Analysis of the language techniques and thematic - University of the ...

as high rate of unemployment and unreliable economic policies which create insecurity
and instability. This study will also benefit the artists themselves in that the public will
buy more of their music in order to cater for the economic needs of the artists. By so
doing, the public will be contributing towards poverty alleviation in the country.
Academically, this study sensitises the academics about what is entailed in accordion
music, for instance, poetic language and language skills of the Basotho nation. It also
helps students to understand the use and application of different language techniques
when speaking and writing Sesotho. This is because accordion music is enriched with a
variety of language devices. This music focuses on some historical aspects of Lesotho
especially between 1980 and 2005. Therefore, the study conscientises the public about
the didactic role played by the accordion music with regard to historical events of the
Lesotho. It enables people to view this music as one of the genres which preserves the
history of Lesotho.
1.5 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Basotho accordion music is the genre of Basotho songs where they sing lifela in Sesotho,
accompanied by the accordion and the drum as the key instruments. There are two types
of these songs;
The first one is makhele, where the artist and his team sing the chorus together followed
by an individual lifela and end by repeating the chorus. In some cases, the makhele sound
like mangae songs of the initiates.
The second type is masholu, these are the songs where there is no chorus at all, where the
artists and other members of the band sing the lifela in turns, one after the other until the
end of the song. These types of songs were named after one Thabo Lesholu Tšoanelo
Peni, who started his music career in 1969 in the Republic of South Africa. He used to
play accordion for a group of men called Marashea. He became famous to the extent that
the accordion songs, similar to his, became known as masholu in singular it is lesholu.
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