Lesotho, Tsiketsi sa Tlotla ea Afrika

Mohapeloa must have composed ‘Lesotho, Tsiketsi sa Tlotla ea Afrika’ before October 1966 because verse 1 first was sung on 4 October 1966 at Lesotho’s Independence Day celebrations and appeared in print in the souvenir programme. At its first performance, writes an anonymous author in the Maseru (Lesotho) newspaper The Echo on 5 October 1973, Lesotho, Tsiketsi sa Tlotla ea Afrika “was sung at 1 minute past twelve in the morning on October 4th, while the Union Jack was being lowered and the Lesotho Flag raised at the Pitso Ground”. It was republished with an additional verse in Cape Town in 1976 as song No. 5 of 25 in Meluluetsa ea Ntšetso-pele le Bosechaba Lesotho (Anthems for the Development of the Lesotho Nation). Mohapeloa surely intended this rousing song to be taken up as the new national anthem of Lesotho, but for some strange reason it did not replace the colonial anthem, ‘Lesotho Fatše La Rōna’ (Our Country Lesotho), which remains Lesotho’s national anthem.