Michael Mosoeu Moerane Scholarly Edition

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Ma-Homemakers is a bustling perpetuum mobile about the endless round of domestic life, from an era and a region of the world (southern Africa) where women were indisputably the 'homemakers'. Appropriately, it is for women's voices only, and it has two verses, in two languages. One of them is Moerane's home language, Sesotho (Ma-Homemakers) and the other is his wife's home language, isiXhosa (Ingoma Ka Zenzele) - hence the two titles of the work. The song can be seen as a tribute to her, Mrs Beatrice Betty Moerane (née Msweli), with whom he raised a family of six children, and who was also the author of the lyrics. It also reminds us that there was an important women’s organisation founded in 1940s Lesotho, the Basutoland Homemakers Association, whose activities sometimes ventured into quite risky political terrain.

Duration: 2'44"