Ke ne ke le meiti (I was a maid)
- Authors: A small group of Sotho women , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Tebang f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162242 , vital:40824 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0106-08
- Description: This song is sung the right before the girls leave the village for their initiation school. "I was a maid to many Europeans. Long ago when I was a girl I tended calves. I had to pay for water, and pay to sleep as well." Lelingoana women's initiation song.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Ei, ei, ei, ngoana oa l-la (Ei, ei, ei, the child cries)
- Authors: Agnes Lekhoti and Nuku Lesoetsa , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Berea f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/160957 , vital:40573 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0101-01
- Description: "Ei, Ei, Ei, the child cries and stops. I went to Mpharane and found my friends child ill. I went out and prayed, then I took a pick and went up the mountain." "The Monakaladi plant of Thabana Morena. If you eat it, you will have cracked feet." Lullaby.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Noh'a Metsi (Water snake)
- Authors: Agnes Nchanyana. 4 assistants and group of women , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Berea f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161222 , vital:40604 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0102-08
- Description: The leader does a shaking dance on her knees as she sings "Water snake! it comes out the east and it is very angry." The singer, in addition to her diviner's beads, shells, bells and small antelope horns, wore a large Catholic rosary with a worn medal of the Sacred heart, knotted into her girdle. Her scarlet skirt was thickly embroidered with designs in white beads. The adoption of Catholic symbols by pagans for their divination rites is common in nominally Catholic countries, especially by Black Africans (originally referred to as Negroes at the time) who use them in their Voodoo ceremonies. Diviners' song with cylindrical drum (-14.03-) and frame drum (-14.92-).
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Kgosi boa-a Kegakilwe bakgosi boa (Chief Kegakilwe, the chieftainship is leaving us)
- Authors: Dintsa Marumolo and about 60 young men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Folk songs, Tswana , Sotho-Tswana languages , Tswana (African people) , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Tshidilamolomo f-lo
- Language: Tswana/Rolong
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162392 , vital:40926 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0107-03
- Description: A most interesting song which may well reflect something of the perplexity of the Tswana who have failed as yet to adjust themselves to the 20th century. "Chief Kegakilwe, the chieftainship is leaving us. Oh, we are afraid of the Europeans. We are afraid of their language. The young men all, all are afraid of the Europeans. Oh! where shall we escape to?" Male initiation song.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Ishetlhana e Tswerwe ke seokamo
- Authors: Dintsa Marumolo and about 60 young men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Folk songs, Tswana , Sotho-Tswana languages , Tswana (African people) , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Tshidilamolomo f-lo
- Language: Tswana/Rolong
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162367 , vital:40924 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0107-01
- Description: The singers had just come back from initiation school. Here they use floor polish instead of the traditional red ochre with which to stain themselves. Several of them looked like Nilo Hamite men from Kenya and some of their songs also suggested the modality of those Northern tribes coincidence perhaps, but noticable. "The brown cow is held, caught and held prisoner and stands there all day. The other cows are also held fast in the same way. The brown yearling, our father's cow, ruled over nations while held flat." The words are allusive and symbolic. Male initiation song performed while in the veld.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
He mmalo khaka tshotsome (We have encircled the guinea-fowl)
- Authors: Dintsa Marumolo and about 60 young men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Folk songs, Tswana , Sotho-Tswana languages , Tswana (African people) , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Tshidilamolomo f-lo
- Language: Tswana/Rolong
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162401 , vital:40927 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0107-04
- Description: "We have encircled the guinea-fowl. We men have encircled the guinea-fowl." Male initiation song.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Tomolang ka diatla (like putting up carrots with your hands)
- Authors: Dintsa Marumolo and about 60 young men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Folk songs, Tswana , Sotho-Tswana languages , Tswana (African people) , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Tshidilamolomo f-lo
- Language: Tswana/Rolong
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162382 , vital:40925 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0107-02
- Description: The singers had just come back from initiation school. Here they use floor polish instead of the traditional red ochre with which to stain themselves. Several of them looked like Nilo Hamite men from Kenya and some of their songs also suggested the modality of those Northern tribes coincidence perhaps, but noticable. The singers were waering tribal attire, skins, carrying sticks and knockberries, had their heads shaved except for a patch in the crwon and were stained red. "It is like pulling up carrots (by hand)! To be a policeman is a battle with your hands! Let us go and do it with our hands." 'Diatla'-hands. The word 'hands' is significant and the meaning of the song plays upon this word. Male initiation song performed while in the veld.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Tau lia rora (Lions roar)
- Authors: Group of 15 Sotho girl initiates , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Mokoroane f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162256 , vital:40827 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0106-09
- Description: The singers sat in a close circle on the ground with one in the middle. The grass or masks decorated with fringes of beads or woollen balls. Patterns were worked in the clay daubed on their legs. The singers made their exit in single file to dance in a circle some distance away. They carried long forked wands. "Far down, Lions are roaring. What are they eating that causes them to roar so? They eat small insects. The owner of the grey horse gallops it towards Taung. The Tembu woman who has run away must be brought back to the place where the women are. The song is finished. The song of your companions." Lelingoana women's initiation song.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Khutsanyana (An orphan)
- Authors: Group of 15 Sotho girls , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Mokoroane f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162286 , vital:40829 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0106-11
- Description: "I want to write to my brother, Lethula, to come and see this cruel act perpetrated on his mother's child who has gone round Kolo (mountain) five times looking for the women's charm. She has seen it today. Women are hard hearted, they will not initiate a decent person. They initiate orphans. An orphan who has lost her mother. Whom death has imbued with courage. Losing one's parent is painful. I should have had an uncle who would have given me a goat to give to the waterman. To please the waterman so that he would return to the water." The "waterman" is a water sprite. Lelingoana women's initiation song with slapping hands on leather skirts.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Lethisa (Uninitiated)
