Lesotho and Lesotho Fatse La Bontata Rona

Patrick: 00:00:15

Hello, and welcome to the Anthems podcast. I'm Patrick, and I'm here to tell you the story of a song that helps to tell the story of a nation.

Today we're going back to Africa, mostly because I will admit I got a lot of literal ground to cover on the continent, which is sort of funny because the line of thought that led me to pick this next country involves some very small ones. In my last episode, I forgot to introduce a new geography or geology term, and turns out I miss having it there.

So I will do it immediately this time and tell you about enclave states.

These are countries that are entirely inside the border of another country, and I thought that there were only two of them, the microstates, Vatican City and San Marino. But I like to check my work, and as frequently happens, I was wrong about something because there are three enclave states.

The third is pretty interesting, and despite two thirds of the states being tiny, Lesotho is really not that at 58th smallest. So this episode is brought to you by me learning that there were three of something that I thought there were two of.

What really happened is that I noticed the country in a place I didn't expect and also discovered a reason to tell you about Lesotho. Fazze la Bantatarona, or Lesotho, land of our fathers.

This is a country that I did not know existed before I decided to go there for the next episode. But I told you folks that I'd be learning a whole lot as I move across this continent.

Despite being not as small as I thought it was going to be, it is a country that you could be forgiven for missing on a map of Africa. Well, get to where it is in a bit. Someone that was aware of Lesotho and where it is and has been there is director Ryan Coogler.

And because of his movie Black Panther, a lot of people are aware of the national dress of Lesotho, the Basotho blanket. The patterns featured prominently in Wakandan dress.

The Bsotto blanket is more like a piece of the culture of Lesotho than an item of clothing, and it's another topic that somebody could do an entire podcast about. Someday I will be able to figure out how to make a smooth transition into playing the anthem, but today is not that day. It's cool.

Sometimes that happens, and I get to have a sentence like this as the lead into the song that I'll be talking about. If you think about it for a while, maybe you can convince yourself that it is smooth. Even if you don't, though. I'll be back in a minute. In a moment.

My initial reaction is that I enjoyed the music, the singing. I'm kind of struggling with, though. This was, again an anthem that I went through many, many versions of before settling on this one.

A lot of the singing sounded, I don't know, like, unenthusiastic. And in an anthem that is not universally disliked.

I don't want to play unenthusiastic for you, but I couldn't really find anything that was, you know, jubilant. Maybe not something that you'll hear in Woolsey hall, but I want something that's done with feeling.

It definitely also sounds like something that you'd hear in a church. So if we did hear it in a church, where would that be? Like I said, Lesotho is neither very large or very small, at about 30,355 km², or 11,720 sq. Mi.

But it is the 8th smallest of the 43 nations of Africa. The country has the very cool distinction of having the highest low point of any nation.

owest point in the country is: 1400

Thankfully, that's the country at the very bottom of the continent of Africa. If you travel about 100 miles northwest from the southeastern coast, you get to the border of Lesotho.

If you know where Bloemfontein is, the judicial capital of South Africa, then just go 80 miles east, and you're there. For a country that is contained entirely within another country, Lesotho is still a pretty isolated place due to its unique geography.

That's one of the other things about it that inspired Mister Coogler when he was envisioning Wakanda. But like pretty much every country in Africa, Lesotho's history extends all the way back to prehistory.

This is a bit tricky to find a nice place to enter the timeline, because I've got some conflicting information on exactly what happened when. Modern day Lesotho has been populated by people for thousands of years, but never by very many of them.

This is due mostly to geography, placing the country up a mountain. The current inhabitants are 99.7% ethnic, Pasoto, making it one of the more homogenous places in the world.

Although there are less diverse places out there, they moved in during the medieval warm period and subsisted on agriculture and animal husbandry.

m the medieval warm period to: 1818

At this point, a young and quite successful chieftain named Moshuishu was conducting cattle raids, collecting followers, and had established a village in Bootha booth that still exists and is the capital of a district in Lesoro. Things were going very well for Moshuishu, and he began to consolidate power by integrating other risotto tribes into his settlement.

Unfortunately, the young chieftain was alive at the same time as Shaka Zulu and had settled close enough that he had settled on land that they wanted for the growing Zulu nation.

The situation that formed the nations of southern Africa are, of course, far more complicated than that bit of hand waving, but we only get pieces of other stories as part of the larger tale of a specific anthem. The mifekain is a wildly complicated thing that I learned about just the hour I wrote this sentence, so I can't touch it. I'm sorry.

n many others did nothing. By: 1823

We'll be touching back there in a bit, though. First we have to introduce the composer, because he and moshu issue might have been born the same year.

only be narrowed down to near: 1786

in: 1791

By the time Moshuishu was being crowned king, he was working in Basel and had already published the hymnal containing freihit, which is the song that would become the music for land of our fathers.

zerland, but it was not until: 1840

Ferdinand was responsible for organizing and directing the federal music festival, and he conducted three full concerts that day with 527 musicians, excuse me, 570 musicians. After that, he began a gradual professional withdrawal, and he retired with his family to Egilshafen at the enviable age of 55.

