Mafeteng

‘Mafeteng’, a straightforward school song celebrating a place in Lesotho, was first published in 1939. Mohapeloa wrote several songs about place: other ones being ‘Morija’, ‘Maseru’, ‘TY (Teyateyaneng)’, ‘Leribe’, and Qacha’s Nek’. What he seems to have had in mind was giving each town or district of the small country of Lesotho ‘their’ song, so that Basotho could feel that their part of the country was important. In this way, songs like these must have helped to contribute towards nation building during the 1930s, and maybe they also inspired other composers to write songs about villages, towns, rivers, famous people, landmarks, and historical events, in southern Africa.