The history of people living in the area now known as Lesotho goes back as many as 40,000 years.
The present Lesotho emerged as a single polity under paramount chief Moshoeshoe I in 1822.
Under Moshoeshoe I, Basutoland joined other tribes in their struggle against
the Lifaqane associated with the reign of Shaka Zulu from 1818 to 1828.
Subsequent evolution of the state was shaped by contact with the British and Dutch colonists from
Cape Colony. Missionaries invited by Moshoeshoe I developed orthography and printed works in the
Sotho language between 1837 and 1855. The country set up diplomatic channels and acquired guns for
use against the encroaching Europeans and the Korana people. Territorial conflicts with both
British and Boer settlers arose periodically, including Moshoeshoe's notable victory over the
Boers in the Free State–Basotho War, but the final war in 1867 with an appeal to Queen Victoria, who
agreed to make Basutoland a British suzerainty. In 1869, the British signed a treaty at Aliwal
with the Boers that defined the boundaries of Basutoland and later Lesotho, which by ceding
the western territories effectively reduced Moshoeshoe's kingdom to half its previous size.
The extent to which the British exerted direct control over Basutoland waxed and
waned until Basutoland's independence in 1966, when it became the Kingdom of Lesotho. However,
when the ruling Basotho National Party lost the first post-independence general elections to the
Basotho Congress Party , Leabua Jonathan refused to cede and declared himself Tona Kholo . The BCP
began an insurrection that culminated in a January 1986 military coup forced the BNP out of office.
Power was transferred to King Moshoeshoe II, until then a ceremonial monarch,
but forced into exile when he lost favour with the military the following year.
His son was installed as King Letsie III. Conditions remained tumultuous,
including an August 1994 self-coup by Letsie III, until 1998 when the Lesotho Congress for
Democracy came to power in elections which were deemed fair by international observers.
Despite protests from opposition parties, the country has remained relatively stable since.
Ancient history At some stage during their migration south
from a tertiary dispersal area Bantu speaking peoples came to settle the lands that now make
up Lesotho as well as a more extensive territory of fertile lands that surround modern day Lesotho.
These people spoke a unique "South Sotho" dialect seSotho and called themselves the Basotho.
There were several severe disruptions to the Basotho peoples in the early 19th century. One
view states that the first of these were marauding Zulu clans, displaced from Zululand as part of the
Lifaqane , wrought havoc on the Basotho peoples they encountered as they moved first west and then
north. The second that no sooner than the Zulu has passed to the north than the first Voortrekkers
arrived, some of whom obtained hospitality during their difficult trek north. Early Voortrekker
accounts describe how the lands surrounding the mountain retreat of the Basotho had been
burnt and destroyed, in effect leaving a vacuum that subsequent Voortrekkers began to occupy.
However, this interpretation of history for the entire southern region of Africa is a
matter of dispute. One attempt at refutation came by Norman Etherington in The Great Treks:
The Transformation of Southern Africa, 1815-1854 . Etherington argues that no such thing as
the Mfecane occurred, the Zulu were no more marauding than any other group in the region,
and the land the Voortrekkers saw as empty was not settled by either Zulu
or Basotho because those people did not value open lowland plains as pasture.
Basutoland Free State–Basotho Wars
In 1818, Moshoeshoe I /moʊˈʃweɪʃweɪ/ consolidated various Basotho groupings and became their king.
During Moshoeshoe's reign , a series of wars were fought
with the Boers who had settled in traditional Basotho lands.
These wars resulted in the extensive loss of land, now known as the "Lost Territory".
A treaty was signed with the Boers of Griqualand in 1843 and an agreement was made with the
British in 1853 following a minor war. The disputes with the Boers over land, however,
were revived in 1858 with Senekal's War and again, more seriously, in 1865 with the Seqiti War.
The Boers had a number of military successes, killing possibly 1,500 Basotho soldiers, and
annexed an expanse of arable land which they were able to retain following a treaty at Thaba Bosiu.
Further conflict led to an unsuccessful attack on Thaba Bosiu and the death of a Boer commandant,
Louw Wepener, but by 1867, much of Moshoeshoe's land and most of his fortresses had been taken.
Fearing defeat, Moshoeshoe made further appeals to High Commissioner Philip Edmond Wodehouse for
British assistance. On 12 March 1868, the British Cabinet agreed to place the territory under
British protection and the Boers were ordered to leave. In February 1869, the British and the
Boers agreed to the Convention of Aliwal North, which defined the boundaries of the protectorate.
The arable land west of the Caledon River remained in Boer hands and is referred to
as the Lost or Conquered Territory. Moshoeshoe died in 1870 and was buried atop Thaba Bosiu.