Sadly, though, he passed too young some eight years later of unspecified causes. If you're into choir music or relatively obscure bits of swiss music history, you should read about Ferdinand.

years, into the mid: 1830

This is where the timeline does that thing where I can't get a super clear picture of what happened when and who is definitely responsible for something. Another reminder that anthem writers are often not historically important at the time of the anthem being written.

Despite irregularities in the record, there is still a coherent enough story to tell most of the time, and the story of land of our fathers continues with one Francois Collier.

July: 1834

In most cases, Francois was quite a faithful and motivated Christian and after a life of poverty due to his father dying young and leaving a widow with seven children, signed up at 20 to be a missionary with the Paris Evangelical Mission society, or Pems.

By: 1857

When Francois finally reached Basutoland proper, he is said to have become influential in the area and a leader in the missionary struggle against polygamy and witchcraft, as well as becoming an important intermediary between the Bosota people and the British.

forced him out of the area in: 1866

sting local religions, and in: 1903

Possibly he was born in Switzerland as well, and there is little to be had about the man's life until he had a religious experience while teaching at the Quaker school in Westmoreland, England.

o France and join the Pems in: 1856

Among his many contributions to Bazutuland were establishing the town he was stationed in as such a vibrant learning center that to this day it has been referred to as Celebeng Satuto or the wellspring of learning and contains the oldest still operating newspaper in southern Africa. He also completed the massive task of translating the Bible into the local language.

Adolf was a seemingly tireless advocate for the proper establishment of the Sato language and culture.

is tireless, and he passed in: 1904

You might have noticed that since I talked about the composer, all ive said about the song this episode is nothing actually in all of the sources its clear that the song is not considered an important part of the writers lives. Its fairly pivotal in the story that im trying to tell though, so its about time I get back into the narrative with it.

By doing that I'm also getting around to the vagaries of history that constantly happen when I'm doing this show. It can be said for sure that the anthem has Ferdinand's music, but I can find exactly two mentions of the supposed poets roles.

freihit made it to Lesotho in: 1859

So it would be weird if they didn't know each other. I'm inclined to think that they both were actually involved in writing the original lyrics for several reasons.

First, the lyrics are written in Sesoto. And while I'm sure Francois knew the language because he talked to people in it, he must have. His proficiency was not mentioned in the reading.

And Adolf's proficiency was a large feature. He is well known for translating many works. Second, the men worked the very same organization. And had a shared set of goals.

And finally, the song was part of a larger collection of hymns and work songs. Representing a collective effort.

he British had negotiated. In: 1869

I would wager that its going to be more common to not know when the anthem was first performed. Than to know that on this show. Something that ill get statistical with someday. But we do get to know here.

In: 1870

The missionaries organized public performances of the song on special occasions. And it even became a drinking tune for people in the meantime. And maybe you saw this coming.

The British did that thing they do where they took Bosotoland into protective status as a protectorate. And then they used that foot in the door. To rather quickly annexed the region into a colony. This time they annexed it into Cape Colony.

ut that effort was crushed in: 1879

And the country devolved into infighting over the land that the chief left. Then an attempt was made to include the country in the Cape Peace Preservation act. And disarm the population by force.

That resulted in Cape Colony losing control of the place. Basutoland was forced to be returned to full crown colony status. That, of course, made God save the queen the official national anthem.

on. Fighting the Nazis in the: 1940

Followed by a: 1959

June in: 1966

With that, we have our anthem and we can move on to discuss the song itself. Musically, this is a refreshingly simple tune for an anthem.

The song was written to be simple and sung in a rural church, taught to a class of children, or rhythmically chanted during work in the field. It might also be because I am a sucker for solo piano, but I enjoy it. This is originally in b flat major and I don't know.

It's simple and I kinda dig it a lot. The instrumental is certainly on my list of things to learn to play with Lesotho.

Fazzi la bantata rona we have another anthem with a difference between the original writing and the current official lyrics.

Recall that the original writing was purpose driven stuff and was part of an effort to get people to accept a treaty and borders that the British negotiated for them. So the official version just has the first and fifth verse.

is makes sense because by the: 1960

That's where we were born. That's where we grew up. We love you. The song opens up with a verse full of adoration for the homeland.

