ABSTRACT
Born in 17861 and originally named Lepoqo, Moshoeshoe I was the first son of Mokhachane, chief of the Mokoteli, a relatively junior lineage of the Koena. Lepoqo grew up in his father's village of Menkhoaneng, situated in the north of modern-day Lesotho, In about 1804 he was initiated into adulthood, and soon afterward he set out to establish his claim to manhood by leading his initiation age-mates in a series of successful cattle raids. The wars of 1865-1868 sent a disturbing influx of Basotho refugees into the Cape and Natal. There was also the possibility that the Free State might attempt to sever its former economic dependence upon the British colonies by using its conquest of Lesotho as a basis for expansion toward the coast through the independent Xhosa chiefdoms that lay between the Cape and Natal. Direct British rule also led to Lesotho's ultimate political independence in 1966. The kingdom's economic independence was a different question, however.
