The civil rights organisation AfriForum and the Basotho Lead-Petitioners (BLP) discussed the restoration of friendly relations between Afrikaners and the Basotho at a meeting in Hlotse, Lesotho on 17\u00a0January\u00a02020. A decision was made to draft a memorandum of understanding to establish a framework for recognition and future cooperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe came to the conclusion that we do not have to start from scratch, we need only restore the friendly relations that existed in the past. The Basotho gave lodging to the Afrikaners that fled to Lesotho during the Anglo Boer War,\u201d says Mpho Serobanyane, National Coordinator of the BLP.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cThere is no need to start a new friendship between the Basotho and Afrikaners, as the great King Moshoeshoe\u00a0I accepted the Afrikaners and treated them as his own sons,\u201d says Morena<\/em> Fetohang Letsoela, a historian and descendant of one of the military leaders of King Moshoeshoe I.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cAfriForum believes that communities have the choice to cooperate on matters where agreement exists. It is a choice not to get stuck at points of disagreement. Mutual recognition and respect is crucial for the peaceful co-existence of all communities in Southern Africa,\u201d says Barend Uys, Spokesperson for Intercultural Cooperation at AfriForum.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Although the period of 1858\u20131868 was a time of tense relationships between the Basotho and the Afrikaners of the Free Sate, the relationships improved over time. Afrikaners in the Free State assisted the Basotho that fled Lesotho during the time of the Basotho Civil War of 1880\u20131881.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am overwhelmed by this initiative of AfriForum and the BLP,\u201d says Morena<\/em> Khetisa Tau.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The civil rights organisation AfriForum and the Basotho Lead-Petitioners (BLP) discussed the restoration of friendly relations between Afrikaners and the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":8160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_kad_post_transparent":"","_kad_post_title":"","_kad_post_layout":"","_kad_post_sidebar_id":"","_kad_post_content_style":"","_kad_post_vertical_padding":"","_kad_post_feature":"","_kad_post_feature_position":"","_kad_post_header":false,"_kad_post_footer":false,"_kad_post_classname":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11190,11162,11184],"tags":[7148,67,6359,6360,6361],"class_list":["post-19564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-intercultural-cooperation","category-media-statements","category-research-media-statements","tag-afriforum","tag-afrikaners","tag-basotho-lead-petitioners","tag-blp","tag-lesotho"],"taxonomy_info":{"category":[{"value":11190,"label":"Intercultural cooperation"},{"value":11162,"label":"Media statements"},{"value":11184,"label":"Research Media statements"}],"post_tag":[{"value":7148,"label":"AfriForum"},{"value":67,"label":"Afrikaners"},{"value":6359,"label":"Basotho Lead-Petitioners"},{"value":6360,"label":"BLP"},{"value":6361,"label":"Lesotho"}]},"featured_image_src_large":["https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/REsizePersoneellede-van-AfriForum-en-die-Basotho-Lead-Petitioners-1024x502.jpg",1024,502,true],"author_info":{"display_name":"","author_link":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/author\/"},"comment_info":0,"category_info":[{"term_id":11190,"name":"Intercultural cooperation","slug":"intercultural-cooperation","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":11190,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":11162,"count":116,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":11190,"category_count":116,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Intercultural cooperation","category_nicename":"intercultural-cooperation","category_parent":11162},{"term_id":11162,"name":"Media statements","slug":"media-statements","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":11162,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":2588,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":11162,"category_count":2588,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Media statements","category_nicename":"media-statements","category_parent":0},{"term_id":11184,"name":"Research Media statements","slug":"research-media-statements","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":11184,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":11162,"count":17,"filter":"raw","cat_ID":11184,"category_count":17,"category_description":"","cat_name":"Research Media statements","category_nicename":"research-media-statements","category_parent":11162}],"tag_info":[{"term_id":7148,"name":"AfriForum","slug":"afriforum","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":7148,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":3115,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":67,"name":"Afrikaners","slug":"afrikaners","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":67,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":29,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":6359,"name":"Basotho Lead-Petitioners","slug":"basotho-lead-petitioners","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":6359,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":6360,"name":"BLP","slug":"blp","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":6360,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"},{"term_id":6361,"name":"Lesotho","slug":"lesotho","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":6361,"taxonomy":"post_tag","description":"","parent":0,"count":2,"filter":"raw"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26477,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19564\/revisions\/26477"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}