The Sotho people have split into different clans over time as a result of the Mfecane (a series of wars and migrations that took place in the 19th century)[1] and colonialism.

Lesotho was created by the settlers in the 1869 Convention of Aliwal North following the conflict over land with Moshoeshoe I, the king of the Southern Sothos.

Some of the Southern Sotho speakers who were not part of Moshoeshoe's kingdom when he united some of their tribesmen are living in Gauteng, while some are found in the west of KwaZulu-Natal, the north of the Eastern Cape and most of the Free State province.

The Basotho nation is a mixture of Bantu-speaking clans that mixed with San people who already lived in Southern Africa when they arrived there.

Basotho were mostly independent and relatively isolated up until this point in which they occasionally traded with the regions north of their homeland with external links that are described as "Sporadic and Marginal".

[4] By at least the 17th century a series of Basotho kingdoms covered the southern portion of the African plateau (nowadays Free State Province and parts of Gauteng), North West.

They moved past the Okavango Swamp and across the Zambezi into Barotseland, (which is now part of Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and Namibia).

[10] Universally praised as a skilled diplomat and strategist, he molded the disparate refugee groups escaping the Difaqane into a cohesive nation.

[11] His leadership allowed his small nation to survive the obstacles that destroyed other indigenous South African kingdoms during the 19th century, such as the Zulu Mfecane, the inward expansion of the voortrekkers and the plans of the Colonial Office.

[15] In 1868, after losing the western lowlands to the Boers during the Free State–Basotho Wars, Moshoeshoe successfully appealed to Queen Victoria to proclaim Basutoland (modern Lesotho) a protectorate of Britain.

[9] While many clans had territory within Basutoland, large numbers of Sesotho speakers resided in areas allocated to the Orange Free State, the sovereign voortrekker republic that bordered the Basotho kingdom.

Britain's protection ensured that repeated attempts by the Orange Free State, and later the Republic of South Africa, to absorb part or all of Basutoland were unsuccessful.

To enter the cash economy, Lesotho men often migrated to large cities in South Africa to find employment in the mining industry.

[17] Migrant workers from the Free State and Lesotho thus helped spread Sesotho to the urban areas of South Africa.

[19] The allure of urban areas has not diminished, and internal migration continues today for many black people born in Lesotho and other Basotho heartlands.

[24] According to the 2011 South African National Census of 2011, almost 4 million people speak Sesotho as their first language, including 62% of Free State inhabitants.

[26] However, the number of technical materials (e.g., in the fields of commerce, information technology, law, science, and math) in the language is still relatively small.

There are no fully fledged South African newspapers in Sesotho except for regional newsletters in QwaQwa, Fouriesburg, Ficksburg, and possibly other Free State towns.

For instance, boys who herd cattle in the rural Free State and Lesotho wear the Basotho blanket and large rain boots (gumboots) as protection from the wet mountain terrain.

Herd boys also often wear woolen balaclavas or caps year-round to protect their faces from cold temperatures and dusty winds.

Basotho women usually wear skirts and long dresses in bright colors and patterns, as well as the traditional blankets around the waist.

Traditional Sotho healers wear the bandolier, which consists of strips and strings made of leather, sinew, or beads that form a cross on the chest.