rejected the prospect of incorporation into the Union of South Africa in 1910. The Basotho King Letsie II instead helped to found the South African Native National Congress (later the African National Congress, ANC) in 1912.

The power of the monarchy and chiefs declined in the following decades due to social and British administrative changes, and when King Moshoeshoe II was crowned in 1960, independence politics had taken primacy.

The Basotho National Party narrowly won the 1965 elections and gained Lesotho's independence on October 4th, 1966. But when the BNP lost the 1970 elections, Prime Minister Leabua Jonothan annulled the result, declared a state of emergency, and continued to rule until he was ousted by military coup. A further coup resulted eventually in a democratically elected government led by the Basotho Congress Party.

The 1998 elections were won convincingly by the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD), but marred by widespread allegations of vote-rigging. Protests turned into a mutiny by Lesotho Defence Force soldiers.

South African forces crossed the border to try and quell the violence, but violent protests resulted against what were seen as heavy-handed tactics by South Africa.

In 2002 elections passed peacefully and were won by the LCD, with the Basotho National Party leading the opposition. The government's fight against corruption has won worldwide acclaim (and even forced the World Bank, reluctantly, to exclude companies found guilty of corruption).

As in many African countries HIV/AIDS and poverty remain massive challenges for the government.

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