History of Lesotho

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Lesotho, surrounded by the Republic of South Africa

The history of Lesotho includes the history of the modern Kingdom of Lesotho and its colonial predecessor Basutoland, as well as the pre-colonial history of this area. Lesotho is located in southern Africa , its national territory is now completely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa .

Early history

The mountains of Lesotho became about 25,000 BC. Settled by the San , a hunter-gatherer people. Of the numerous cave and rock paintings that these people left behind in southern Africa, about 5000 can be found in Lesotho, for example at Ha Baroana about 50 kilometers east of Maseru .

During the migration of the Bantu tribes, which began around the 4th to 5th centuries, the Nguni peoples came to southern Africa and settled as farmers and shepherds. During the next centuries the area of ​​today's Lesotho was settled by the Bantu coming from the north. The San, who had lived there up to that point, were increasingly displaced by the Basotho and related Tswana groups from around the 11th century and are no longer at home in these regions of South Africa and Lesotho. However, some of them were assimilated. This can be recognized, among other things, from the Sesotho language , which contains typical San sounds. From the 14th century, the Basotho settlement area comprised large parts of today's South African province of Free State and the western part of today's Lesotho, with the focus of settlement on the fertile banks of the Caledon . The Bantu lived there in small communities mainly from agriculture and cattle breeding , whereby the lack of usable land repeatedly led to unrest among neighboring tribes.

The reign of Moshoeshoe I.

Moshoeshoe I.
Moshoeshoes I grave on the Thaba Bosiu plateau

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Zulu king Shaka continued to expand his empire. The area where the Basotho tribes lived was next. This was the gloomy time of the Lifaqane (German roughly: “the times of need”), in which robber hordes terrorized the population. There was a famine so severe that cannibalism broke out. In violent disputes, the Basotho, united and led by Moshoeshoe I , who was appointed leader ( morena ) in 1820 , were able to defend themselves against the onslaught of the Zulu and secure their land. Moshoeshoe had fortresses built in Butha-Buthe (1820) and Thaba Bosiu (1824), where he offered shelter to many refugees. Through clever negotiations - following the principles of his former advisor Mohlomi - he was able to expand his sphere of influence by securing the favor and trust of neighboring tribes. He is therefore often referred to as Moshoeshoe the Great and is considered to be the founder of the Basotho nation. For support in foreign policy, he won the French missionary Eugène Casalis from the Société des missions évangéliques de Paris , who set up the first missionary station in Morija in 1833 , from which the Lesotho Evangelical Church in Southern Africa (LECSA) emerged.

From 1830 the Boers advanced in search of land for new settlements and crossed the Vaal for the first time . When more and more Voortrekkers moved to the north-east in the so-called Great Trek between 1836 and 1838 as a result of the tensions between the Boers and the British at the Cape , there were clashes between the Europeans and the troops of Moshoeshoe. Soldiers from the area of ​​the later Orange Free State penetrated further and further into the settlement area of ​​the Basotho, which prompted Moshoeshoe to ask the British for protection. In 1843 a protection treaty was signed between the Basotho and the British Cape Colony , but it was dissolved again in 1859 to relieve the strained British relations with the Boer republics . In 1851 the Basotho militarily defeated the British in the Orange River Sovereignty , but then asked for peace after a counter-offensive by the British. In 1858 the Boers defeated the Basotho in the Senekal War , but could not conquer Thaba-Bosiu and withdrew. In the following Treaty of Aliwal North ("Treaty of Aliwal North"), the border in the controversial river triangle of Caledon and Orange was set on a middle line. In the early 1860s, the Boers, who had just switched from subsistence farming to export-oriented production of sheep's wool , experienced an even greater humiliation when a great drought caused famine among them. The Boers were forced to sell cattle, belongings and goods to the Basotho in exchange for grain, or to ask for this trade, which they were often refused because the Basotho also had a shortage of grain. A renewed attack by Boer troops from 1865, the Seqiti War , could not withstand the empire Moshoeshoe and had to surrender a large part of its fertile areas on the highveld west of today's Lesotho to the Orange Free State. The Boers drove the native population out of the areas they occupied, robbed the cattle and burned what they could not take with them. Thaba Bosiu was the only fortress that could be held. Shortly before the final defeat of the Basotho, the British intervened, fearing too much expansion of the Boer states, and made the remaining land a British colony as Basutoland in 1868 . Moshoeshoe, however, managed to ensure the autonomy of his empire through skillful diplomacy. Maseru became the capital in 1869. In 1870 Moshoeshoe I. died. His son Letsie I. Moshoeshoe succeeded him. In the following year the autonomy was lost and Basutoland was attached to the Cape Colony.

