Today (March 11th) is Mosehoeshoe's Day--the anniversary of the death of the first Morena e Moholo (literally translated, the High Chief...or as it has come to be known, the King although Moshoeshoe would not have recognized the title) in 1870. The day is a public holiday and an opportunity for the country to reconnect with its heritage as Moshoeshoe is the Morena a Moholo who brought a disparate group of people together to form what is today the Basohto nation and fought a series of wars against other African groups, the British and the Afrikaners to defend the land that is today Lesotho (although people here are to this day wishing for the return of some of their lands which now fall in South Africa). So I went downtown in the morning to check out the festivities. The current King Letsie III was there as was the Prime Minister and the entire diplomatic corps stationed in Lesotho. It was an interesting time. I ran into a Kenyan friend who I run with so we hung out and watched the proceedings. The man in the blue blanket in these pictures is Letsie III. He is very well respected and received the loudest cheers when his horsemen and motorcade made a dramatic entrance. You will see his horsemen in front of the army honor guard and band in the first photo. They were quite the site trotting in formation and carrying long spears with Lesotho flags on the ends.
The seocond photo shows (barely) the King about four people in front of me accepting a torch from two runners who brought it from Thaba Bosiu (the mountain stronghold and home of Moshoeshoe) that morning. They would then light the torch. I was about 10 feet from all of this. Again, very cool.
Then the King, the Prime Minister and other high ranking officials and army officers made their way to the top of the hill to pay their respects to Moshoeshoe at a large statue on the top of the hill that was unveiled the day before independence in 1966. As a historian it was an interesting event and as someone who really enjoys Lesotho and the Sesotho culture, it was quite the day. I didn't stay for the speeches as the acoustics were bad, but I can read about them in the papers later this week. It is hard to say which day means more to people here--the actual independence day on October 4th or Moshoeshoe's Day on March 11th.
Stay well.
2 comments:
Happy Moshoeshoe Day! All decked out in my Seshoeshoe for the occasion.
Sala hantle, ntate.
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