The King Moshoeshoe I Memorial Lecture

• Author: Nqosa L. Mahao
• DOI: 10.10520/EJC177120
• Pages: 1-14
• Date: 01 January 2015
• Published date: 01 January 2015

THE KING MOSHOESHOE I MEMORIAL

LECTURE

1

Prof Nqosa L Mahao*

INTRODUCTION

When I was approached with the request to give the 2014

Moshoeshoe Lecture, I thought it a daunting task in light of the

historic stature of the person around whom the convention is built.

The enormous privilege of standing in front of so esteemed an

audience is by itself humbling, if also a little intimidating.

The Moshoeshoe Lecture is now a well- established institution and

this is not without good cause. Together with the array of festives

and ceremonies that shall be hosted tomorrow, it provides a

moment by which the nation pauses for reflection: to take stock,

search its soul and appraise the wellbeing of the national question

in the light of the Covenant that founded us as a distinct cultural

community in this corner of the world. I cannot recall if I was

mandated to speak to particular traits in King Moshoeshoe’s

illustrious career. For this reason I have exercised the liberty to

select themes in that career that I deem more worthy of

highlighting.

2

I trust that by so doing I will not bore some in the

audience.

1. ARCHITECT OF INCLUSIVE NATIONAL BUILDING

If there is any nation built around clearly determinable principles,

the Basotho nation is one. The name of King Moshoeshoe is

remembered in history for the genius of laying not only the

foundations but the entire architecture that constituted the nation.

* Vice Chancellor, National University of Lesotho.

1

Presented at the Royal Palace, Maseru on the 10th March, 2014.

2

This paper draws substantially from my inaugural lecture as Professor of Law at

the University of South Africa delivered in 2010 published under the title “O se re

ho morwa ‘morwa towe! African jurisprudence exhumed.”in The Comparative and

International Law Journal of Southern Africa, Vol. XLIII, No 3, November 2010, pp.

317-336.