Guest Post by Zachary Rosen
Perched high above South Africa, Lesotho usually does not receive much international media attention. The little coverage it does garner often assumes readers are completely ignorant and takes great pains to emphasize dismal statistics about rates of HIV/AIDS and poverty. Of course since the last time you heard a story about Lesotho, you’ve surely forgotten how dire it is and must be reminded. In embodying banal, perfunctory reporting, some articles about Lesotho have tried to draw readers in by focusing on the recent visit to the country by the illustrious Archbishop Desmond Tutu, while others have stressed the risk of political violence during and after today’s elections. The Economist deserves special recognition for going to print with the wrong name for the political party of the incumbent Prime Minister. Kind of makes you question their expertise in intelligence. Overall, few articles have attempted to move beyond superficialities and actually delve into the complexities of the local political atmosphere and the implications of the election outcome.
Lesotho votes today
My favorite photographs N°1: Zachary Rosen
Katse Kombi
We’re starting a new weekly series today. We ask photographers who make portraits of African subjects to introduce us to their work. Basically they pick their five favorite photographs, describe the subject matter, what brought them to the image and what kind of mood they were trying to capture. Our first guest is Zachary Rosen, an American documentary photographer who has worked in The Gambia and Lesotho as a Peace Corps Volunteer. His photos live at zacharyrosen.com and he blogs (occasionally) here.
How to celebrate International Women’s Day
March 8, 2012. It’s International Women’s Day, and so how to celebrate? Over the weekend, The Independent on Sunday ran a piece entitled, “Revealed: The best and worst places to be a woman.” 20 categories of “surprising results”. Here’s one you might find interesting: Best place to read and write: Lesotho. [Read more...]
Sending South African miners home to die
Epidemiologist Jonathan Smith is working to complete a documentary called ”They Go to Die,” about the lives of four former mineworkers that were sent home from the mine after contracting TB and HIV in the South African gold mines. The men–like thousands of men each year–are affected by a process known as ‘sending them home to die’ that occurs in the South Africa mining industry, where migrant men who become sick with TB are sent home with little or no continuation of care, follow up, or chemotherapy (despite the fact that medical care is available on the mine premises).
‘See me on television’ (in Lesotho)
From Maputsoe, Lesotho comes a new video for Kommanda Obbs’s ‘Hona Joale’, recorded in the city of Maseru and on the Thaba Bosiu sandstone plateau (where the previous–under the rule of King Moshoeshoe in the nineteenth century–capital used to be). The chorus goes something like this: “I have been broke for a long time, standing on the corner, shooting dice. Right now I’m on form, I’m everywhere. See me on television…”
H/T (and translation): Ts’eliso
Lesotho’s Independence Day
When I was growing up, Independence Day was quite a big deal in and around Maseru, Lesotho. Besides it being a public holiday, it carried with it the promise of festivities which usually occurred at our national stadium. A lot has changed since then, and some would claim for the worse. But instead of writing about another factory workers’ strike, yet another double-digit salary hike for ministers, or a former convict being appointed to public office, I would rather focus on other things — like music for instance. Music is central to our existence as Basotho, and even though we too are victims of the usual cacophony of western sounds dominating our airwaves (with a dip of Kwaito and house, courtesy of our South African neighbours), there are genres which have managed to fare well commercially. Below is a collection of videos sourced from youtube. Some of them are quite dated — our artists seem not to hold Internet presence in high regard at all.
Sankomota’s ‘Stop the war’. Arguably still the best musical export from Lesotho by far, even though most of the members are no more:
Music Break / Kommanda Obbs
It was Core Wreckah who first put us on to Lesotho rapper Kommanda Obbs a while ago. Asked for some background about this video, Kommanda tells us that “Ts’epe was shot in the mountainous villages of Bela Bela and Maputsoe in Lesotho. The aim of the song is to instil confidence in youth so that they embrace their cultures while learning about other cultures. The video introduces the album, the movement and the official Sesotho version of hip-hop. ‘Ts’epe’, which could be translated literally as ‘iron’, is used figuratively in this context as hard-hitting lyricism. The radio dj’s in Lesotho and certain parts of South Africa are really supportive. The video is currently playing on Lesotho TV.” We can see why.
Sesotho Cipher
Before moving down from Maseru to Cape Town in 2008 and exploring the Cape’s hip hop scene, Core Wreckah was already heavily involved in Lesotho’s capital hip hop scene. When we saw him plugging his new song ‘Reverb’ here and there on the web, we thought it a good moment to throw him 5 questions about what both scenes have in common, and what sets them apart. But more about that plugging after the song:
Konfab’s Lost Tapes
Pioneer Unit’s on fire. Yet another release by the Cape Town label, this time a collection of ‘lost tapes’ by Lesotho-born musician Konfab, who describes himself as a “presently disadvantaged, previously dissed and damaged, seriously pissed-off, with anger mismanaged, half-foreign, urbanised darkie.” This is one of the featuring collaborations (with AIAC favourite JAAK):
(Picture by Ann-Sophie Leens.)
Sesotho Rap
I just discovered Core Wrecka, above, one half of the Maseru, Lesotho rap duo, Corporate Nemesis. These guys have been going since 2001 (read their blog). Late last year Core Wrecka released the song “Yesterday” (link below). They describe their music as “… not Sesotho funk. This is not mountain pop. This is hardcore hip-hop delivered with a gutteral growl akin to the style which has been perfected by the long-standing tradition of Basotho freestyle rappers (liroki), and replete with call-and-response chants which have become a staple of Basotho music.”
