Lesotho

For thousands of years the rock shelters of the Maloti-Drakensberg highlands were home to San (Bushmen) hunter-gatherers. They left behind one of the world's greatest concentrations of rock art: painted shelters depicting eland, dancers and trance scenes that are among the most studied in the world. Archaeological evidence indicates San occupation of these mountains for many millennia before recorded history.

From the second millennium CE, Bantu-speaking Sotho-Tswana farmers and herders moved into the region, bringing cattle, cultivation and iron-working. San foragers, Khoekhoe herders and Sotho-Tswana farmers coexisted and interacted across the eastern grasslands and mountains, a relationship recorded in oral tradition and in the rock art itself, which sometimes layers the work of several peoples.

By the eighteenth century numerous Sotho-speaking chiefdoms were established across the highveld and the future Lesotho. They were small, dispersed and frequently rivalrous polities, with no single overarching authority — a fragmented political landscape that the upheavals of the early nineteenth century would violently reshape.

Turning points

1. for millenniaCulture & Ideas

   San rock art of the Maloti-Drakensberg

   San hunter-gatherers occupy the mountain rock shelters, leaving one of the world's richest bodies of rock art depicting eland, dance and trance.

   [8] [9]

2. from c. 2nd millennium CEPeoples & Migration

   Sotho-Tswana settlement

   Bantu-speaking Sotho-Tswana farmers and herders settle the region, bringing cattle, cultivation and iron-working alongside earlier San and Khoekhoe peoples.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [8]

3. 18th centuryPolitics & Power

   Dispersed Sotho chiefdoms

   Numerous small, rivalrous Sotho-speaking chiefdoms occupy the highveld and mountains, with no single overarching authority.

   [9] [1]

In the 1820s the difaqane (or mfecane) — a period of wars, displacement and famine convulsing southern Africa — shattered the small chiefdoms of the highveld. Moshoeshoe I, a minor chief born around 1786, gathered scattered survivors and refugees around himself. In about 1824 he occupied the flat-topped mountain of Thaba Bosiu ("Mountain at Night"), a nearly impregnable natural fortress that became the heart of the emerging Basotho nation.

Moshoeshoe's strength lay less in conquest than in diplomacy and shelter. He absorbed lineages and chiefdoms, offered protection and cattle to the destitute, and used the geography of his mountain stronghold to repel attackers — most famously the Ndebele. In 1833 he invited missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society into his country; they helped reduce Sesotho to writing, advised him on diplomacy with Europeans, and printed the first works in the language.

From the 1840s the kingdom collided with expanding white settlement. After a clash with British forces in 1852 and growing pressure from the Boer republic of the Orange Free State, war broke out repeatedly — Senekal's War in 1858 and the destructive Seqiti War of 1865–68. The Boers overran much of the fertile western lowlands, and Moshoeshoe, his land shrinking, repeatedly appealed to Britain for protection.

Turning points

1. c. 1824Formation

   Moshoeshoe occupies Thaba Bosiu

   Moshoeshoe I settles the defensible mountain of Thaba Bosiu, the stronghold from which he gathers difaqane refugees into the Basotho nation.

   [1] [2] [6]

2. 1833Religion

   Paris missionaries arrive

   Moshoeshoe invites the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society into his kingdom; the missionaries help create a written Sesotho and advise him on dealings with Europeans.

   [1] [9]

3. 1858War & Rupture

   Senekal's War with the Orange Free State

   Conflict erupts with the Boers of the Orange Free State over land in the western lowlands, the first of the Free State–Basotho Wars.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [9]

4. 1865War & Rupture

   Seqiti War and loss of the lowlands

   A devastating war with the Orange Free State sees Boer commandos overrun much of the fertile western lowlands and besiege Thaba Bosiu.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [9]

Figures of the era

On 12 March 1868 the British government agreed to take Moshoeshoe's country under its protection, declaring it the protectorate of Basutoland. The move preserved the core of the Basotho homeland from absorption by the Orange Free State, though the Convention of Aliwal North in 1869 confirmed the loss of the western "Conquered Territory" to the Boers — fertile arable land whose loss still shapes Lesotho. Moshoeshoe I died in 1870.

In 1871 Basutoland was annexed to the Cape Colony without Basotho consent. Cape rule proved deeply unpopular, and when the colony tried to enforce the 1879 Disarmament Act — ordering the Basotho to surrender their guns — and to extend taxation, the Basotho rose in revolt. The Gun War of 1880–81 ended in effective Basotho victory: they kept their arms and repudiated Cape authority.

Unable to govern the territory, the Cape relinquished it, and in 1884 Basutoland reverted to direct rule from Britain as a Crown colony under a resident commissioner. When the Union of South Africa was formed in 1910, Basutoland — like Bechuanaland and Swaziland — was kept out as a British High Commission Territory, a decision driven by African and humanitarian opposition that ultimately preserved Lesotho's separate existence.