British Crown Colony of Basutoland

Map of southern Africa in 1885 with the crown colony of Basutoland
British colonial postage stamp

The Basotho people under Letsie I were not granted representation in the parliament of the Cape Colony, which led to revolts against the British. As a result, all Basotho firearms should be confiscated. The suppression of an uprising by Chief Moorosi at Mount Moorosi in the south of the country and the subsequent Gun War ("rifle war") between 1880 and 1881 were so costly and ineffective for the Cape Colony that Basutoland came under direct British rule again in 1884 and became a crown colony has been. From then on, the morena e moholo (English: Paramount Chief ) ruled alongside the British Resident Commissioner , with British influence mainly concentrated on the district capitals and Basutoland's foreign policy. The rule of the barena (plural of morena ) had grassroots features. Every year a meeting was held for all Basotho, called pitso , at which important decisions were made. Letsie I died in 1891 and was replaced by his son Lerotholi Letsie (1836-1905). Lerotholi defeated his uncle and adversary Masopha in battle at Thaba Bosiu in 1898 .

In the South African Second Boer War at the turn of the century, Basutoland was not part of the combat area, but was used by the British for supply lines. In 1903 the nationwide pitso was replaced by a National Council . After Lerotholi's death in 1905, his son Letsie II followed Lerotholi (around 1869–1913). In the same year Maseru was connected to the South African rail network. Around 1908 up to 78,000 Basotho left the crown colony every year to find work as miners or farmers in South Africa. Around the same time, political organizations were formed beyond the traditional power structure : the Basutoland Progressive Association , which aimed to establish a parliament, and later the more radical Lekhotla la Bafo (German: "Council of the simple people"). When the South African Union was founded in 1910 , Basutoland, as well as Bechuanaland (today: Botswana ) and Swaziland , refused to be incorporated into this new state. This made Basutoland an enclave in South Africa. The South African Natives Land Act of 1913 meant that Basotho were no longer allowed to work on the principle of farming by halves on South African farms, in which they had given half of the profits to the landowner. Many Basotho then returned to Basutoland. Letsie II died in 1913; his younger brother Griffith Lerotholi (around 1873-1939) succeeded him in office.

At the First World War, 3,000 soldiers from Basutoland participated on the British side. In 1938 the British government passed an administrative reform that drastically reduced the number of barena and their power. This and the structural change within the country, mainly urbanization and better educational opportunities, led to a significant loss of influence of the morena e moholo and the rest of the barena during the following decades . Griffith tried to force the barena into the Catholic Church, which supported the traditional system. Griffith died in 1939 and was replaced by his son Seeiso Griffith (1905–1940), who, however, died the following year. After a short transition period, his wife 'Mantšebo (1902–1964) took over the rule as regent in 1941 .

Around 20,000 soldiers from Basutoland took part in the Second World War on the Allied side . As a result, the desire for Basutoland's independence grew and led from 1943 to 1950 to the establishment and strengthening of District Councils, to which a number of freely elected representatives belonged for the first time, and from 1952 to the establishment of several parties. These included the Pan-African Basutoland African Congress (BAC), later Basutoland Congress Party (BCP), and the Basutoland National Party (BNP), later Basotho National Party , which was close to the Roman Catholic Church and initially represented a policy of pro-South Africa. The establishment of the Pius XII College in Roma in 1945 , which later became the National University of Lesotho , also intensified the desire for independence. The regent accepted the barena's loss of power . In 1959 the first colonial constitution was signed; in 1960 the country's first free elections followed , won by the BCP. The Basutoland National Council was, however, still halfway out Barena, who had given a mandate by appointment. 1960 was also the coronation year of Moshoeshoe II , a great-great-grandson of Moshoeshoe I and a relative of 'Mantšebo. The following elections in 1965 for the newly created National Assembly were won by the BNP with 31 out of 60 seats; the BCP received 25 seats, the monarchist Marematlou Freedom Party four seats. However, the BNP chairman Leabua Jonathan did not win a seat. Only after he had urged a fellow party member to resign, he could take his seat after the by-election . To support Jonathan, the South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd donated 100,000 sacks of grain.

The BNP led Basutoland to independence on October 4, 1966 under the new name Lesotho. The constitutional monarchy was chosen as the form of government, and the first Prime Minister of Lesotho was Jonathan.

Since independence in 1966

Rule of the Basotho National Party and military dictatorship

Moshoeshoe II (center) and Lekhanya (right) (1988)
First flag of Lesotho (1966–1987)
Second flag of Lesotho (1987-2006)
Third flag from 2006

After the election victory of the opposition BCP under Ntsu Mokhehle in the 1970 election , Prime Minister Jonathan annulled the result, suspended the constitution, declared a state of emergency and drove King Moshoeshoe II into exile in the Netherlands for several months . The Police Mobile Unit - later the army - played a key role in suppressing the opposition - around 1,000 members of the opposition were killed. After the announcement of a transitional constitution in 1973 , the remaining opposition members proclaimed a government in exile , which, like the guerrilla group Lesotho Liberation Army (LLA) founded by the BCP, remained insignificant. However, the LLA was used by South Africa as a means of pressure against Lesotho and the members of the anti-apartheid movement African National Congress (ANC) living there, which is banned in South Africa . The white minority government of South Africa imposed sanctions on the kingdom, which is economically heavily dependent on its large neighboring country, and carried out military actions against Lesotho. On December 9, 1982, 42 people were killed in an attack by South African ground forces in Maseru.

