Here's a great photo of a Mosotho warrior (in the singular), he being a member of the Basotho people (in the plural). The Basotho are the Southern Sotho, and live in Lesotho, while the Bapedi (plural of Pedi) are the Northern Sotho and live in the Northern Transvaal. The photo was taken somewhat later than the period covered by our new Orange River range, but, given that the subject is armed and clad in so traditional a manner, it might as well have been taken in the 1850s.

     Chief Moshoeshoe was the founder of the Basotho, who were an amalgam of tribes and peoples who rallied to him during and after the difaqane (aka mfecane) inter-tribal wars of the 1820s-1830s. Over the next 20 years the Basotho spared no effort to acquire horses and firearms. They succeeded to such an extent that of an army of 10,000 warriors present at the Battle of Berea, about 7,500 men were musket-armed horsemen. About 6,000 of them attacked the British in a single wave...quite a sight. The Basotho fought both from horseback, and in what Colonel William Eyre termed, 'in the Dutch manner', which is to say that at various points they dismounted to use their firearms, in much the same way as the Boers practiced mounted infantry tactics. There was no national army and no regimental system after the fashion of the Zulus. Regional chiefs, many of whom were related to Moshoeshoe, brought in their respective regional followings to a national muster. Such a following might be made up several warbands based on the age-grouping system utilized in circumcision lodges in pursuance of the usual ritual transition to manhood.

     A point to note is that the small, rather scruffy 'Basotho pony', which springs fairly readily to mind, has been bred over the decades since Moshoeshoe's reign. At the period covered by our range the Basotho were mounted on conventionally sized horses and ponies.

     You can see a number of interesting features in the photo. The average Mosotho mixed both European and traditional weaponry. This chap appears to have a double-barrelled weapon, which would be more likely a percussion-lock rifle than a shotgun. He also carries the traditional small and handy winged shield, designed for deflecting throwing assegais, rather than fighting at close quarters. There was no regimentation of shield colours. For the sort of cowskins used in making such shields, google search imagery of 'Nguni cows'.  He has a fearsome long handled battle axe tucked into his loincloth, while he carries a number of throwing assegais, together with a round headed knobkerrie, in a quiver. The quiver is hanging to the front of this chap, but it would more usually be thrown around to rest on the small of the back. His headdress is a ball of black ostrich feathers. There are two other features of the typical Mosotho worth mentioning. One is that many warriors wore a V-shaped wooden or brass neckguard on the upper chest, with its arms splayed either side of the throat. They also wore small daggers slung from the neck on a length of thong.

     There was an important European presence in Lesotho in the form of several PEMS (Paris Evangelical Missionary Society) missions. Christianity was slow to take off, so that in the early- to mid-1850s few of the missions yet had congregations in excess of a couple of hundred people, with men seemingly in a gender minority. Basotho armies did, however, include a proportion of Christian warriors, who often wore hats and discarded European clothing. More generally the Basotho were not big on dressing up - certainly they did not favour showy decoration of the limbs with cowtails after the Zulu fashion. Nor did they flaunt monkey-tail kilts or anything of that sort, just a simple loincloth.

     See the 'Miniatures Gallery' for guidance on how to paint our Basotho figures.