About two years ago I spent a couple of days in Niamey, the capital city of Niger where I spoke at a workshop on African languages and the cyberspace organised by the African Union’s Academy of African Languages. While in Niger, I was pleasantly surprised one morning during breakfast at the Hotel Univers to see on one of the francophone television stations, a music video by our local group Machesa. It was a video of the song Tshipi; Tshipi di kwa tlase ga majwe nnana wee…lo kile lwa se bona kae nnana wee….mosadi a nyala monna cheri wee?
I was shocked to see this video played in that part of the world especially that Machesa is not as big in the international stage as the other groups from southern Africa such as Hugh Masekela, Ringo or Stimela. As they did their phatlhisi dance, I could not help but smile for it is always heart warming to see part of your culture on an international stage especially when you are far away from home. It then hit me that this video that I was watching has now been seen and loved by millions of people, many of whom don’t understand its lyrics. Indeed that is the nature of music. Listeners are able to appreciate a piece of music even when they have no clue what any of its words are saying. Sometimes a listener needs to know what a few of the words mean and that is sufficient for them to appreciate the entire song.
For instance, Miriam Makeba’s song Malaika no ku penda malaika is well known to mean my angel, I love you my angel. However, this is not the only line in the song. The song comprises more lines in Swahili which don’t hinder us from appreciating the entire music. Makeba also sings the famous song: phathaphatha as well as The click song which for many years have set the African, American and European stages alight. In Botswana, we have for many years loved the music of Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Brenda Fassie, Yvonne Chakachaka, TKZee, Hugh Masekela and more recently Zahara’s famous uLoliwe which though we love, we largely don’t understand its lyrics! Machesa is therefore unique and appeals to the local and international stage because the music captures something of the culture of Botswana in a local language.
There is therefore need to encourage local artists to learn an intriguing pattern about music. A foreign audience prefers to hear music in your own language while a local audience prefers music in its own language. What this translates to is musicians must understand that their albums will sell more in Botswana if the music is in Setswana, or any local language for that matter, while the albums will sell to an internationally market if the music is in Setswana as well. This obviously is shocking since most local artists claim that the reason why they sing in English it is to reach an international market. Unfortunately many of them have no international market to speak of. Actually any local artist whose music is widely distributed in South Africa can claim to be successful. Many however cannot claim such an achievement. Many of our artists are only known in their villages and other smaller surrounding villages. Successful ones are known nationally. We are yet to have an artist with a solid international following.
This is largely because most of our artists don’t tour and perform internationally and also they do not collaborate with well known international artists. They therefore lack an international appeal. Returning to the subject of language; it is the traditional troupes which have delivered their music in Setswana that have been rewarded financially for it. They receive greater airplay on radio, including on South African radio stations such as Motsweding FM. Those on the rap seen have generally stayed with English, with devastating consequences. Though they appear cool to their younger audiences, their songs haven’t received much airplay and their music hasn’t attracted much financial reward.
You just have to listen to Euri’s song My music. He says “And forgive me if I don’t find it funny that we starving. This rap shit in Botswana [is] like a charity or something. And we walk around feeling all so fly while traditional dance niggers getting pie…”And here is another thing that turns away audiences and deejays from some of these rap artists; it is the insults and curses found in their music almost as if the Hip-Hop art form is synonymous with insults, curses and violence.
However, anytime a rap artists has mixed their music with a local language they have received airplay and popularity. This is something that is now commonly known as Motswako, a music style which has been popularized by mainly Tswana Hip-Hop artists such as HHP. Also, consider Euri’s song which made him popular.
It is not the amazing song New Africa, actually many don’t know it. It is his song Machonisa and the song O leka Modima which features the Mafikeng artist Notshi. Another artist who basked in some popularity for a while because of his motswako is the artist VS who sings O icheke which became a rallying clarion call against the HIV/Aids fight. VS’s language use in the song is rich Setswana comprising idiomatical expression as well as the language’s wealth of proverbs. The music of Kgotla, KayZee, Sereetsi and the Natives and Thabang is what we want. Duncan Senyatso will also remain timeless in part because of his language use. This is the future of Botswana music for those local artists who wish to succeed. Instead of local artists trying to be American; they must be local and use local languages, sometimes with some English codeswitching. They will sell and their music will endure.
