Lesotho
Lesotho is a country whose lowest ground sits 1400 metres above sea level, the highest lowest point of any nation on Earth. It is also the only independent state anywhere that lies entirely above 1000 metres. About 2.3 million people live in this landlocked kingdom, which is surrounded on every side by South Africa. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. For much of its colonial past the territory was known as Basutoland. How did a mountain chief's realm survive the land hunger of neighbours far more powerful? Why have coups, exiles and a royal family at odds with its own government marked so much of its modern politics? What does a country made entirely of high ground do for money, water and food? And what is life like for the Basotho people who call these highlands home?
Around 1804, a minor chief's son named Moshoeshoe became a chief in his own right. His father, Mokhachane, led the Bakoteli lineage. Between 1820 and 1823 Moshoeshoe and his followers settled at the Butha-Buthe Mountain. There they joined with former adversaries to resist the Lifaqane, an upheaval associated with the reign of Shaka kaSenzangakhona from 1818 to 1828. Out of this alliance a single polity took shape in the early 1820s.
Three missionaries of the Paris Evangelical Missionary Society came at Moshoeshoe's invitation. Thomas Arbousset, Eugène Casalis and Constant Gosselin were placed at Morija. Between 1837 and 1855 they developed a written form of Sesotho and printed works in the language. Casalis also translated for the king and advised him on foreign affairs. He helped open diplomatic channels and obtain guns to use against the encroaching Europeans and the Griqua people.
The British had seized the Cape Colony from the French-allied Dutch in 1795, and conflict between British and Dutch colonists leaving it shaped the young state. In 1838 Jan de Winnaar became the first Trekboer to settle on the western borders, in the Matlakeng area. Incoming Boers tried to claim the land between two rivers and north of the Caledon. They argued that the Sotho people had abandoned it. Moshoeshoe responded with a treaty with Sir George Thomas Napier, the British governor of the Cape Colony, which annexed the Orange River Sovereignty where the Boers had settled. The angry Boers were suppressed in a skirmish in 1848.
At the city of Kolonyama in 1851, the Basotho army defeated a British force. Another British attack was repelled in 1852. Moshoeshoe then sent an appeal to the British commander that settled the dispute through diplomacy. He defeated the Batlokoa in 1853, and the British pulled out of the region in 1854. War with the Boers came in 1858, in a conflict known as the Free State-Basotho War, and it cost him part of the western lowlands. The last war with the Boers ended in 1867, when Moshoeshoe appealed to Queen Victoria. She agreed to make Basutoland a British protectorate in 1868.
A treaty signed at Aliwal North in 1869 defined Basutoland's boundaries. It reduced the kingdom to half its former size by handing the western territories to the Boers. The British moved government functions from Moshoeshoe's capital at Thaba Bosiu to a police camp on the northwest border, which was Maseru. Moshoeshoe died on the 11th of March 1870, and the colonial era began. Administration passed to the Cape Colony in 1871. Over the following years the Basotho were treated like the people of any other forcibly annexed territory, and the humiliation led to the Basuto Gun War of 1880-1881. In 1884 the land became a Crown colony ruled by a governor, with Maseru as capital, although tribal chiefs held the effective internal power. A railway line connecting Maseru to the South African network arrived in 1905.
On the 4th of October 1966, Basutoland gained independence from the United Kingdom and became the Kingdom of Lesotho. The Basotho National Party governed at first. In January 1970 it lost the first general election after independence, winning 23 seats to the Basotho Congress Party's 36. Prime Minister Leabua Jonathan refused to hand over power. He declared himself prime minister anyway and imprisoned the opposition leadership.
A rebellion followed. The Congress Party's Lesotho Liberation Army was trained in Libya, under the pretense that its fighters were soldiers of the Azanian People's Liberation Army, part of the Pan Africanist Congress. In 1978 the David Sibeko faction of that movement cut off its arms and supplies. A Maoist officer of the movement then rescued the 178-strong force from its base in Tanzania with financial help, and the guerrillas launched a war. One force was defeated in northern Lesotho, and later attacks were sporadic. The campaign was compromised when the party's leader, Ntsu Mokhehle, went to Pretoria.
