Ma-tsoa-Gaudeng

‘Gaudeng’ – literally, ‘place of gold’ on the South African Witwatersrand – was where many Basotho miners worked, going back home to Lesotho only occasionally to visit their families. The journey home by train ‘Ma-tsoa-Gaudeng’ (Returning to Gauteng)  took almost two days, and was followed by a long journey by bus or on foot to sometimes remote areas in the interior of Lesotho, an especially harsh journey in winter when the sun sets early behind the mountains. During the course of these cross-country travels many dangers could befall, as the song relates. The perils of being in the veld at night were not only from cold and wild animals but also from criminals preying on exhausted workers , who were bringing money and goods home for their impoverished families.