Born Relebohile Monaphathi, Sannere, in the accordion music (famo) with hip-hop beat, is a young talented man from Mokema ha Lebakae, in the Maseru district in Lesotho. According to Sannere (2023), in his Facebook chart, he was not well-established in 2018 but was working hard to establish himself. He nicknamed himself RMLEEVASANNERE when he joined the music industry in 2018. He stated that he was working on his first album, #Pha-Balimo, and announced that it would be released early in 2019. He indicated that he, by then, had a few songs although he had realised that listeners to his music were highly impressed by his composition. He informed his listeners that his songs were available on YouTube under #Rm #Leeva #music #channel.

According to Mchekana (2024), in his Lesedi FM interview, Sannere shared with listeners the fact that he lost his parents at the age of 10. He then moved to live with his aunt. Unfortunately, his aunt also died when he was 11 years. Then, Sannere lived with his guardians until he parted with them because of teenagerhood conflicts. He then decided to live alone until the present. Mchekana (2024) states that in the Lesedi FM interviews, Sannere informed the listeners that he grew up with the Sesotho expressions such as ‘U monna kaofela’ equivalent to ‘you are a fully grown-up man’. According to Sannere, in this interview, it was expressions such as this one that made him persevere and made him refuse to give up. It is these sad experiences that helped him to build strong lyrical content in his songs. Mchekana (2024) surmises that Sannere has yet to come up with stronger lyrics in his music. Although his childhood was tough, Sannere states he never suffered from depression. He informs his listeners that after the calamities, he resorted to music and theatre. He indicated that he is currently a grown-up man who is grateful for the great talent that God has given him. Sannere concluded that through his music he will bring down caves and rocks just like war planes do in destruction. Mchekana (2024) summarises Sannere’s expressive songs:

This study understands Mchekana to mean that Sannere songs are extremely exciting and among the Basotho accordion hip-hop music no one is up to the way Sannere composes his songs currently. He is a top-notch accordion hip-hop music artist of his time. Thuseho (2024) asserts that Sannere is riding a wave of public approval as the best sotho-hop artist of the day. In Thuseho’s words ‘Deafening screams of patrons fill the air whenever he performs’. Thuseho states that Sannere’s bangers include Sannere’s song ‘Lerato’, the song selected for this study. For Thuseho, Sannere’s music has promoted him to new brand ambassador for the Lesotho National Insurance Group Hollard 2024. This article is therefore underpinned by Africana Womanism to assess the realities of a Mosotho woman as an African in Sannere’s song ‘Lerato’.

This study is a desktop study. It relied on primary data. The primary data for this study were from Sannere’s song, ‘Lerato’. According to Sekaran and Bougie (2013:113), primary data refer to ‘information obtained firsthand by the researcher on the variables of interest for the specific purpose of the study’. Sekaran and Bougie (2013) put it thus:

From Sekaran and Bougie’s (2013:113) explanation, the researcher in this study understands that the researcher herself collects data for research work. Therefore, for this study, the researcher listened to Sannere’s song entitled ‘Lerato’ several times and transcribed only the parts that merit the notion of interest in this study. This study also used secondary data.

Secondary data refer to information gathered by someone other than the researcher conducting the present research. Sekaran and Bougie (2013:166) put it this way:

From Sekaran and Bougie’s (2013:116) description, this study understands the fact that besides primary data, the researcher will utilise books, dissertations, theses, Facebook, newspapers and the internet to access the already existing information to back primary data to solve the research problem. The researcher listened to Sannere’s song entitled ‘Lerato’ several times to identify the relevant content. Sannere’s song ‘Lerato’ was easily accessed as it is in the public domain. The researcher also has this song in her Basotho accordion music collection. This study is strictly a desktop study, and it did not utilise instruments, interview questions or questionnaires to collect data.

This study adopted an interpretive content analysis of one purposely selected song by Sannere. This song focuses on a husband’s love, beauty, appreciation, happiness and support. This study considers this song as a good example of women’s appreciation among the Basotho. This song was selected as it merited the notion of interest. This study uses the purposive sampling technique because Sannere has many songs. However, time and the length of the study are factors that will not allow the study to analyse all Sannere’s songs. It will only analyse manageable data accessed easily from the public domain and the researcher’s collection.

This study used artefact analysis. Artefacts are poems and songs. According to Bless, Higson-Smith and Kagee (2006:72), artefacts’ analysis is a systematic analysis that provides valuable information about groups and individuals that created them. Songs are one example of artefacts. Artists sing them. With artefact analyses, the song entitled ‘Lerato’ was analysed to gain insight into the notion in question in this study. Therefore, artefact analysis was fundamental in this study.

