King Mswati lll meets King Letsie lll in Rome

HIS Majesty King Mswati lll who is currently in Europe, has met with the King of Lesotho, His Majesty King Letsie lll. His Majesty hosted the Basotho head of state in Rome, where they are both attending the World Food Summit, and will probably also proceed together to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Samoa.

The two kings are historically close.

King Letsie lll was His Majesty’s guest at the 55-55 celebrations last year, a visit that was subsequently reciprocated by King Mswati lll.

Lesotho that celebrated 200 years of nationhood two weeks ago as a nation is younger than Eswatini. It’s founding leader, King Moshoeshoe l was a peer of King Somhlolo. Though the two never met, King Somhlolo who was known among the baSotho with the Sesotho name Baputsa, king of the baRaputsa spoke seSotho and was very aware of baSotho political developments. It was intelligence from the baSotho that alerted Somhlolo of the impending colonialism of the region and how the baSotho had solved their problem by acquiring missionary teachers to introduce European education to Lesotho.

King Somhlolo had repeatedly sent embassies to try and secure a similar arrangement without success. It was only 5 years after his death in 1839 that the first two missionaries from Lishuan in Orange Free State arrived in 1844; by which time, the regents had had been alarmed by the political chaos missionaries in Lesotho had wrought. This awareness would explain why the missionaries J. Allison and R. Giddy were welcomed but assigned land for their mission station at Mahamba, far away from the centre of political power, with the advice to proselytize only in the direction of Zululand.

King Letsie ll’s father, King Moshoeshoe ll was a peer of King Sobhuza ll and he and his wife, Queen Mamohato were regular visitors to the then Swaziland.

King Mswati lll missed the Lesotho Double Celebrations earlier this month due to the second leg of the Umhlanga which had moved to Shiselweni.

jm/today/14.10.2004

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