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Much has been written on the last war in Malta. However, very little, if anything, is known about the Basotho people’s contribution. Their impression on the Maltese population lives on in the colloquial term ‘ ’, which is also derogatory for an ugly or disfigured person.

Their only legacy is a supposed eccentricity in bodily ornamentation and habits, and perhaps Leslie Cole’s painting of Basutos sorting mail. The Basotho Coys (companies) in Malta were part of the African Auxiliary Pioneer Corps (AAPC). After the fall of France, Britain looked to its colonies to bring up the numbers it needed.



It found such manpower in its trusted human reserves of India and Africa, specifically from Mauritius, Bechuanaland and Basutoland (modern-day Lesotho). Thousands of Africans would be trained in chemical warfare, musketry and parade drill to serve (among other places) in Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Italy and Malta. The colonial and local perception of the Basotho was always misconstrued.

One can point at the fact that the British mispronounced and misspelt the correct title in Sesotho (a Bantu language) – ‘Basotho’, and adopted the corrupted version ‘Basuto’, an attempted direct translation of the correct pronunciation ‘Basutu’, which the Maltese further fashioned into ‘ ’ or ‘ ’. As Malta went from defence to offence, it hurriedly readied itself to assist the large invasion force assembling for Sicily. In March of 1943, on April 12, 1921 and 1923, Coys disem.

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