Northern Sotho Home click to enlarge

The Sotho

Who Are YOU Looking At? click to enlarge

The Sotho (pronounced "SOO too") or BaSotho are one of South Africa's most independent ethnic groups.  The 2.5 million of these Bantu speakers are located in two main areas: the Northern Sotho are found primarily in South Africa's Limpopo Province, north of Johannesburg.  The Southern Sotho reside in the independent Kingdom of Lesotho (in the Drakensberg Mountains).

Sotho history in South Africa begins in/around 200 AD, when the first Bantu speakers arrived.  These tall agriculturalists boasted large herds of domesticated livestock and mastery of iron.  As the Bantu spread around South Africa, they settled in areas inhabited by Khoisan peoples-- South Africa's first inhabitants.  While some Bantu tribes forced the Khoisan from their lands, many more absorbed the Khoisan people into their own clans.  Thus, they formed unique entities--cultural blends of two distinct societies.  By the 1400s,  small kingdoms evolved into the Northern and Southern divisions of the Sotho people.  Within each division are dozens of small clans (or chiefdoms), but we will concentrate on the largest of each group:

    
Traditional Crafts from the Bakone
Malapa Northern Sotho Museum

For more information, follow these links:

Kingdom of Lesotho