The music of Lesotho is highly influenced by the
music of surrounding countries and plays an important part of their culture. Some
of the traditional instruments that you can hear in their music include the
lekolulo, a type of flute that is typically played by young boys who tend to
the herds. The setolo-tolo is a type of jaw harp often played by men. The stringed
thomo is a string instrument usually played by women.
Vocal music is especially popular among the Basotho
people. Choirs often perform and groups of men and women sing on a number of
occasions. Churches are also a common place where choirs and vocal groups
gather to perform church songs that are sung in Sesotho.
As far as I can tell, dancing is generally divided
by the sexes: men’s dances and women’s dances. I didn’t find any mention of
mixed dances. Dances are typically performed as part of life event and
community ceremonies: harvest, births, marriages, deaths, Christmas, etc. One
of the men’s dances is called mohobelo and features the stamping of feet. The
women’s dance is called mokhibo and is danced from a kneeling position while
moving the shoulders and arms.
Famo is a Lesothan style of music that features the
accordion and a type of oil-can drum. One of the most famous famo musicians is
Mosotho Chakela. Because of Lesotho’s proximity to South Africa, many of the
styles of music that are popular there are also popular in Lesotho. Musical
styles such as reggae, kwaito, jazz, and AfroPop are often heard on the radio.
Every year, the Morija Arts & Cultural Festival
takes place in the Morija area of Maseru. The festival began in 1999 and is now
broken up into two parts that runs for several days: one in April and the other
in October. One part of the festival covers drama, traditional dancing, and
poetry while the other part covers artistic and performance groups and concerts
of all musical styles that features not only Lesothan musicians but musicians
from other (southern) African countries as well.
There weren’t that many artists available on
Spotify. But I did find a couple (and some along the way). I did manage to find
a few songs that included jazz musician Bhudaza. The songs I found were ones where
he was a featured performer.
I did find an album by Famole, which proved to be a
really good example of famo music. I actually really like the accordion, so I
was happy to listen to this. I thought many of the songs were pretty catchy. I
enjoyed it.
I did find many Lesothan hip-hop videos on YouTube,
including artists such as Mapanaki, MoNitta, Kommanda Obbs, Missy, ValidEntry
(which is more R&B), Turk, and a number of other videos I came across doing
a simple search. Many of the videos I sampled through show that their style
(flow, instrumentals, lyric topics, etc.) seems to follow the American style of
hip-hop. There were several rappers I listened to who rapped in English but
there were several in Sesotho as well. Of all the ones I listened to, I was
probably drawn to Kommanda Obbs the most. There was something about his melody
lines and flow that paired well with the instrumentals behind it.
Unfortunately, it’s really hard to find an actual album available. Spotify only
had the one song that’s available on iTunes. Maybe more will be released later.
I waited nearly a year before the Bangaledeshi rock band Arbovirus had an album
released through iTunes. Now they have two. So, I will wait.
Up next: the food
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