Chuchumakhala

Train journeys were of great significance for anyone from Lesotho, a small independent kingdom dependent on South Africa economically. By the 1930s, when ‘Chuchumakhala’ was written, much of its economy was derived from migrant labour working on the mines around Johannesburg, and Mohapeloa himself must have experienced the long train journey from Maseru to Johannesburg during his years living on ‘the Reef’. He also experienced the music the Reef had to offer, including musicians such as Griffiths Motsieloa. The jazz influence in ‘Chuchumakhala’ was probably why it was one of the songs arranged and recorded by the jazz vocal group, the Manhattan Brothers (in 1956). The regularity of musical phrases imitates the rhythmic regularity of the imagined train (perhaps choirs in the 1930s did ‘choochoo train’ actions to the song), and the periodic ‘stop-starts’ and changes of tempo in the song suggest the train stopping at stations along the way.