Africana Womanism underpins this study to comprehend how Sannere in his song ‘Lerato’ endeavours to gather for Basotho women love, appreciation, support and respect. According to Ahmed (2017:58), Africana womanist is a term coined by Clenora Hudson-Weems in the late 1980s. In her words Hudson-Weems (1993) defines Africana Womanism thus:

From Hudson-Weems’s (1993:24) explanation, this study understands Africana Womanism as a perspective that advocates for the appreciation of African women. In this study, Africana Womanism would be essential to respond to questions of female encouragement, and family centrality, males and females working together in struggle, naming and defining women, and bestowing women good names.

According to Hudson-Weems (1993:13), the concept of womanism can be traced back to Sojourner’s speech that began to develop and highlight Africana women’s experiences in a paradigm of African womanist. She continues that the primary goal of this framework is to create a criteria for assessing realities of African women both in thought and action. Hudson-Weems (1993:15) provides the following descriptors of Africana Womanism:

This study utilised some of the properties of womanism theory to respond to the questions of the study to reach its objectives.

The following properties of this theory will be utilised:

It is vital to state that the Basotho accordion music portrays women negatively. The analysis of this study is presented in four categories, which become evident in the analysis:

Family centredness refers to the importance and priority given to family relationships and well-being within a cultural context or societal context. In many African cultures, including the Basotho, family centredness is a core value.

The interpretation of all the lines, in Table 1, is that Sannere speaks positively about his wife and family. The positive way Sannere expresses his message about his wife calls for African womanism as it attests to family centrality. Africana Womanism sees a family as an important part of life, hence being the centre. Sannere vividly communicates that his family is full of love because of his wife. Basotho proverbs lelapa ke la ‘m’e [a woman makes a home] and Lelapa ke mme [a family is a woman] confirm the importance of a woman in a family. If a woman or wife has died, a home is referred to as a fallen house [a fallen home] among the Basotho while a man is referred to as a man whose house has fallen [o oetsoe ke ntlo]. These expressions and proverbs showcase the importance of a woman or wife in a family.

In the popular expression ‘Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold’ although it is not a proverb, it is often quoted to describe the breaking down of order. In this song – ‘Lerato’, Sannere vividly communicates that the wife, who can be referred to as a centre in this case holds. Love, peace and warmth go together. In this song, it is evident that there is no problem of conjugal rights in the family that Sannere is referring to. It is also clear in this song that Sannere loves his family because of his wife, he speaks of it everywhere and every time. For example, Sannere speaks to himself and smiles at the trees when he imagines his family. He is mad with love. These lines justify his madness about his wife: ‘Ha le mpona tseleng ke bua ke le mong ke khannoa ke lerato, Ke bua le lifate ke bile ke ts’eha’, equivalent to when you see me on the route speaking alone or soloing, I am driven by love.

What Sannere communicates in these lines is new in the Basotho accordion music. A woman is disrespected by referring to her as one who is insane as exemplified by songs cited in this study. A woman is disrespected by referring to her as one who is insane. The popular Basotho lengae (initiates song), illustrates this rooted negativity of women in Basotho music in general:

In this lengae women are poor, ugly and exercise witchery. The negative portrayal of women is also evident in Apollo Ntabanyane popular accordion song entitled U tla li ala [You will stretch out the blankets]. According to Rapeane-Mathonsi (2011:81), the message communicated in this song is that the wife should forget about enjoying sex with her husband as it says the wife will prepare the bed, but the husband will not come home. Instead, he will sleep with his mistress with whom he has extramarital affairs. U tla li ala, u li alole song’s message waters down the women’s sexual appetite. It communicates that the wife is useless and not worthy of respect. This is not the case with Sannere’s song, ‘Lerato’. Therefore, in this section the technique that is derived is to acknowledge the fact that women are the centre of the family life.

Women’s desires are diverse and complex, varying across cultures. However, there are commonalities such as love, respect, appreciation, trust, loyalty, emotional support and understanding (Table 2).

In these lines in this table, Sannere communicates about the beauty of his wife. He talks about her figure, her beautiful eyes and her romantic lips. He states that he is attracted by his wife’s good body figure. Sannere’s observation of his wife’s good figure is contrary to what Khotso (2019:206) states about some Basotho men who desire physically attractive young women while they no longer show love to their wives in the observation that their bodies no longer look as good as those of young women. Sannere continues that his wife’s eyes are as beautiful as a pigeon. Perhaps, for him they are sexy. This study surmises that, like all Basotho boys, Sannere is conversant with birds in Lesotho perhaps from his shepherdhood life, where he came to know about different birds in the veld. When he compares his wife’s beauty to the birds, he rightly compares them with a beautiful bird that he knows about. He further explains that his wife’s eyes are not too big or too small. They are of a good size. Sannere further states that even when he is angry his anger diminishes when he sees his wife’s beautiful eyes.

