Sefela sa Mokone Matabola: The composition of a taped performance

Abstract

Research on the Difela (chants of Basotho migrant workers) during the 1980s shows a global approach in that it describes the genre in terms of its overhead properties. Here it is argued that the time has come for the description of individual chants, which could add to our insight in the compositional skills of individual poets and which could lead to a taxonomy of types. Mokone Matabola's two-minute chant is viewed from a segmental (or textual) and suprasegmental (or melodic) level. The two levels are then compared in terms of their significance to the oral style, generic type, and the commitment of verbal art to the portrayal and digestion of the human predicament, both literary and social.