Annexation by Cape Colony In 1871 the protectorate was
annexed to Cape Colony. The Basotho resisted the British and in 1879 a southern chief,
Moorosi, rose in revolt. His campaign was crushed, and he was killed in the fighting. The Basotho
then began to fight amongst themselves over the division of Moorosi's lands. The British extended
the Cape Peace Preservation Act of 1878 to cover Basutoland and attempted to disarm the natives.
Much of the colony rose in revolt in the Gun War , inflicting significant casualties upon the
colonial British forces sent to subdue it. A peace treaty of 1881 failed to quell sporadic fighting.
Return to Crown colony Cape Town's inability to control the territory
led to its return to crown control in 1884 as the Territory of Basutoland. The colony was bound by
the Orange River Colony, Natal Colony, and Cape Colony. It was divided into seven administrative
districts: Berea, Leribe, Maseru, Mohale's Hoek, Mafeteng, Qacha's Nek and Quthing. The colony was
ruled by the British Resident Commissioner, who worked through the pitso of hereditary native
chiefs under one paramount chief. Each chief ruled a ward within the territory. The first paramount
chief was Lerothodi, the son of Moshoeshoe. During the Second Boer War the colony was neutral.
The population grew from around 125,000 in 1875, to 310,000 in 1901, and to 349,000 by 1904.
When the Union of South Africa was founded in 1910 the colony was still controlled by
the British and moves were made to transfer it to the Union. However the people of Basutoland
opposed this and when the National Party put its apartheid policies into place the possibility of
annexation was halted. In 1959, a new constitution gave Basutoland its first elected legislature.
This was followed in April 1965 with general legislative elections.
The differing fates of the seSotho-speaking peoples in the Protectorate of Basotholand
and in the lands that became the Orange Free State are worth noting. The Orange Free State
became a Boer-ruled territory. At the end of the Boer War, it was colonised by the British,
and this colony was subsequently incorporated by Britain into the Union of South Africa as
one of four provinces. It is still part of the modern day Republic of South Africa, now known
as the Free State. In contrast, Basotholand, along with the two other British Protectorates
in the sub-Saharan region , was precluded from incorporation into the Union of South Africa.
These protectorates were individually brought to independence by Britain in the 1960s.
By becoming a protectorate, Basotholand and its inhabitants were not subjected to Afrikaner rule,
which saved them from experiencing Apartheid, and so generally prospered under more benevolent
British rule. Basotho residents of Basotholand had access to better health services and to education,
and came to experience greater political emancipation through independence.
These lands protected by the British, however, had a much smaller capacity
to generate income and wealth than had the "lost territory", which had been granted to the Boers.
After a 1955 request by the Basutoland Council to legislate its internal affairs,
in 1959 a new constitution gave Basutoland its first elected legislature. This was followed in
April 1965 with general legislative elections with universal adult suffrage in which the
Basotho National Party won 31 and the Basutoland Congress Party won 25 of the 65 seats contested.
Kingdom of Lesotho On October 4,
1966, the Kingdom of Lesotho attained full independence, governed by a constitutional
monarchy with a bicameral Parliament consisting of a Senate and an elected National Assembly.
Early results of the first post-independence elections in January 1970 indicated that the
Basotho National Party might lose control. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Chief Leabua
Jonathan, the ruling BNP refused to cede power to the rival Basotholand Congress Party , although
the BCP was widely believed to have won the elections. Citing election irregularities,
Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan nullified the elections, declared a national state of emergency,
suspended the constitution, and dissolved the Parliament. In 1973, an appointed Interim
National Assembly was established. With an overwhelming progovernment majority, it was
largely the instrument of the BNP, led by Prime Minister Jonathan. In addition to the Jonathan
regime's alienation of Basotho powerbrokers and the local population, South Africa had virtually
closed the country's land borders because of Lesotho support of cross-border operations of
the African National Congress . Moreover, South Africa publicly threatened to pursue more direct
action against Lesotho if the Jonathan government did not root out the ANC presence in the country.
This internal and external opposition to the government combined to produce
violence and internal disorder in Lesotho that eventually led to a military takeover in 1986.
Under a January 1986 Military Council decree, state executive and legislative powers were
transferred to the King who was to act on the advice of the Military Council,
a self-appointed group of leaders of the Royal Lesotho Defense Force . A military government
chaired by Justin Lekhanya ruled Lesotho in coordination with King Moshoeshoe II
and a civilian cabinet appointed by the King.