On the 4th of September 1981, the family of Benjamin Masilo was attacked, and his three-year-old grandson died. Four days later, Edgar Mahlomola Motuba, the editor of the newspaper Leselinyana la Lesotho, was abducted from his home with two friends and murdered. Throughout the 1980s, Basotho who sympathised with the exiled opposition were threatened with death and attacked by Jonathan's government.
A coup in 1986 sacked Jonathan. The Transitional Military Council that took over granted executive powers to King Moshoeshoe II, who until then had been a ceremonial monarch. In 1987 the king was forced into exile after producing a 6-page memorandum on how he wanted the constitution to read. It would have given him more executive power than the military government had agreed to. His son was installed as King Letsie III in his place. Major General Justin Metsing Lekhanya, the junta's chairman, was ousted in 1991 and replaced by Major General Elias Phisoana Ramaema. Moshoeshoe II returned from exile in 1992 as an ordinary citizen. In 1993 Ramaema handed power to a democratically elected government of the Congress Party.
Letsie III tried without success to persuade that government to reinstate his father as head of state. In August 1994 he staged a military-backed coup after it refused. Member states of the Southern African Development Community negotiated to restore the government, and Letsie III set the return of his father as a condition. After protracted talks the government came back, and Letsie III abdicated in 1995. Moshoeshoe II died aged 57 on the 15th of January 1996, in what was described as a road accident. A government statement said he had set out at 1 am to visit his cattle at Matsieng and was driving back to Maseru through the Maluti Mountains when his car left the road. Letsie III took the throne again, and he still holds it.
In 1997 the ruling Congress Party split over leadership disputes. Mokhehle formed a new party, the Lesotho Congress for Democracy, and most members of parliament followed him. That let him form a new government. Pakalitha Mosisili succeeded him as party leader, and the new party won the general elections of 1998.
In August 1998 opposition protests culminated in a demonstration outside the royal palace. Troops of the Botswana Defence Force were welcomed, but tensions with South African National Defence Force troops turned into fighting. Rioting worsened when South African troops hoisted a South African flag over the Royal Palace. By the time the regional forces withdrew in May 1999, much of Maseru lay in ruins. The southern towns of Mafeteng and Mohale's Hoek had each lost over a third of their commercial real estate.
In December 1998 an Interim Political Authority was created to review the electoral structure. It devised a system that kept the 80 elected Assembly seats and added 40 filled proportionally, so that the opposition would be represented. Elections in May 2002 under this system gave the ruling party 54% of the vote. Nine opposition parties took all 40 proportional seats, with the Basotho National Party holding 21. The ruling party held 79 of the 80 constituency seats. The Basotho National Party launched legal challenges to the results, including a recount.
In May 2010 the People's Charter Movement delivered a petition to the South African High Commission asking for the country to be integrated with its neighbour because of the HIV epidemic. Nearly a quarter of Lesotho's population tests positive for the virus. At the height of the epidemic, over 30,000 residents signed a petition for annexation to stop life expectancy from falling to 34 years. South Africa's home affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa rejected the idea that Lesotho should be treated as a special case. An African Union report called for economic integration but stopped short of suggesting annexation. Scholars such as Jeffrey Herbst, in his book War and the State of Africa, argue that the lack of border disputes for countries like Lesotho and Eswatini has kept them politically weak.
On the 30th of August 2014, an alleged abortive military coup forced Prime Minister Thomas Thabane to flee to South Africa for three days. On the 13th of May 2020, Lesotho became the last African nation to report a case of COVID-19, according to its health ministry. Six days later, Thabane formally stepped down after months of pressure, having been named a suspect in the murder of his ex-wife. South Africa's finance minister suggested a confederation of Lesotho, Eswatini and South Africa as a solution. Thabane's successor, the economist Moeketsi Majoro, held office until 2022. He resigned after a vote of no confidence over misconduct with the military and the handling of COVID-19.
Sam Matekane was sworn in as prime minister on the 28th of October 2022, after his Revolution for Prosperity party won the elections of the 7th of October. The party had been formed earlier that same year. Matekane is working with the Southern African Development Community toward legal reform, yet corruption persists in his administration. When 40,000 garment workers protested for better conditions, excessive force killed two of the protesters.
