Borders

            The country of Lesotho has not always been the landmass that it is today. At one time it was a little more expansive that it is today. This might not say much considering that Lesotho is already a small nation, but in terms of drawing boundaries it used to have more land (Basutoland) where the Basotho settled. Their land was changed and shaped due to the colonization of the Dutch Boers and the British who had invaded from the southern cape of Africa.

            The original Basutoland did not change until the Free State- Basotho Wars. These were a series of wars which were fought between Moshoeshoe I, who was the ruler of the Basotho Kingdom, and the Orange Free State of the Boers. These Boers were the Dutch immigrants who had come up from the Cape. These wars can be separated between two wars. The Senekal’s War of 1858 and the Seqiti War which spanned from 1865-68 were the two.

            The Senekal’s War started because of the tension and arguments between the land claims of who got what. In 1858, there was a formal declaration of war made by the Free State against the Basotho.[1] The Free State attack Moshoeshoe’s stronghold at Thaba Bosiu but had little to no success. There was a peace treaty sign on October 15, 1858, but there was nothing peaceful about it.[2]

            The next war was the Seqiti War. This was the war that ended up shaping Lesotho's geography. In 1865 another war broke out and this time the Boers were able to easily take over. Moshoeshoe was forced to sue for peace in 1866 and the treaty of Thaba Bosiu was signed which entailed the giving of large territories to the Free State.[3] This was the war where Basutoland was needed to be placed under British protection until it later became Lesotho. Considering the small size of this country and the containment of the Basotho, this did not effect the culture much. There was not any cultural division over this because these people were all in it together to keep their original land.

Thaba Bosiu
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qiloane_Lesotho.jpg

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[1] Roger B. Beck, The History of South Africa, (CT: Greenwood Press, 2000), 74.

[2] Ibid., 74.

[3] Willie Olivier and Sandra Olivier, Touring in South Africa: The Great SA Road Trip Guide, (SA: Struik, 2005) 116.