Nonyana Se-nya-mafi

This is a haunting, stirring song, which Mohapeloa first published ‘Nonyana Se-nya-mafi’ in 1947. It would have been useful to have Mohapeloa’s translation of the text, for it is clearly based on a folksong. He adapted this text to a modern musical setting which has strong traditional elements, in the call-and-reponse writing, for example. J.S.M. Khumalo notes, in the introduction to a transcription of the song published in 2008, “Mohapeloa here presents an element of folk-culture in a mock-naïve artistic setting”, pointing out the “characteristic dialogue style” of a narrative text based on “the African story-telling tradition”. He suggests that the dialogue is between children who have wandered far from home and a miraculous bird that has lured them away with its “tempting pap” (African porridge made from cornmeal), until eventually they return home and are “re-united – duly chastened – with their parents, who had given them up for lost”.