{"id":19668,"date":"2022-09-06T11:18:20","date_gmt":"2022-09-06T11:18:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars"},"modified":"2022-09-06T12:51:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-06T12:51:41","slug":"lesothos-musical-gang-wars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars","title":{"rendered":"Lesotho\u2019s musical gang wars"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Rethabile Mokete, better known as Khosi Mosotho Chakela, was a singer \u2014 and a Sotho, the ethnic majority in Lesotho, a former British colony and an enclave within South Africa with a population of 2.1 million.<\/p>\n

Chakela grew up in South Africa\u2019s townships. After years of living on the street, then working on building sites, in his 30s he recorded the album Motsamai le Chakela no 1 (Shear Record Company, 1999).<\/p>\n

It was the start of a successful career in famo, a traditional musical genre in Lesotho. Though his songs still feature on streaming platforms\u2019 Lesotho playlists, when Chakela died of Covid in January 2021, his death went largely unnoticed on the international music scene.<\/p>\n

It was, however, widely discussed in the so-called Accordion Triangle \u2014 three villages in Lesotho\u2019s Mafeteng district which have produced several generations of famo musicians \u2014 and among the 180,000-plus Lesothans living and working in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Chakela was a notorious \u2018musician gangster\u2019 in the words of Rataibane Ramainoane, founder and editor-in-chief of Moafrika FM. a privately owned Sotho-language radio station. Chakela had been due to appear before Lesotho\u2019s High Court this March, as a co-defendant in the trial of former prime minister Thomas Thabane.<\/p>\n

Thabane and his second wife, Maesaiah, were charged with ordering a hit on his estranged first wife, Lipolelo, who had refused to divorce him, and reportedly asked a group of famo musicians including Chakela to carry out the contract.<\/p>\n

The charges were dropped in July as prosecutors could no longer locate a key witness. Ramainoane told me he himself had been on Chakela\u2019s hit list from 2006 to 2011.<\/p>\n

\u2018Without God\u2019s help, the accordion cowboy could have killed me several times.<\/p>\n

\u2019 (He is also a pastor in the Nation of God Apostolic Church.<\/p>\n

) Famo was once the music of Sotho shepherds who had gone to work in the mines near Johannesburg. Famo singers performed in illegal drinking dens in the townships.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Rethabile Mokete, better known as Khosi Mosotho Chakela, was a singer \u2014 and a Sotho, the ethnic majority in Lesotho, a former British colony and an enclave within South Africa with a population of 2.1 million. Chakela grew up in South Africa\u2019s townships. After years of living on the street, then working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":19667,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,4,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245],"class_list":["post-19668","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-culture-and-art","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"\nLesotho\u2019s musical gang wars - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Rethabile Mokete, better known as Khosi Mosotho Chakela, was a singer \u2014 and a Sotho, the ethnic majority in Lesotho, a f ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lesotho\u2019s musical gang wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Rethabile Mokete, better known as Khosi Mosotho Chakela, was a singer \u2014 and a Sotho, the ethnic majority in Lesotho, a f ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-06T11:18:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-06T12:51:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_4-6317423e53c64.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"890\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"593\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Lesotho\u2019s musical gang wars\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-06T11:18:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-06T12:51:41+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars\"},\"wordCount\":334,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2022\/09\/postQueueImg_4-6317423e53c64.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"culture and art\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/lesothos-musical-gang-wars\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\u2019s musical gang wars - 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