Lesotho

Lesotho is a mountain kingdom in southern Africa, entirely surrounded by South Africa. Maseru is the capital and largest city. Sesotho, English, isiXhosa and SiPhuthi are official languages, and almost all of the people are Basotho, from whom the country takes its name.

Moshoeshoe I united the Basotho in the 1820s, gathering his followers first at Butha-Buthe and later at Thaba Bosiu, which served as his capital, amid the wars and migrations known as the Lifaqane. Pressure from Boer settlers led him to seek British protection in 1868, the treaty of Aliwal North in 1869 cut his land roughly in half, and in 1884 Basutoland became a crown colony. The British moved the administration from Thaba Bosiu to a police camp at Maseru.

On 4 October 1966 Basutoland became the independent Kingdom of Lesotho. Leabua Jonathan of the Basotho National Party led the government until 1986. Elected government returned in 1993, and a proportional voting system was adopted later. Under its parliamentary constitutional monarchy, the king is a largely ceremonial head of state, the prime minister leads the government, and the Senate includes 22 hereditary principal chiefs.

On its 30,355 km² (11,720 sq mi) no land lies below 1,400 m (4,593 ft), so it is the only independent state wholly above 1,000 m. The Lesotho Highlands Water Project, begun in 1986, sends water from the Orange River system to Johannesburg and the Free State, and diamonds come from mines such as Letšeng. Textile factories making clothes for American brands employ many women. The loti is tied to the South African rand. The Basotho blanket, once of wool, is the national dress, and the country helped inspire the fictional Wakanda of the 2018 film Black Panther.