A chilling voice resonated from a rugged peak, arousing countless echoes in a ravine below, through a veil of cool morning mist and dung smoke, the billowing silhouette of a blanketed seboholi (village crier) appears on the ridge ahead. He has received a distant message: "strangers are approaching!" With a deep, drawn-out bellow, this seboholi relays the news to an unseen village beyond.
This is the kingdom of Lesotho, sequestered high on the roof of Africa, where one person is a Masotho, collectively they are the Basotho, and they all speak Sesotho. Today, the Basotho form a homogeneous nation with allegiance to their paramount chief, King Moshoesoe II. They have a fascinating fusion of oral traditions, with the seboholi being only one of myriad performers.
The Basotho are a marvelous hybrid blend of Bantu peoples. In the early 1800s, clans from various tribes were gathered together by a minor Sotho chief, Moshoesoe I, and led to the mountain fortress that became Lesotho. The chief offered protection from warring Zulus and, later, aggressive Boers. Through his statesmanship and diplomacy, his group became strong and prosperous. Anyone wishing to live peacefully, even cannibals willing to reform, were welcomed to this land.
Moshoesoe I had heard stories of the great powers possessed by white settlers. Acting upon intuition, he invited French missionaries to Lesotho, who eagerly made the great trek from the Cape. Not only were they effective advisers and teachers, but the missionaries also helped to secure horses and guns. With their counsel, Lesotho appealed to the British for help in regaining territories lost to the Boers. The Basotho never regained these lands, but with British protection they survived as a nation and were never absorbed by South Africa, which completely surrounds Lesotho.
Around a fire on snowy nights in the mountain kingdom, tales are told and praises sung of the legendary Mohiomi, who greatly influenced Moshoesoe I Mohiomi was a powerful old chief and rainmaker among the Sotho when the promising young warrior sought his wisdom. As Mohiomi's apprentice, Moshoesoe I absorbed many of the secrets of traditional medicine. Most importantly, Mohiomi taught Moshoesoe that "great chiefs ruled only with the consent of their people" and "the greatest chief was he who had the greatest love for his subjects."
Above all things, the old man urged Moshoesoe I to strive for peace. "It is better to thresh corn than to sharpen the spear" is a phrase still repeated often by the Basotho. The legacy of peace has traveled from rainmaking teacher to founding father to the current head of state, King Moshoesoe II. Peace-Rain-Prosperity is the national motto of this tiny independent kingdom.
A literate people teach values through stories, songs, and riddles
Christian missionaries have been extremely influential in the development of Lesotho. With high attendance at parochial schools throughout the country and one of the first major black universities in sub-Saharan Africa, the Basotho have achieved one of the highest literacy rates on the continent. Although the churches and the British colonial government discouraged and often forbade the practice of important customs, oral traditions have nevertheless survived and remain
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