It is the best place in the world, in fact, and the people love it.

Referring to the land of our fathers ancestors in some translations, referring to the peoples birthplace and growing up there reinforces deep roots and attachments to the country. For a song that wasnt originally intended to be an anthem, it certainly ticked off a lot of the boxes that one would in the first verse.

On to verse two, though some say she is small for us. She is big enough. We have fields, we have cattle. It is enough for us. Here we see the original purpose of the song fairly explicitly.

Lesotho is not that small. In the very beginning of the show I mentioned it is the 58th smallest, so nearly middle of the road.

But before the new boundaries were negotiated after the third Risotto war, it was bigger. The song reminds people that there is still a lot of land and they are still raising cattle and farming.

The missionaries were interested in the stability of the country and the prosperity of the people. I really think that is the case. Aggressively converting everybody to religion in support of colonialism aside, they did do a lot of good.

The folks from the Pems were the first to write the Sotho language. And teach the people that spoke to it. To write it and translated more than just christian texts.

The ability to learn and catalog and develop a literature specific to a culture in their own language is not a small thing at all. One of the other things they wanted for stability was the people to be happy with what they had and not on the march to war for more.

That involved encouraging them to accept the decisions that the British made for them when the king reached out for help. On to the third verse. And though you need many things and praise from nations, you have mountains, pastures, wells, you are lovely.

Here we get a brief acknowledgement of the material limitations. That come from living in a fairly isolated mountain kingdom.

But it's quick to reassure the listener that Lesotho is praised by other nations because of the mountains in isolation. The song is actually right because it's a lovely place. And seriously, it's a place you should look at pictures of.

The singer is telling the country that it's lovely. And the song is trying to assure a battered people that they are going to be taken care of by the land. Verse four. So much for our world.

You already have the word of the Lord. People are praying and the trends are coming to an end. It kind of seems that every translation of this verse I've found is sort of clumsy.

We can parse the meaning of it alright. Though the writers add a spiritual dimension by suggesting that the nation has God on their side already.

The second couple of lines are a particularly bad translation. Everywhere I've been able to find it. I've also seen them translated as people pray and the ways end, but it's clunky.

There is definitely a good translation in a book somewhere out there that some pems member wrote or had, maybe even one of our poets, but I can't get access to it. I think this verse is mostly supposed to indicate a sense of fulfillment and completeness.

In the spiritual and worldly aspects of life for the people that live in the country. Makes sense. And the final verse. God save Lesotho. End wars and anxieties o this earth, this land of our fathers be at peace.

The final verse is a fairly straightforward prayer for the well being of Lesotho and the Soto people. A final beseechment for peace, harmony and prosperity for their ancestors and their land. This is expected.

It is a literal hymn, after all, and not initially intended to be a national anthem. It is not the most religious thing you've heard on this show, and it's not even close to what's coming, I'm sure.

That said, it's an excellent closing verse for a national anthem. They're not calling for the country to conquer things, they just want peace and for the people living in the land to be like their ancestors did.

An excellent sentiment.

If we take the first and the fifth verse together, we get an anthem that proclaims that the nation is the people's favorite nation and they love it because it's the place they come from. They ask God for peace and less worry. It implies a deep bond to the land through their ancestors as written.

I rather like it because it does what an anthem ought to do and it manages it with ten lines of verse and a piano does it much better like this than it would be as a five verse song. I think it would have to be too fast for that, but you know, who knows?

Overall, the full five verse song is trying very hard to paint a picture of contentment about the situation by highlighting the strengths of the country that exist irrespective of material wealth and land area. It kind of comes off as prescriptive, but it was a purpose driven piece of writing written by people that were sure that they knew best.

But it was also written by people that really did care about the country a great deal and care about the people who live there, even if they thought what was best for the country was to let the British be in charge of them and accept the decisions that were made of. It's a decent story, though, and I certainly learned a great deal. Hopefully somebody else did too.

The writing, recording and production for the show are done by me, and I wrote and played the theme song. The music was used with my permission. Unless otherwise noted. The anthems I play are public domain or some other equivalently free to play license.

My sources and the specific items I mentioned on the show are contained in the show notes, and the most direct way to get to those notes is@anthemspodcast.com you can find me on Facebook and WhatsApp as the anthemspodcast. Imagine that. For now, I try to get the episodes shared onto whatever platform I can with the hashtag hash anthemspod.

It would be cool if you hashtagged a post like that too.

or send me a text message at: 1203

Maybe you could tell a social studies or geography teacher about the show. I don't know. You could do lots of stuff though. Whatever that is that you were doing. Thank you for listening, and I do hope you enjoyed it.

You'll hear me next time if you're here again, and I hope that it won't be super long.