Naha Ea Linatla

‘Naha ea Linatla’ (1969) was published in 1976. It is part praise-song, part prayer. Mohapeloa refers to his homeland as a nation triumphantly formed through its historic struggles in the nineteenth and twentieth century until the country’s independence in 1966. (The reference to the United Nations at the end of the song might be due to the fact that Lesotho was admitted to the UN as a member state in 1966.) But between 1966 and 1976 the country’s political parties battled it out for supremacy while trying to retain a monarch as figurehead (following the British system). The unrest reached its peak in 1970 when Prime Minister, Leabua Jonathan lost the election but didn’t accept the result, forced King Moshoeshoe II into exile along with many other people, suspended the constitution and declared a state of emergency that lasted for many years. It thus has a bitter-sweet resonance.