Kena ka Khotso

Mohapeloa completed ‘Kena ka Khotso’ in 1976 when it was published in Cape Town as song No. 14 of 25 in Meluluetsa ea Ntšetso-pele le Bosechaba Lesotho (Anthems for the Development of the Lesotho Nation). The song partners Mohapeloa’s earlier song ‘E-eang ka Khotso’ (Go in Peace) published in the collection Khalima-nosi tsa ’Mino Oa Kajeno in 1951. Both phrases -‘come in peace’ and ‘go in peace’ – are important in Lesotho’s cultural life, greetings found at the country’s border posts, for example. This song indicates that by 1976 Lesotho had a healthy tourist trade and offers a rosy view of the country, emphasising the hospitality as well as the natural beauty of a place often called ‘the mountain kingdom’ or ‘the kingdom in the sky’, because almost half the country covers the highest mountain range in southern Africa, the Maluti (Drakensberg). For Basotho, their country is always associated not only with mountains but also with its founder, Moshoeshoe I, who forged them into a nation in the mid nineteenth century.