Lesotho is a parliamentary constitutional monarchy, and Prime Minister Sam Matekane holds executive authority as head of government. The king serves as head of state in a role that is largely ceremonial. He no longer has any executive authority and may not take an active part in political initiatives. The Revolution for Prosperity leads a coalition in the National Assembly, the lower house. The upper house, the Senate, has 22 principal chiefs whose membership is hereditary, plus 11 appointees of the king who act on the prime minister's advice.
The constitution provides for an independent judiciary made up of the High Court, the Court of Appeal, Magistrate's Courts and traditional courts, which operate mainly in rural areas. All but one of the justices on the Court of Appeal are South African jurists. There is no trial by jury. Judges rule alone, or in criminal trials sit with two other judges as observers. The constitution protects freedom of speech, association, the press, peaceful assembly and religion. In the 2008 Ibrahim Index of African Governance, Lesotho ranked 12th out of 48 sub-Saharan African countries.
Until 1903, Basotho customs and laws passed from one generation to the next by oral tradition. That year a council was appointed to advise the British Resident Commissioner on which laws would best suit the Basotho. The council wrote the customs down as the Laws of Lerotholi, which local customary courts still apply. Beside them stands the general law, built from Roman-Dutch law imported from the Cape and from Lesotho's own statutes. Lesotho shares a mixed Roman-Dutch and English legal heritage with South Africa, Botswana, Eswatini, Namibia and Zimbabwe, yet its general law operates independently. South African court decisions carry only persuasive weight. The Court of Appeal is the final appellate forum on all matters.
For administration, Lesotho is divided into 10 districts, each headed by a district administrator. Every district has a capital known as a camptown. The districts are subdivided into 80 constituencies, which consist of 129 local community councils. Security is shared among three bodies. The Lesotho Defence Force handles internal security and defence, and the Lesotho National Security Service, established in modern form by the National Security Services Act of 1998, is an intelligence service whose director general is appointed and dismissed by the prime minister. The Lesotho Mounted Police Service keeps law and order, with specialist units for high-tech crime, immigration, wildlife and terrorism. That police force has existed continuously, under changing names, since 1872.
Over 80% of Lesotho lies above 1800 metres, in a country of 30,355 square kilometres between latitudes 28° and 31° south. The Maloti Mountains hold the highest peak in southern Africa. Lesotho is the southernmost landlocked country in the world. It is the largest of the three independent states completely surrounded by another country, the other two being Vatican City and San Marino. It is the only such state outside Europe, and the only one that is not a microstate.
Elevation keeps Lesotho cooler throughout the year than other regions at the same latitude. Maseru and the surrounding lowlands may reach 30 °C in summer. Winter temperatures can drop to -7 °C in the lowlands and -18 °C in the highlands. Snow is more common in the highlands between May and September, and the higher peaks may see snowfall year-round. Annual rainfall varies from 500 mm in one area to 1200 mm in another. The wet season runs from October to April, and from December to February most of the country receives over 100 mm a month. June is the driest, with most regions getting less than 15 mm.
About 12% of the land is arable, and it is vulnerable to soil erosion. An estimated 40 million tons of soil are lost each year.
The country has recorded 339 bird species, including 10 globally threatened ones and two introduced ones. It is home to 17 reptile species, including geckos, snakes and lizards, and 60 mammal species, among them the endangered white-tailed rat. Mountain terrain gives the flora an alpine character. The Katse Botanical Gardens houses a collection of medicinal plants and a seed bank of plants from the Malibamatšo River area. Three terrestrial ecoregions lie within the borders: Drakensberg alti-montane grasslands and woodlands, Drakensberg montane grasslands, and Highveld grasslands.
In 2007, Lesotho suffered a drought and was advised by the United Nations to declare a state of emergency to receive aid from international organizations. The rainy season of 2018-2019 began a month late, and rainfall between October 2018 and February 2019 ranged from 55% to 80% below normal. A report in March 2019 initially predicted that 487,857 people needed humanitarian assistance. Without clean water, typhoid and diarrhea can spread. Women and girls who fetch water must travel farther and face a greater risk of physical or sexual assault. Many people move to cities or to South Africa to escape food insecurity. The same report expected 640,000 people to be affected by food insecurity between July 2019 and June 2020, as unproductive harvests pushed food prices up.
