From the Archive: A Sad One And A Happy One From Matsieng

Two songs from a Botswanan group named for a famous cultural site.

As our archive keeps growing, some of our older pieces might have gotten lost in the shuffle. Every now and then we'll dig in and find some highlights and revisit them. Here's one now.

It's a sweeping generalization, but it's probably not far off the mark to say that a lot of African music tends to be upbeat and happy. Which is why it seems so unusual to run across a song that's not.

That's "Mankoko," the first song embedded here. My command of Setswana, the Botswanan language, is weak, to say the least. But a picture is worth a thousand words and a video even more and the video suggests that the song is about a friend who has passed.

The song is from Matsieng, a group who hail from Gaborone, Botswana's capital. The group came together in 2005 and found success early on. After some time away from the business, they made a comeback, in 2020. For more on the Botswanan cultural site that gave the group their name, look here.

If downbeat music is not your thing, skip to the second song - "Mmalebopo." It’ll lift your spirits.