 |
| Police horses en route to Thaba Bosiu in preparation for the Moshoeshoe Day ceremony. |
Every March 11th, Lesotho celebrates Moshoeshoe
Day. King Moshoeshoe I is the father of the Basotho nation.
In the 1800s, Basotho were spread out throughout the land
now known as Lesotho and Orange Free State in South Africa. Moshoeshoe was the
chief of the Bakoena or Crocodile clan. He and his clan were living in the area
of Bothe Bothe, including on Thaba Mopeli (a mountain near the camptown of
Botha Bothe today) and at LiphofungCaves.
As Zulu clans were pushing west, they began encroaching on
Basotho lands. Thaba Mopeli was proving itself to be difficult to defend as it
did not have water on the top of the mountain. Moshoeshoe and his clan walked
from Botha Bothe to Thaba Bosiu. Unlike Thaba Mopeli, Thaba Bosiu has natural
springs on its flat surface, making it a better and safer place to build homes.
It turned out that Thaba Bosiu was an unusually secure site to defend. The name
Thaba Bosiu means Mountain of Night. It was given this name after Moshoeshoe
and his warriors successfully defeated the Zulu warriors at night. Legend has
it that they burned herbs that made their enemies hallucinate and think the
mountain was growing taller as they climbed the steep, rocky path to the top.