Almost 50% of Lesotho's population earns income through informal crop cultivation or animal husbandry, and most people practise subsistence farming. The western lowlands form the main agricultural zone. The country has also depended on money sent home by workers and on receipts from the Southern African Customs Union. The official currency is the loti, plural maloti, which can be used interchangeably with the South African rand and is at par with it. Lesotho, Eswatini, Namibia and South Africa form a common currency and exchange control area.
The Lesotho Highlands Water Project began in 1986, as a 21-year, multibillion-dollar scheme. It captures, stores and transfers water from the Orange River system to South Africa's Free State and the Johannesburg area. Finishing the first phase made Lesotho almost completely self-sufficient in electricity. Sales of electricity and water to South Africa brought in approximately US$70 million in 2010.
On the 14th of December 1957, a graduate geologist named Peter H. Nixon discovered the Letšeng-la-Terae Kimberlite Pipes, the Main Pipe and the Satellite Pipe. He was working on colonel Jack Scott's early prospecting expeditions. Nixon, who lived from 1935 to 2025, became an academic and published two influential books on mantle petrology. He retired as Professor Emeritus of Mantle Geology from Leeds University, and the mineral nixonite is named for him. Keith Whitelock was on a different exploration team at the time of the discovery. He later became general manager of Letšeng before De Beers closed it in 1982, then obtained the lease and developed the mine. The two men were great friends and collaborators for many years.
Four mines produce Lesotho's diamonds: Letšeng, Mothae, Liqhobong and Kao. Together they were estimated to produce 240,000 carats in 2014, worth US$300 million. Letšeng's diamonds average about US$2172 per carat, making it the world's richest mine by average price per carat. In 1967 a Mosotho woman found a 601 carat diamond in the mountains, known as the Lesotho Brown. In August 2006 a 603 carat white diamond, the Lesotho Promise, was found at Letšeng-la-Terae. Another stone of 478 carats turned up at the same mine in 2008.
Garments made a second pillar. Using the African Growth and Opportunity Act, Lesotho became the largest exporter of garments to the United States from sub-Saharan Africa. Foot Locker, Gap, Gloria Vanderbilt, JCPenney, Levi Strauss, Lululemon Athletica, Saks, Sears, Timberland and Wal-Mart all sourced from the country. In mid-2004 the sector employed over 50,000 people, mostly women, and for the first time manufacturing workers outnumbered government employees. International competition cut that number to about 45,000 by mid-2011. In 2007 the average textile worker earned US$103 a month, against an official minimum wage of US$93. Exports in 2008 were worth 487 million dollars, mainly sold in the United States. The global downturn then cut textile exports, diamond sales and remittances, and GDP growth slowed to 0.9% in 2009.
On the 2nd of April 2025, the second Trump administration imposed a 50 percent import tariff on Lesotho, one of the highest in the world. US officials said Lesotho taxes American goods at almost 100 percent, a claim many observers consider unfounded. Lesotho does not fully control its own tariffs, because as a member of the customs union it applies common external tariffs set centrally. It also hardly imports from the United States. Within weeks, orders were cancelled, factories closed and thousands of people lost their jobs. Women, who make up the majority of textile workers, were hit hardest, and transport, hospitality and housing rental suffered as well. The government declared a state of economic emergency. On the 1st of August 2025, the tariff was reduced to 15 percent.
About 99.7% of Lesotho's people identify as Basotho, a Bantu-speaking people, which makes the country one of the most ethnically homogeneous in the world. Most African nations have borders drawn by colonial powers that cut across ethnic lines, so Lesotho is part of a minority with a single dominant culture and language. Basotho subgroups include the Bafokeng, Batloung, Baphuthi, Bakuena, Bataung, Batšoeneng and Matebele. Sesotho is an official language alongside English, IsiXhosa and SiPhuthi.
In December 2011, more than 95% of the population was estimated to be Christian. Catholics made up 49.4%, Protestants 18.2%, Pentecostals 15.4% and Anglicans 5.3%.
