It is an album that will leave you hypnotized! That is in the true sense of the word. In it, you will come to grips with some of the greatest voices of our times, weaved into a repertoire by the National University of Lesotho (NUL) lecturer, Mr Mape Mohlomi.
University, they say, should be a place that abounds with possibilities. Therein, you are not modeled by the realities of the world around you. Instead, you model them.
Perhaps at no place does this reality adopt its truest form, than at the National university of Lesotho.
Take the case of Mr Mape, a lecturer in the area of languages. He is not your normal “I’m content with what I do” type. No! Even though he enjoys his teaching, he would like to weave the very languages he teaches about into music!
About a year ago, this page introduced you to Mr Mape and his amazing music. The bold title was: “The Legend is Born.” We are happy to say, he is living up to the depiction! You will know it!
Now, allow us to serve as self-appointed tour guides into his new album. After this, there will be only one thing left— go get one— the album!
In a calculated break with custom, we meet his album, neither in the beginning nor in the end. Rather we cut it through the middle and an amazing song, Thaba-Ts’oeu, emerges. It is song number 5.
It is a song that is comfortably based on Basotho classic, “ke ratile ngoan’e motle lichabeng, seponono se likoti marameng.” Before you dismiss it as nothing out of the ordinary, wait a minute... and listen to this!!
“For one to take an ordinary song which we all know, and turn into it something that edges the extraordinary, is nothing short of a miracle,” said one fan that happened to dance to this song as Mr Mape unveiled it in one event at the NUL (many NUL ladies will tell you what we are talking about).
Mape is the first to admit that Thaba-Ts’oeu is not his invention. But he did invent something; the experience that led into this song being carved into the music folder.
From the horse’s mouth, “I met my wife, not in Thaba-Ts’oeu, but in Thaba-Tseka. However, to bring my experience with her into life, I wanted to blend it into a song that is already known by many Basotho, Thaba-Ts’oeu, whilst giving it my own flavor.”
“Without telling her, and after making a thorough research, I visited her place in her remote village in Mohale’s Hoek, the act that would bring our relationship into new heights,” he related.
“When I got close to the village, a stranger showed me her home. In a minute, I was wondering, what should I do? I saw a young boy and I sent him to tell my then future wife to come and see me.”
The reader who knows a thing or two about Thaba-Ts’oeu the song, will now know why Mape’s experience blends well with the song, “Heela Ngoan’a Moshanyanaaa, Tloooo Koaano ke u Romee....”
As the NUL women celebrated women’s month, Mape played this song for them and he threw the audience into a hypnotized trance-like state of existence. When the song was over, many of them were reeling. No wonder they voted it the “Title Track.” “I didn’t make this choice myself,” Mape revealed.
There is more to the album. It entertains, it schools, it comforts and it soothes. How is that even possible in one album? “It is an Afro-Jazz album that borrows from different music streams and blends them into unity,” he said.
The songs number 1 and 7 borrow from Afro-Pop and are meant to appeal to the youths. They bring into life, different dance names that have captured the youth over the decades. Think of the likes of toalatsa, nae-nae, tsipa-tsipa and who still remembers “get down”?
The idea, according to Mape, is to lure the youths into Afro-Jazz by appealing to the things they are passionate about in this music.
But the song number 1 has other offerings. It says “jaefa stotla,” the “tsotsi or slang” meaning “dance the fat one.” “Fat people are not known to be good at dancing,” he revealed the motivation. “Not my sister! She is both fat and a good dancer; she dances like there is no tomorrow.”
“When I thought about my sister, it occurred to me that dancing is not about body size but the confidence! That is the message of the song!”
Song number 10 will surely help you close the year in style. It balances jazz with traditional Sesotho music, famo, full with accordion “k’horiana”. The song is called “’Mankokosane.” It is, simply put, an amazing song!
Many of you, readers, probably remember the lyrics of the song you used to sing when you were young and it was raining,’ ‘Mankokosane, pula ea na, re tla hola neng?”
Nevertheless, buried within this extraordinary song, is a grave message. Basotho, when will we stop playing “’Mankokosane” as a nation?
“Re tla hola neng?”
“When will we grow up?”
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