Turning points

1. 12 March 1868Colonisation

   Basutoland declared a British protectorate

   Britain takes Moshoeshoe's kingdom under its protection, halting Boer absorption and fixing the borders that broadly survive as modern Lesotho.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [7] [9]

2. February 1869War & Rupture

   Convention of Aliwal North

   The boundary settlement with the Orange Free State confirms the loss of the fertile western lowlands, the "Conquered Territory", to the Boers.

   ↗See the data

   [1] [9]

3. 1871Colonisation

   Annexation to the Cape Colony

   Basutoland is annexed to the Cape Colony without Basotho consent, beginning a deeply unpopular period of colonial rule.

   ↗See the data

   [4] [9]

4. 1880War & Rupture

   The Gun War

   The Basotho rebel against Cape disarmament and taxation; they retain their guns and effectively repudiate Cape authority.

   ↗See the data

   [4] [11] [9]

5. 1884Colonisation

   Return to direct British rule

   Unable to control the territory, the Cape gives it up; Basutoland reverts to direct rule from Britain under a resident commissioner.

   ↗See the data

   [4] [9]

As one of the three High Commission Territories, Basutoland was administered by Britain through a resident commissioner and the Basotho paramount chieftaincy, kept apart from the Union of South Africa even as successive South African governments pressed for its transfer. African opposition, humanitarian pressure in Britain and — after 1948 — the rise of apartheid all reinforced the case against handing the territory over.

Through the first half of the twentieth century the territory's economy became bound to South Africa: with little arable land left after the nineteenth-century losses, large numbers of Basotho men became migrant labourers on South African farms and, above all, in the gold mines, sending home the remittances on which families depended.

After the Second World War, political life quickened. The Basutoland Congress Party and the Basotho National Party (BNP) emerged, and a new constitution led to elections. The BNP, led by Chief Leabua Jonathan, narrowly won the decisive 1965 pre-independence election, and Basutoland moved to full self-government and then independence.

Turning points

1. 20th centuryEconomy & Trade

   Migrant labour to South Africa

   With little arable land, large numbers of Basotho men become migrant workers on South African farms and gold mines, and remittances become central to the economy.

   ↗See the data

   [14] [9]

2. 1910Colonisation

   Kept out of the Union of South Africa

   On the formation of the Union, Basutoland is excluded as a British High Commission Territory rather than incorporated into South Africa.

   ↗See the data

   [5] [9]

3. 1965Politics & Power

   Basotho National Party wins the pre-independence election

   Leabua Jonathan's BNP narrowly defeats the Basutoland Congress Party, positioning him to lead the territory to independence.

   [12] [9]

4. 4 October 1966Independence

   Independence as the Kingdom of Lesotho

   Basutoland becomes the independent Kingdom of Lesotho under King Moshoeshoe II and Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan, ending British rule.

   ↗See the data

   [9] [12] [13]

Figures of the era

Independent Lesotho's politics were turbulent. After the BNP lost the 1970 election, Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan annulled the result, suspended the constitution and ruled by decree. He was overthrown in a military coup in January 1986; the new military council restored executive powers to King Moshoeshoe II, but the king himself clashed with the military and was stripped of his powers and forced into exile, with his son installed as Letsie III. Moshoeshoe II was briefly restored before dying in a car accident in 1996, after which Letsie III returned to the throne.

Democratic elections resumed in the 1990s, but the disputed 1998 election triggered unrest and a controversial military intervention by South Africa and Botswana under SADC, during which much of central Maseru was destroyed. Subsequent electoral reforms introduced proportional representation, though coalition instability has continued into the twenty-first century.

Modern Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy and the world's largest of the few states entirely surrounded by another country, an enclave wholly encircled by South Africa. Its defining project is the multi-billion-rand Lesotho Highlands Water Project, begun under a 1986 treaty with South Africa, whose Katse and Mohale dams channel water through mountain tunnels to South Africa's industrial heartland in return for royalties. The economy still leans heavily on water revenue, textiles and the remittances of migrant workers.

Turning points

1. 1970Politics & Power

   Constitution suspended after lost election

   Having apparently lost the first post-independence election, Leabua Jonathan annuls the result, suspends the constitution and rules by decree.

   [12] [9]

2. January 1986Politics & Power

   Military coup and the water treaty

   A military coup overthrows Jonathan; in the same year the new government signs the treaty launching the Lesotho Highlands Water Project with South Africa.

   [9] [15]

3. 15 January 1996Politics & Power

   Death of Moshoeshoe II

   After exile and a brief restoration, King Moshoeshoe II dies in a car accident; his son Letsie III returns to the throne.

   [9] [3]

4. 1998Politics & Power

   Disputed election and SADC intervention

   A contested election sparks unrest and a South African-led SADC military intervention; much of Maseru is left in ruins.

   [9]

5. 1998–2002Economy & Trade

   Katse and Mohale dams completed

   The Katse Dam (Phase 1A) and then the Mohale Dam are completed, sending Lesotho's mountain water to South Africa's Vaal system in exchange for royalties.

   ↗See the data

   [15] [10] [16]