In 1985 parliamentary elections were scheduled but were boycotted by the opposition parties. Jonathan's refusal to withdraw support from the ANC and expel it from Lesotho, as well as the growing influence of North Korean advisors on politics, led to a South African blockade of Lesotho in early 1986 after years of domestic political unrest. On January 20, 1986, the government was overthrown in a bloodless military coup by General Justin Metsing Lekhanya . The last ANC refugees had to leave Lesotho on January 25, 1986. The National Assembly was dissolved, parties were banned and a six-member military council headed by Lekhanya was formed. In the same year, influential ex-ministers Desmond Sixishe and Vincent Makhele and their wives were ambushed and murdered. The two members of the military junta, Sekhobe Letsie and Ngoanatloana Lerotholi, were tried and convicted for this in 1990. Soon after they came to power, the governments of Lesotho and South Africa signed the contracts for the Lesotho Highlands Water Project , which was supposed to supply South Africa with water. In 1988, John Paul II was the first Pope to visit Lesotho. After the coup, King Moshoeshoe II was strengthened with extensive executive and legislative rights, but in fact he was dependent on the military government and was again driven into exile in the United Kingdom in 1990 .

In the same year Letsie III became. , the elder son of Moshoeshoe II, was crowned the new king. In the following year General Lekhanya was deposed by Colonel Elias Phisoana Ramaema ; Ramaema then became the new chairman of the military council and initiated the creation of a new, democratic constitution in 1993.

Democracy and political instability

The first free elections after the military rule were won by the BCP under Ntsu Mokhehle with around 74 percent of the vote. Thanks to majority voting, she received all 65 mandates. Just one year later, in August 1994, King Letsie III, supported by the Lesotho Defense Force (LDF), dissolved parliament and suspended parts of the constitution. The government of the putschists under Hae Phoofolo had to split up after about a month under pressure from South Africa and other countries, so that the old government could be reinstated. In 1995, King Moshoeshoe II, who had lived in Lesotho again from 1992, returned to the throne. However, he died in a car accident in 1996, leaving his son Letsie III. regained royal dignity on October 31, 1997. Also in 1997 the ruling BCP broke up. Party leader Mokhehle and around two thirds of the BCP parliamentarians left the parliamentary group and founded the Lesotho Congress for Democracy (LCD). The 1998 election was won by the LCD under the leadership of Bethuel Pakalitha Mosisili . The party won 79 of the 80 seats in parliament. As a result, rebellious opposition parties paralyzed almost all public life in bloody clashes. For fear of another coup , troops from South Africa and Botswana were called into the country at the request of the Prime Minister to stabilize the situation ("Operation Boleas"). In fighting with the LDF there were numerous deaths on both sides. After a phase of relaxation and a change in voting rights , the last soldiers were able to leave the country again in 2001.

The election of 2002 , which the incumbent Prime Minister Mosisili again clearly won, was recognized by the opposition. According to the proportional representation system , 40 seats were awarded for the first time to parties that were disproportionately represented due to majority voting. These seats went to opposition parties, as the LCD was again able to win 79 out of 80 direct mandates. The BNP received 21 seats. In the 2007 parliamentary elections , LCD won with 62 seats. As before, the 40 additional seats went to other parties. The LCD-affiliated National Independent Party (NIP) had 21 seats, the All Basotho Convention (ABC) , founded in 2006 as an LCD spin-off, had 17 seats. BCP and BNP could only win three seats each. In February 2012, Mosisili founded the new Democratic Congress (DC) party after internal disputes . He continued to run the government until the May 2012 elections , but it was not recognized by the opposition parties, including the LCD.

In the 2012 elections the DC became the strongest party, but with 48 seats it missed an absolute majority, so that for the first time in Lesotho there was a hung parliament and a coalition government under ABC politician Tom Thabane with LCD and BNP. In 2014, the state crisis in Lesotho was triggered when Prime Minister Thomas Thabane dissolved the National Assembly to avoid a vote of no confidence by his coalition partner LCD. As a result, the army tried to overthrow Thabane and the police . It was only through the intervention of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the bringing forward of the due election date that the crisis was temporarily defused. In the 2015 elections the ABC won significantly, but a coalition of DC, LCD and five small parties decided to make Mosisili prime minister again (see also: Mosisili IV cabinet ).

