Ha Lesa Mamele Bo Me HoTla Fela Ke Malem

"If You do not listen to Women, We will lose patience with You". This translation of the native Sotho language (blogpost title), can be the introduction to the presentation of the Lesotho Flag. The Sotho language is one of the 250 Bantu languages spoken all over the southern part of Africa.

The current national flag of Lesotho, adopted on October 4, 2006, features a horizontal blue, white, and green tricolour with a black mokorotlo (a Basotho hat) in the center. The design was introduced to honour the 40th anniversary of independence.
 I got my first visitor from Lesoto on January 26th this year and are now up in 160 flags. May be it is my daughters second cousin Stine, presently doing her Master in the South Africa areas, who has been the visitor, or maybe someone else.

The Kingdom of Lesotho, is a landlocked country and enclave, entirely surrounded by the Republic of South Africa. It is just over 30,000 km2 (11,583 sq mi) in size with a population of approximately 2,067,000. Its capital and largest city is Maseru. Lesotho is the only independent state in the world that lies entirely above 1,400 metres (4,593 ft) in elevation. Its lowest point of 1,400 metres (4,593 ft) is thus the highest in the world. Over 80% of the country lies above 1,800 metres (5,906 ft).

Because of its altitude, Lesotho remains cooler throughout the year than other regions at the same latitude. Most of the rain falls as summer thunderstorms. Maseru and surrounding lowlands often reach 30 °C (86 °F) in summer. Winters can be cold with the lowlands getting down to −7 °C (19.4 °F) and the highlands to −18 °C (−0 °F) at times. Snow is common in the highlands between May and September; the higher peaks can experience snowfalls year-round.

With this 160th country visiting my site, there is only 32 more to go to have all the United Nation Flags on my record.