- Authors: Group of 15 Sotho girls , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Mokoroane f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162277 , vital:40828 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0106-10
- Description: The singers were daubed entirely with white clay and were wearing traditional costume, leather skirts. rows of tubular grass girdles or, in some cases, girdles made of short lengths of reed strung together and grass masks shaped like screens. Two or three women wore deep fringes of reed over their leather skirts. "Ho, stop it! Ho, ho, what is that? She wishes to enter the initiation school. She is just a dog." Lelingoana women's initiation song.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Thota peli na Molapo (The rolling downs of Molapo)
- Authors: Group of 20 women , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Berea f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161066 , vital:40588 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0101-08
- Description: The soloist rises in pitch throughout the song. "Rolling downs of Molapo. Mokale and Khethisa are quarreling over the spring at Nkala. Horses are saddled. Who is the mother of the unmarried girl? Giver her a letter, Makamore, the marriage letter. There is a fight at the rolling downs. Horses should be saddled. They are going to Maseru. The worst singer is Raphane's mother. I shouted with a sad voice. I shouted and shook the graves. Women's party song with clapping.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Kunyete (Girls dresses)
- Authors: Jacquot Mokete , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Berea f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161117 , vital:40593 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0101-12
- Description: The player placed an empty condensed milk tin picked up off the ground nearby, over the free end of the harmonica, vibrating it to and from as far as his mouth position would allow, thus producing not only greater resonance to his own ear but a vibrato as well. Self delectative song, with harmonica.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Sutha tseleng (Get out of the way)
- Authors: Jacquot Mokete , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Berea f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161104 , vital:40592 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0101-11
- Description: "Get out of the way. Don't be frightened by gossip, girls, gossip is always a storm in a village. Don't change your abode just because somebody says he loves you. You will find people like that wherever you go. A woman is a dog for whom everybody wants to die." The last line seems to mean that just as an owner is ready to die for his dog should anyone molest it, so a man is ready to die for a woman should she be attacked. The player placed an empty condensed milk tin picked up off the ground nearby, over the free end of the harmonica, vibrating it to and from as far as his mouth position would allow, thus producing not only greater resonance to his own ear but a vibrato as well. Self delectative song, with harmonica.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Lithoko tsa hae (Praise for himself)
- Authors: James Mofokeng , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Berea f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161204 , vital:40602 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0102-06
- Description: These praises were personal and referred to the speaker and opened the divining procedure which follwed. The small group of diviners was composed of a man and two women all wearing theri traditional diviners costume and beads. The older woman wore a skin cap, the younger one's long dress was of cloth treated with red ochre and lightly embroidered and decorated with white beads. Praise song.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Ba tsetse ka likepe
- Authors: Jane Mosese and large group of men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Maseru f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162115 , vital:40760 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0105-10
- Description: "When you want to marry, choose a wife for yourself. Don't blame anybody for choosing one for you. They refuse to cross the Vaal river." Mohobelo dance song with stamping of feet.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Seolhla (song)
- Authors: Jane Mosese and large group of men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Maseru f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162101 , vital:40759 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0105-09
- Description: "Seolhla" is another way of saying "song". It may also be the name of a person as in this song. "Seolhla has left us. Those men on the way to Matsieng have left us behind. Seolhla is riding. If I eat food I will die and leave them to thie love. These wicked people." Mohobelo dance song with stamping of feet.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Litsoanya II (A nice song)
- Authors: Julius Mochekoana and Leboea March , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Berea f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161091 , vital:40590 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0101-10
- Description: This is herdboys' music and the accompanying noises are the kind made by herdsmen to their cattle. Self delectative song with Lesiba stick zither.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Litsoanya I (A nice song)
- Authors: Julius Mochekoana and Leboea March , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Berea f-lo
- Language: Sotho
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/161086 , vital:40589 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0101-09
- Description: This is herdboys' music and the accompanying noises are the kind made by herdsmen to their cattle. Self delectative song with Lesiba stick zither.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Ko gae, gae, ko gae (At home, home, at home)
- Authors: Large group of about 60 young men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Folk songs, Tswana , Sotho-Tswana languages , Tswana (African people) , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Tshidilamolomo f-lo
- Language: Tswana/Rolong
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162419 , vital:40929 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0107-06
- Description: On this occasion, the ululating of the women and the general festive air was enhanced because of the singers being freshly returned from their initiation school. "At home, home, at home. That which eats the men's cattle, the animal. That which eats the men's sheep. That which eats the men's horses. It has a portruding forehead, the animal. It has an odd furrowed brow, the animal, and it has claws." Male initiation song.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959
Serago ko gae ngwania maphokoje (Serago, at home, the child of the female jackal
- Authors: Large group of about 60 young men , Hugh Tracey
- Date: 1959
- Subjects: Folk songs, Sotho , Folk songs, Tswana , Sotho-Tswana languages , Tswana (African people) , Sotho (African people) , Folk music , Field recordings , Africa, Sub-Saharan , Africa Lesotho Tshidilamolomo f-lo
- Language: Tswana/Rolong
- Type: sound recordings , field recordings , sound recording-musical
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/162410 , vital:40928 , International Library of African Music, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa , TR0107-05
- Description: On this occasion, the ululating of the women and the general festive air was enhanced because of the singers being freshly returned from their initiation school. "Serago, at home child of the (female) jackal. The shoe, at home, child of the jackal let us go home! Because we have died and vanished, never to return. The sound of the gun was heard in the hills and the gun that was shooting was the Europeans's." Male initiation song.
- Full Text: false
- Date Issued: 1959