The Sotho () people, also known as the Basuto or Basotho (), are a Bantu nation native to southern Africa. Basothos have inhabited the region of Lesotho, South Africa since around the fifth century CE. They have split into different clans over time, as result of mfecane and colonialism. There are 4 Basotho groupings in Southern Africa viz Eastern basotho and North Sotho. The Southern Basothos found themselves divided by colonialism into half, one group in South Africa and the other in Lesotho. The British and the Boers, [Dutch descendants] colonized parts of the basotho land through scramble for Africa. This led to the formation of Lesotho in the 1869 Convention of Aliwal North following the conflict over land between Moshoeshoe and the Dutch descendants.

The Southern Basotho of Lesotho's identity emerged from the creation of Lesotho after the Boers defeated Moshoeshoe I, in the Third Basotho War in 1868 which led the British to give him a small piece of land, the current Lesotho when he asked for their protection against the Boers and he lost the rest of his land, the British gave it to the Boers who put a border around that violently stolen land, dividing Southern Basothos and they turned their side into their country they named it Orange Free State . Most Southern Basotho today live in Lesotho or in the Free State which later became a province of South Africa after the Boers lost the war against the British, the British a annexed Free State and turned it into a province. Some of the Southern Basothos who were not part of Moshoeshoe's kingdom when he united some of those Southern Basotho clans who make the modern Lesotho and Free State are living in Vaal and some are found in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape