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

Coplan (1987) describes famo as nothing but the emotional response of demoralised
African proletarians to a social environment. Current Basotho accordion music is sung
even by those people who run their own businesses, the educated and the uneducated
alike. Although many resort to it for financial reasons, they are not as demoralised as in
those days of the 1950’s. Coplan (1987:23-24) also relates the historical background of
the accordion music though he still attaches it to the Basotho migrant labourers. He
writes:
Once at the mines the poet regales his audience with
hilarious and ironic narrations of the seamier side of urban
life. Especially popular are amorous encounters with
matekatse (camp followers of the Sotho migrant army).
These women are in many ways the counterparts of the
migrants whom it is their profession to entertain.
Stubbornly independent, they compose their own songs of
innocence and experience to the rhythm of famo, songs
played on drums and accordions in the illegal bars of South
Africa… Suffice it to say that in the amorous as well as
poetic contests that spring up in shebeens, the women are
quite often the victors.
As indicated above, Coplan shows that, in shebeens where the accordion music is played,
women, called matekatse, compete with men on lifela and that such women are meant to
entertain male migrant labourers. Though this was to be the case in the past, it is currently
no longer the practice. This music is no longer sung only by migrant labourers, but even
by those who have never been to the mines. As indicated earlier, the setting and the
performance are different from the one described above. The accordion music is not
restricted to shebeens; it is now a famous and popular music where artists entertain the
public in different functions like weddings, graduation ceremonies, national official
functions and festivals. They also hold commercial shows in different halls where the
public has to pay an entrance fee to watch them. The artists nowadays make a living out
of the accordion music. We also find that, in their concerts, there are no matekatse who
sing parallel to males or whose presence is to entertain males. The study deals with the
current well-organized personnel, whose morality during the performance is retained as
they are in business. Organized as they are, we still have young emerging artists, who, for
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