The national dish is Motoho, a fermented sorghum porridge. Pap, a cornmeal porridge covered with a vegetable sauce, is a staple, and Lesotho is famed for its fermented ginger beer. Chesanyama, grilled meat, is sold across the country with cabbage, pap and baked bean salad. The national dress revolves around the Basotho blanket, once made of wool and now mostly of acrylic fibres. Its main manufacturer, Aranda, has a factory across the border in South Africa. The Basotho pony was ridden into battle in the past, and today it is used for transport and farming. Football is the most popular sport. Trading posts from British times still stand in the villages of Roma, Ramabantana, Ha Matala, Malealea and Semonkong, and San rock art survives at Ha Matela. The Morija Arts and Cultural Festival is held every year at Morija.
Ryan Coogler, director of the 2018 film Black Panther, said that Lesotho inspired his depiction of Wakanda. Basotho blankets became better known after the film. In November 2020, the film This Is Not a Burial, It's a Resurrection became the first from Lesotho to be submitted for the Academy Award for Best International Feature.
Lesotho invests over 12% of its GDP in education and holds one of the highest literacy rates in Africa. About 85% of women and 68% of men over 15 can read, so female literacy exceeds male by 17.18 points. A study in 2000 found that 37% of grade 6 pupils were at reading level 4, called Reading for Meaning. Education is not compulsory, but the government is gradually introducing free primary schooling. Only 3.4% of the population uses the internet. A service from Econet Telecom Lesotho widened access to email through low-end mobile phones.
Lesotho ranks 168 of 193 countries on the Human Development Index. Life expectancy in 2022 was 50.3 years for men and 55.9 years for women. In 2018 adult HIV prevalence was 23.6%, the second-highest in the world after Eswatini. The country has the highest incidence of tuberculosis in the world. According to the World Health Organization, it has had the world's highest age-standardized suicide rate since 2018.
In 2008 the United Nations reported that Lesotho had the highest rape rate of any country, at 91.6 reported rapes per 100,000 people. One study found that 61% of women reported experiencing sexual violence, and 22% had been physically forced to have sex. The Married Persons Equality Act of 2006 gave wives equal rights with their husbands and abolished the husband's marital power. The World Economic Forum's 2020 Gender Gap Report ranked Lesotho 88th worldwide, while South Africa ranked 17th.
On the 2nd of December 2008, Lesotho became the 42nd country to sign the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The 2006 census suggested that around 4% of the population has a disability, but the real figure is thought to be closer to the global estimate of 15%.
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Common questions
Where is Lesotho and what makes its geography unusual?
Lesotho is a landlocked country in Southern Africa, completely surrounded by South Africa. It is the only independent state entirely above 1000 metres, and its lowest point of 1400 metres is the highest lowest point of any country.
Who founded Lesotho and when did it become independent?
King Moshoeshoe I brought together the polity that became Basutoland in the early 1820s. It gained independence from the United Kingdom on the 4th of October 1966 and became the Kingdom of Lesotho.
What was Lesotho called before independence?
Lesotho was formerly known as Basutoland. It became a British protectorate in 1868 and a Crown colony in 1884.
What is the capital of Lesotho?
Maseru is the capital and largest city of Lesotho. It began as a police camp on the northwest border that the British used after Moshoeshoe died.
What is Lesotho's economy based on?
Lesotho's economy rests on agriculture, livestock, garment manufacturing, diamond mining and the sale of water and electricity to South Africa. The Letšeng mine is the world's richest by average price per carat, at about US$2172.
Who is the head of government and head of state of Lesotho?
Sam Matekane is prime minister and head of government, sworn in on the 28th of October 2022. King Letsie III is head of state in a largely ceremonial role.
What languages and ethnic groups are found in Lesotho?
About 99.7% of Lesotho's people identify as Basotho. Sesotho is an official language alongside English, IsiXhosa and SiPhuthi.
How did the 2025 United States tariffs affect Lesotho?
A 50 percent import tariff imposed on the 2nd of April 2025 closed factories and cost thousands of textile jobs, and the government declared an economic emergency. The tariff was reduced to 15 percent on the 1st of August 2025.
All sources
111 references cited across the entry
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