Hlahlasolle

‘Hlahlasolle’ relates to the previous song in Book II of Mohapeloa’s Meloli Le Lithallera Tsa Afrika, ‘Nonyana Se-nya-mafi’ (JPM066), which is based on a folksong about a ‘milk-secreting bird’ and a warning to children about not being distracted with prattle. The ‘roamer’ of the present song, JPM076, is also a bird, which, like the ‘prattler’ in ‘Nonyana’ ,is able to secrete ‘milk’. Whereas there the milk represents something dangerously seductive, in ‘Hlahlasolle’ it denotes ‘nice things’. The bird in this case, which the text rather cryptically says is a vulture but not a vulture, seems to be a migrant bird of the kind that can be seen flying in formation in Spring and Autumn in southern Africa and almost certainly comes from Europe. Hence, ‘The Roamer’.