Apart from that, in all these lines Sannere draws from the Basotho boys’ popular culture of courting girls. In the Basotho culture, boys traditionally use poetic praises to express admiration and affection when courting girls. These praises are a beautiful manner to display creativity, eloquence and emotional depth. Sannere concludes by drawing from a popular Basotho phrase ‘ke a shoa, ke a ikepela’ equivalent to I love you more than anything on earth. This ending as well is derived from the Basotho courting game Senyamo. When one accepts a love proposal, it is always good to indicate by this phrase ‘kea shoa, ke a ikepela’ to show how affectionately he or she feels about the proposal. Sannere’s reference to his wife’s beauty and love can be interpreted by African womanism as encouraging women’s appreciation. Sannere appreciates all that he sees in his wife; hence his positive view of a woman is unquestionable. In this section, Sannere provides love, respect, appreciation, trust, loyalty, emotional support and understanding as techniques that can be exercised to appreciate and show desire of a Mosotho woman.

Bestowing names among the Basotho is a practice common with children. However, there is another culture of giving newly wedded brides names in the in-law’s families. Mokhathi-Mbhele (2016:22) affirms that names among the Basotho are bestowed at birth, initiation and marriage passage rites. The culture of giving of a child, initiating and a newly wedded bride a name are formal practices performed as rituals among the Basotho. For Mokhathi-Mbhele (2016:22), the practice of awarding names is an interaction that shows the interpersonal relation between participants in a social context. However, the informal practice also exists for partners to bestow each other nicknames and or names. These names sometimes became popular and graduate from being a nickname to a formal name. In this category, Sannere bestows his wife good names (Table 3).

In this table, Sannere nicknames his wife ngoana e motle [a beautiful child]. Referring to adults as babies is metaphorical. Calling a wife a baby has various meanings that depend on the context. Among the Basotho, this is a new culture resulting from watching soap operas on South African broadcaster (SABC). According to Moteane (2022:245), names are vital in a society as they are intertwined with the culture from which they come. Nicknaming a wife as baby reflects affection and intimacy. A baby is a loving nickname conveying affection and closeness. It also shows the emotional connection of the two partners. Sannere extends this nickname to a beautiful baby. This is a way of expressing beauty, tenderness and deep attachment. It further implies a protective, caretaking role, potentially conveying ownership. Sannere’s nicknaming of his wife wipes away the popular expressions about Basotho women in this music that draws from the Basotho popular expression mokopu ha o le mobe o lahlellwa le dithotse [A bad pumpkin is thrown away with seeds]. In this case, a bad pumpkin is a woman, and the seeds are children born out of this woman. This expression is used in the situation of divorce when a man divorces his wife and denies his children all sorts of support with the explanation that they have inherited bad attributes from their mother. This nickname that Sannere bestows his wife is also extended to the Basotho women and communicates that they are loved by their partners; hence nicknames like the one in Sannere’s song, ‘Lerato’.

Besides, bestowing his wife a nickname, a baby, Sannere names his wife Silatsatsi. Silatsatsi is a popular name among the Basotho as it originates from the Basotho folktales. According to Guma (2001:270) among the Basotho, there are names of people who are legendary in folktales. The name Silatsatsi is one of them. In this folktale, Silatsatsi, a girl child was born with a moon on her chest. She grew up forbidden to go outside the doors as when she went out, the sunshine would fade away. Her beauty was beyond description. Because of her situation of not going outdoors, she was named Silatsatsi which is a short form of Seilaletsatsi [the one who never goes out to the sun]. The name Silatsatsi can be linguistically understood as it has two linguistic features. Sila or Seila refers to ea ilang equivalent to one who does not do something. In this context, it means not going out to be burned by the sun. Tsatsi is a short form of Letsatsi that refers to the sun. Therefore, this name means one who never goes out to be burned by the sun. She is always under the shade. Her skin is not harmed by both the sun rays as well as harsh weather hence her unquestionable beauty.

In addition, in the Basotho culture, like all other African cultures, a name carries significant meaning. A good name for example defines identity, reflects a character or destiny, connects to heritage and ancestry, conveys values and principles and symbolises hopes and aspirations. The name conveys that the one who bears it is a person of motivation and inspiration. According to Seema (2017:77), African names reflect creativity as their most important aspect to provide meaning. Seema (2017) indicates that among the Basotho, names are chosen with a purpose. For him, Basotho names include cultural identity. Seema (2017) further states:

In addition to Seema’s views on Basotho names and naming processes, Matsela (1990:4) opines that naming children after ancestors is considered an honour and a means of ensuring the continuity of the community’s lineage. Neethling (2005:2) attests to Seema and Matsela by affirming that naming shows a historical, cultural and social disciplines. Generally among the Basotho, a person who bestows names is knowledgeable of the Basotho history and their surroundings. Naming among the Basotho is done by experienced people who base their naming on their oral knowledge and experience and therefore, have the prerogative of choosing an appropriate name.

