LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Lesotho
built 190 days ago
The original inhabitants of what is now Lesotho were the San. By the 16th century Sotho groups had settled in the region. In the early 19th century, Shaka, a Zulu chief in southeastern Africa, began to expand the Zulu empire, causing the forced migrations of many different peoples during a period known as the mfecane. At that time Moshoeshoe, a leader of a Basotho village, led his people to the mountain of Butha-Buthe, where they survived several battles. In 1824 Moshoeshoe moved to a better protected site on the top of another mountain, called Thaba Bosiu. His policy of granting protection to refugees from other conflicts meant that he gathered an increasingly large group of people under his authority.
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All land in Lesotho is held by the king in trust for the Sotho nation and is apportioned on his behalf by local chiefs; non-Sotho may not hold land. Only a tenth of Lesotho’s land is arable. Corn, wheat, pulses, sorghum, and barley are cultivated; much of the workforce is engaged in subsistence farming. Many staples... must be imported from South Africa. Agricultural production has been hurt by soil exhaustion and erosion and recurring drought. Sheep are bred for wool, and cattle and Angora goats are raised.
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Lesotho has nearly 6,000 kilometers of unpaved and modern all-weather roads. There is a short rail line (freight) linking Lesotho with South Africa that is totally owned and operated by South Africa. Lesotho is a member of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) in which tariffs have been eliminated on the trade of goods with other member countries, which include Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Swaziland. With the exception of Botswana, these countries ... form a common currency and exchange control area known as the Common Monetary Area (CMA). The South African rand can be used interchangeably with the loti, the Lesotho currency (plural: maloti). One hundred lisente equal one loti.
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Lesotho has many mountains and is one of the most mountainous countries in the world. All of Lesotho is over 1,400 m above sea level. People sometimes travel there to ski in winter. The many mountains in Lesotho mean that it rains a lot there. Lesotho uses some of its water to generate electricity and sells some of it to South Africa.
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The United States was one of the first four countries to establish an embassy in Maseru after Lesotho gained its independence from Great Britain in 1966. Since this time, Lesotho and the United States have consistently maintained warm bilateral relations. In 1996, the United States closed its bilateral aid program in Lesotho. The Southern African regional office of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in Gaborone, Botswana now administers most of the U.S. assistance to Lesotho, which totaled approximately $2 million in FY 2004. Total U.S. aid to Lesotho is over $10 million, including humanitarian food assistance. The Peace Corps has operated in Lesotho since 1966.
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In Lesotho – as in other countries hard hit by HIV and AIDS – the key to prevention lies with its young people. When people started dying from AIDS here over a decade ago, they called it ‘Mokakallane oa Setlabocha’: the disease that comes with youth. And in many ways, it is an accurate description. Lesotho has the third-highest HIV rate in the world, but by far the worst affected are the young adults. Without effective intervention, the population of this mountain kingdom might feasibly disappear from its small patch of southern Africa.
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Lesotho