THE 1996 STATE funeral of King Moshoeshoe II of Lesotho was held at the foot of Thaba Bosiu Mountain. Tradition holds that principal and paramount chiefs be buried on the mountain's summit and traditionally the coffin is supported by pallbearers to the top, escorted by a guard of horsemen. The king's own horse is led riderless to the place of interment with a Basotho hat, symbolising the king, resting on the saddle. Much of the pageantry of citizenship in the mountain kingdom draws on horses. The year before his death, for example, the king presented the then South African president, Nelson Mandela, with a dappled-grey stallion, among honours from other states. Horses are still widely used (as many as 100,000 nationally) for general transport over the dramatic topography of Lesotho. Aside from its still useful role in rural transport, particularly in the highlands, the horse has seeped into cultural references, as in idioms like ‘Ho ja pere’ (‘eat the horse’ – to do the forbidden) and folk tales. They figure in praise poetry as men in seanamarenas sing: ‘Horses are the pride of Basotho men.’ Horse races remain popular social events. And mare's milk, lebese la pere, may be used medicinally. The popular archetype of ‘Mosotho, pony, blanket and gun’ infuses the tourist literature and commodifies the romance of the rugged little mountain pony found only in Lesotho. The refrains (usually maintained by outsiders) ‘the Basutos are naturally a horse loving people’; ‘the Basotho are a nation of horsemen’; they are ‘natural horsemen’; and their ponies are ‘integral to the landscape’ are entrenched – evident in the archival record; in the observations of foreigners; recurring in advertisements and travel literature; and even represented on stamps, coins, banknotes and the national coat of arms. This coat of arms (adopted post-independence in 1966) bears a shield, behind which are two nineteenth-century guns; the shield is supported on either side by Basotho horses. The long link with horses is acknowledged in the ironic identity majapere (the horse eaters) adopted in jest by Basotho themselves.

Lesotho has produced more history than could be consumed locally. As a small landlocked country completely surrounded by South Africa it has a history entwined with that of the larger country, and also with that of Britain, under whose control it was from 1868 until 1966.