Moteane (2022:247) adds that names exude the experiences of people and reflect their belief system. Folklore, as it forms part of Basotho knowledge and surrounding, is another source of Basotho names. There are those names that are derived from the Basotho folktales such as Tselane from the Basotho folktale Dimo le Tselane, Masilo le Masilonyane, Thakane le Masilo. These names originate from the Basotho folktales and the Basotho pride in them. To date, the Basotho continue to bestow these names to their children. This study therefore surmises that Sannere is knowledgeable of the Basotho folktales as he is a Mosotho who is knowledgeable of the Sesotho language and culture. He seems to be knowledgeable of the Basotho folklore as he intertwines it in the creativity of his songs; hence, he picked the name that describes the beauty of his wife from the popular Basotho folktale, Silatsatsi.

Sannere’s ability to pick appropriate names for his wife: Baby and Silatsatsi is an observation that can be interpreted by Africana Womanism as it argues that women should be given good names. Sannere is in line with this theory by bestowing his wife good names. The good names in this song, are not only limited to Sannere’s wife. They are extended to all Basotho women who listen to this song. It communicates to them that they are beautiful. This is unlike the songs by artists in the Basotho accordion music industry who came before Sannere that gave women names such as letekatse [whore], Tsotsi [A tsotsi], Moferekanyi [one who disturbs peace] and Satane [satan, evil spirit]. By bestowing his wife good names, Sannere provides a technique that can be used to enhance good relationships within a family.

A struggle can generally be understood to refer to a strenuous effort to overcome obstacles, challenges or difficulties. In marriage, partners come across challenges that need concerted efforts to overcome them by working together.

In Table 4, Sannere communicates the support that he receives from his wife. He says: pelo ea hae ke bophelo baka equivalent to her heart is my life. The heart is the source of a healthy life. A failure of a heart results in death. In this line, Sannere communicates that his wife is a source of his good and healthy life. It is only through a positive perspective that a husband can show that his life is highly supported by his wife. Among the Basotho, what is common is that a man is bewitched by his wife just like it is the case with the Basotho accordion music. For example, Puseletso Seema in her song Ea pota ngoetsi [A daughter-in-law speaks rubbish], says ‘Na ha ke loee, ho loea ngoetsi ea ka [I am not a witch, a witch is my daughter-in-law]. A daughter-in-law is a woman. According to Rapeane-Mathonsi (2011:78), the Sesotho word ngoetsi is equivalent to ‘unwanted one’. Puseletso Seema like all other accordion music artists who came to this industry before Sannere is negative about women.

In the second line, in this category, Sannere states that his wife’s eyes shed light on his future. Through using African womanism, what Sannere says can be interpreted to mean that his wife helps him to look beyond his nose and is able to shape his future, which without her he would not be able to. He further states that her heart is his light. This line could be interpreted to communicate that Sannere appreciates the support that he receives from his wife. This calls for Africana Womanism as it validates that women should be given support. By appreciating all that his wife is doing for him, Sannere supports his wife. The message that Sannere puts across in this song is extended to both Basotho men and women to support one another in their struggles to gain healthy lifestyles by using kind words when addressing one another. Partnership struggles are advocated by the African womanism framework. In this study, Sannere provides a technique of solidarity by showing that men’s success depends on their wives as he has made an example on how his wife supports him.

This study concludes that Sannere’s song entitled ‘Lerato’ vividly portrays women positively as it shows the importance of Basotho women in the lives of their husbands. However, almost all Basotho accordion music artists who preceded Sannere have shown only a negative portrayal of the Basotho women. Their negative portrayal of women among the Basotho has incited wars in both Lesotho and South Africa. Therefore, this study recommends that the Basotho accordion music artists reconcile the way they portray women by learning from Sannere’s strategies of portraying a woman that includes family centredness, bestowing women good names, appreciating women efforts and using their knowledge and experiences to pick up good names for their wives or women. These strategies drawn from Sannere’s song ‘Lerato’ will not only bring love to their music, but they will also reconcile the sour relations between artists in this arena. This study recommends that the Ministry of Sports and Culture in Lesotho must launch a workshop for the Basotho accordion music artists on the themes that they can intertwine in their music for values including education, prowess, culture and entertainment.