Sotho is the name of a group of people who speak similar languages in South Africa, Lesotho, and Botswana. The term BaSotho means black people. North, south, and west Sotho speakers are groups with their own language and cultural characteristics.
The north Sotho have descended from people who settled in the Transvaal in northern South Africa many hundreds of years ago. Most of these people were farmers, but some were skilled ironworkers and traders. Farther south, Sotho speakers settled mainly along the fertile Caledon River and the foothills of the Drakensberg Mountains. Their renowned leader, Moshoeshoe, welded the many clans into the modern state of Lesotho. West of the Witwatersrand area in the Transvaal, Sotho-Tswana speakers lived in large settlements with hereditary headmen. These people were skilled metalworkers.
Wars in the 1800’s scattered Sotho-speaking groups. As a result, related clan and family groups may be found today far from their original settlements.
