Seilatsatsi

Seilatsatsi in this song is a girl’s name, the literal meaning being ‘one who avoids the sun’ i.e. someone light-skinned; another word used in the song is ‘tšehlana’, meaning ‘yellow’. The district mentioned as the girl’s home, Mohale, is in the south-west of the country bordering the South African provinces of the Free State and Eastern Cape. ‘Seilatsatsi’ is a love song, in the African manner where the prospective husband, Masilo, proposes to the family of a woman he loves that ‘she be fetched’ for him. But his prospects are thwarted by the girl’s family.