Welcome to Lesotho

I am entering the country of Lesotho for the first time on my African overland journey, so it is worth sharing a few factoids about this country to put things in better context and to educate myself (and you, if needed) a little about this corner of the world. Here is what I learned from my research.

• As you can see in the map above, Lesotho is a land-locked country embedded entirely within South Africa, located between the latitudes 28-29 degrees south, which in terms of distance from the equator is the southern hemisphere equivalent to the U.S.-Mexican border in the northern hemisphere.
• It is the largest enclaved (i.e., something embedded within another) country in the world. There are only 3 enclaved countries in the world, can you guess the others?
• At almost 12,000 square miles, it is a little bit smaller than the state of Maryland.
• Roughly 2 million people, compared to ~332 million in the U.S..
• Sesotho and English are the official languages, the former being spoken by most Basotho (the people of Lesotho) but the latter is used for government business.
• Government is described as a unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy, The Prime Minister is the head of government and has executive authority. There is a King, but he is largely ceremonial and has no real political power. The parliament has a lower house of elected representatives and an upper house, or Senate, composed of principal tribal chiefs whose membership is hereditary and appointees of the king. There is an independent judicial system, but there is no trial by jury – yikes; rather, judges make rulings alone or, in the case of criminal trials, with two other judges as observers.
• Currency is both the Lesotho Loti and the South African Rand.
• Major exports include diamonds and water, along with manufactured goods (garments, electronics, and footwear) and other crude materials (wool and mohair – the hair from goats).
• Like most of the region, it was occupied by humans for probably 10,000 years, perhaps even much longer by the San people,who were the original indigenous people of the region, until it was “colonized” by the Bantu people in the 5th century from west Africa. The San were largely exterminated, displaced or assimilated in the region of Lesotho. The Besotho people comprised various tribes of Bantu and occupied a much larger region of South Africa than Lesotho. However, they were largely displaced from areas outside of Lesotho by the Dutch Boer settlers and the Zulu people. In part due to its geographic isolation from the lower-lying surrounding country and in part due to the efforts of the first King to consolodate the existing Basotho triies, Lesotho was eventually formed as a nation in 1824 by King Moshoeshoe I. However, continuous encroachments by Dutch settlers (Boers) made the King enter into an agreement with the British Empire to become a protectorate in 1868 and, in 1884, a crown colony. It achieved independence in 1966 around the same time most other Africa countries achieved independence, and was subsequently ruled by the Basotho National Party (BNP) for two decades. Its constitutional government was restored in 1993 after seven years of military rule. King Moshoeshoe II was exiled in 1990 but returned in 1992 and was reinstated in 1995. One year later, Moshoeshoe II died and his son Letsie III took the throne, which he still holds. It is unclear how much the slave trade impacted the Besotho people, but I suspect they suffered from the Portuguese slavers until the British colonized the area, like most of the rest of east and south Africa.
• Lesotho has one of the highest rates of literacy in Africa, estimated to be >80%.
• The country’s HIV/AIDS prevalence rate is the second-highest in the world at roughly 25% – yikes!
• Lesotho has the highest pub in Africa at 9,429 ft, the Sani Mountain Lodge in the Sani Pass.
• Lesotho has the highest lowest elevation (~4,600 ft) of any country in the world; hence, its nickname “Kingdom of the Sky”. Indeed, it is the only country lying entirely above 3,280 ft (1,000 m).
• Lesotho is one of only a few places in Africa where you can ski, at a place called Afriski located in the Maluti Moutnains with a peak elevation of 10,571 ft).
• Has <~1% of its total land area devoted to national parks, reserves and wildlife management areas. This is a tragedy given the spectacular landscape, but not terribly surprising given the undeveloped and poor state of the country. Nevertheless, other equally poor African countries have done a much better job of protecting their natural heritage.