In February 1990, King Moshoeshoe II was stripped of his executive and legislative
powers and exiled by Lekhanya, and the Council of Ministers was purged. Lekhanya accused those
involved of undermining discipline within the armed forces, subverting existing authority,
and causing an impasse on foreign policy that had been damaging to Lesotho's image abroad.
Lekhanya announced the establishment of the National Constituent Assembly to formulate
a new constitution for Lesotho with the aim of returning the country to democratic, civilian
rule by June 1992. Before this transition, however, Lekhanya was ousted in 1991 by a
mutiny of junior army officers that left Phisoane Ramaema as Chairman of the Military Council.
Because Moshoeshoe II initially refused to return to Lesotho under the new rules of
the government in which the King was endowed only with ceremonial powers,
Moshoeshoe's son was installed as King Letsie III. In 1992, Moshoeshoe II returned to Lesotho
as a regular citizen until 1995 when King Letsie abdicated the throne in favor of his father. After
Moshoeshoe II died in a car accident in 1996, King Letsie III ascended to the throne again.
In 1993, a new constitution was implemented leaving the King without
any executive authority and proscribing him from engaging in political affairs.
Multiparty elections were then held in which the BCP ascended to power with a landslide victory.
Prime Minister Ntsu Mokhehle headed the new BCP government that had gained every seat in
the 65-member National Assembly. In early 1994, political instability increased as first the army,
followed by the police and prisons services, engaged in mutinies.
In August 1994, King Letsie III, in collaboration with some members of the military, staged a coup,
suspended Parliament, and appointed a ruling council. As a result of domestic and international
pressures, however, the constitutionally elected government was restored within a month.
In 1995, there were isolated incidents of unrest,
including a police strike in May to demand higher wages. For the most part, however,
there were no serious challenges to Lesotho's constitutional order in the 1995-96 period.
In January 1997, armed soldiers put down a violent police mutiny and arrested the mutineers.
In 1997, tension within the BCP leadership caused a split in which Dr. Mokhehle abandoned the BCP
and established the Lesotho Congress for Democracy followed by two-thirds of the parliament.
This move allowed Mokhehle to remain as Prime Minister and leader of a new ruling party,
while relegating the BCP to opposition status. The remaining members of the
BCP refused to accept their new status as the opposition party and ceased attending sessions.
Multiparty elections were again held in May 1998.
Although Mokhehle completed his term as Prime Minister, due to his failing health,
he did not vie for a second term in office. The elections saw a landslide victory for the LCD,
gaining 79 of the 80 seats contested in the newly expanded Parliament. As a result of the elections,
Mokhehle's Deputy Prime Minister, Pakalitha Mosisili, became the new Prime Minister.
The landslide electoral victory caused opposition parties to claim that there were substantial
irregularities in the handling of the ballots and that the results were fraudulent. The conclusion
of the Langa Commission, a commission appointed by Southern African Development Community to
investigate the electoral process, however, was consistent with the view of international
observers and local courts that the outcome of the elections was not affected by these incidents.
Despite the fact that the election results were found to reflect the will of the people,
opposition protests in the country intensified. The protests culminated in a violent demonstration
outside the royal palace in early August 1998 and in an unprecedented level of violence, looting,
casualties, and destruction of property. In early September, junior members of the armed services
mutinied. The Government of Lesotho requested that a SADC task force intervene to prevent a military
coup and restore stability to the country. To this end, Operation Boleas, consisting of South African
and Botswana troops, entered Lesotho on September 22, 1998 to put down the mutiny and restore the
democratically elected government. The army mutineers were brought before a court-martial.
After stability returned to Lesotho, the SADC task force withdrew from the country in May 1999,
leaving only a small task force to provide training to the LDF. In the meantime,
an Interim Political Authority , charged with reviewing the electoral structure in the country,
was created in December 1998 and devised a proportional electoral system to ensure that there
be opposition in the National Assembly. The new system retained the existing 80 elected Assembly
seats, but added 40 seats to be filled on a proportional basis. Elections were held under this
new system in May 2002, and the LCD won again, gaining 54% of the vote. For the first time,
however, opposition political parties won significant numbers of seats, and despite
some irregularities and threats of violence from Major General Lekhanya, Lesotho experienced its
first peaceful election. Nine opposition parties now hold all 40 of the proportional seats,
with the BNP having the largest share . The LCD has 79 of the 80 constituency-based seats.
In June 2014, Prime Minister Thomas Thabane suspended parliament because of conflict
within his coalition, leading to criticisms that he was undermining the government.
In August, after Thabane attempted to remove Lieutenant General Kennedy Tlai Kamoli from
the head of the army, the Prime Minister fled the country alleging a coup was taking place.
Kamoli denied that any coup had occurred.