Clad in gay robes and conical straw hats, hard-riding Basuto tribesmen last week poured into their hilltop capital of Maseru. The joyous occasion: the royal marriage in the Roman Catholic cathedral of Our Lady of Victories between a serene young student named Tabitha Masentle Mojela and Basutoland's Paramount Chief, Oxford-educated Constantine Bereng Seeiso Moshoeshoe II, who ascended the throne of the British protectorate in 1960 after a tough fight with his stepmother, who had acted as regent for 20 years.
The jubilant tribesmen hailed the bride and groom with the traditional whinny—an...