the Ndebele, fled northward from the highveld and eventually founded a
kingdom in modern Zambia. In mountainous territory northwest of the
Zulu, meanwhile, an Nguni chief named Sobhuza, who had been driven
out of land near the Pongola River by Zwide's Ndwandwe, absorbed sev-
eral Sotho as well as Nguni communities and created a durable kingdom
that became known as Swaziland after Sobhuza's son and heir, Mswati."?
Perhaps the most significant of the new states was Lesotho. Its leader
was Moshoeshoe, the senior son of a Sotho village headman, who gathered
the survivors of the wars in the Caledon River valley. Besides Sotho, who
had belonged to numerous different chiefdoms before the invasions began,
they included people who had arrived in the area as members of invading
Nguni bands. From headquarters
on a flat-topped mesalike mountain
named Thaba Bosiu, the Basotho warriers warded offattacks by a series of
aggressors, including an Ndebele impi and Griqua raiders,
Lesotho differed fundamentally
from the Zulu 'kingdom. It was the
scene of postwar reconstruction on pacific rather than coercive principles.
Although Moshoeshoe placed his sons and other relatives over chiefs of
other lineages, he never created a standing army, he remained on easy,