Posted
on March 11, 2014
Lesotho
is a pretty small nation—about the size of Maryland—that is
entirely surrounded by the much larger nation of South Africa.
Why
is this small chunk within another nation counted as a separate
nation?
 |
| Moshoeshoe I |
A
long time ago, in the 1800s, there were some Bantu-speaking Sotho
people whose chief had a son called Moshoeshoe. At age 34 Moshoeshoe
formed his own clan and became its chief. He built up his chiefdom
mostly through diplomacy; he took in refugees from the warlike Zulu,
and he gave land and protection to the victims of war and even to his
beaten enemies.
 |
| Lesotho scenery |
Dutch
people (Boers) from the nearby Cape Colony came to settle on Sotho
lands. The Boers had guns. Moshoeshoe knew he needed help dealing
with these white people, and he welcomed some French missionaries as
interpreters and advisers. Again mostly through diplomacy, he managed
to prevent his chiefdom from being swallowed up by the Boers.
Eventually Moshoeshoe asked Queen Victoria to make his lands a
British protectorate, so that they could remain independent of the
South African nation.
Moshoeshoe
died on this date in 1870, and March 11 has ever since then been
dedicated to his memory.
 |
The Kingo of Lesotho pays tribute to
Moshoeshoe I on Moshoeshoe Day. |
In
1966 this small nation gained independence from Britain and was named
the Kingdom of Lesotho.
A
hero even outside of Lesotho...
 |
| Nelson Mandela |
I
wondered if Nelson Mandela, who was born decades after
Moshoeshoe died, had found inspiration in Moshoeshoe's diplomatic and
reconciliatory form of leadership. As I poked around the internet, I
found that, in at least one speech, Mandela mentioned King Moshoeshoe
as a hero he'd heard about as a child. I also discovered something
written by South African Max du Preez about Moshoeshoe:
A
century from now historians will still write about Mandela’s
spectacular role in bringing freedom, stability and democracy to
South Africa....
But they probably won’t record that he
wasn’t the first remarkably wise and inspirational leader to emerge
from this land. King Moshoeshoe (1787 – 1870) springs to mind.
Unlike his more aggressive contemporaries like King Shaka and Chief
Mzilikazi, he avoided war, gathered people from many clans and
language groups to form a new inclusive nation and stabilized central
South Africa at a time of great turmoil and bloodshed. Pure Mandela.
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