After three leading opposition politicians, including Thabane, fled abroad and the former LDF commander Maaparankoe Mahao was murdered by the military in June 2015, SADC intervened again, which set up a commission of inquiry, the Phumaphi Commission . In addition, Lesotho has been banned from chairing the SADC security panel for the second year running. After the government refused to accept the SADC's investigation report into Mahao’s death, the SADC threatened to exclude Lesotho from the alliance. Among other things, the report calls for the dismissal of the LDF commander Kennedy Tlali Kamoli , who is held responsible for the political unrest, as well as a constitutional reform . After Kamoli's removal in December 2016, the three opposition leaders returned to Lesotho in February 2017. On March 1, the Mosisili government lost a vote of no confidence, so new elections were called for June 3 . Thabane won this with 51 of the 120 seats, so that he was re-elected Prime Minister on June 16, 2017 by a coalition of ABC, Alliance of Democrats , BNP and Reformed Congress of Lesotho . After the shooting of LDF commander Motšomotšo by two officers in September 2017, the SADC again stationed security forces in Lesotho. Kamoli had previously been arrested and charged with murder.

Thabane split from the ABC in his second term, which attempted to expel him in 2019. Thabane again avoided a vote of no confidence by closing the National Assembly. Since January 2020 he has been suspected of the murder of his ex-wife in 2017; his wife 'Maesaiah was charged. Thabane was finally forced to resign in May 2020 and replaced by his fellow party member Moeketsi Majoro .

See also

literature

  • Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland, and Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 .
  • Rainer Slotta , Mustapha Skalli (eds.): International Symposium on Preservation and Presentation of the Cultural Heritage of Lesotho (= publications from the German Mining Museum Bochum. 50), Bochum 1991, ISBN 3-921533-50-3
  • W. Olaleye: Democratic Consolidation and Political Parties in Lesotho . Johannesburg 2004
  • Elizabeth A. Eldredge: A South African kingdom. The pursuit of security in nineteenth-century Lesotho . (= African studies series. 78), Cambridge & New York 1993
  • Tshidiso Maloka: Basotho and the mines. A social history of labor migrancy in Lesotho and South Africa, c.1890–1940 . Dakar 2004, ISBN 2869781288
  • Walter Schicho: Handbook Africa. In three volumes . Volume 1: Central Africa, Southern Africa and the States in the Indian Ocean. Brandes & Appel, Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-86099-120-5
  • Georges Lorry: Le Lesotho. In: Afrique australe , éd. Autrement, HS n ° 45, April 1990
  • David Ambrose : The Guide to Lesotho . Improved output. Winchester Press, Johannesburg and Maseru 1976, ISBN 0-620-02190-X .

Web links

Commons : History of Lesotho  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e David Ambrose : The Guide to Lesotho. Winchester Press, Johannesburg / Maseru 1976, ISBN 0-620-02190-X . P. 71.
  2. ^ Scott Rosenfeld, Richard F. Weisfelder: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland 2013, ISBN 9780810879829 , p. 269. Excerpts from books.google.de
  3. ^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 375.
  4. ^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 2.
  5. ^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. 8.
  6. ↑ britishempire.co.uk (English), accessed 5 March 2012
  7. ↑ a b c d Website of the US Embassy in Lesotho on the history of Lesotho ( Memento from July 12, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) (English)
  8. ^ Scott Rosenberg, Richard W. Weisfelder, Michelle Frisbie-Fulton: Historical Dictionary of Lesotho. Scarecrow Press, Lanham, Maryland / Oxford 2004, ISBN 978-0-8108-4871-9 , p. XXIX.
  9. ↑ Vatican website on John Paul II's trips abroad , accessed on March 28, 2012
  10. ↑ a b Information from the US State Department on Lesotho ( Memento of the original from August 21, 2011 on WebCite ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed March 21, 2010 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.state.gov
  11. ↑ Article in Lesotho Times , accessed March 20, 2012
  12. ^ Lesotho passed over for chair of SADC organ for security. ( Memento of October 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) citizen.co.za of August 18, 2015 (English)
  13. ↑ Lesotho teeters as former PM returns. timeslive.co.za on February 14, 2017, accessed February 14, 2017
  14. ↑ Lesotho monarch dissolves parliament and calls election. bloomberg.com of March 7, 2017 (English), accessed on March 7, 2017
  15. ↑ Lesotho to hold general election on June 2. m.ewn.co.za of March 13, 2017 (English), accessed March 17, 2017
  16. ^ SADC approves contingent force for Lesotho. defenceweb.co.za, September 18, 2017, accessed September 22, 2017
  17. ↑ regional force deploys to Lesotho over security concerns. news24.com of December 3, 2017 (English), accessed on December 3, 2017
  18. ↑ AFP : Lesotho PM a no-show in court. theeastafrican.co.ke of February 22, 2020 (English), accessed on February 23, 2020