Author: Mathe

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Asterisk and audio formats

Gosh I sure know how to derail myself! Today, I spent a good chunk of my time investigating what is the best format and codec to use for my audio files, which are part of the voiceXML application. This was not meant to be a time-consuming exercise since Asterisk technically supports many formats and codecs. However, I was keen on finding something with a low bandwidth footprint and reasonable quality. To be precise I was thinking of something along the lines of 8 bits sampling size and sampling rate of 8 KHz.

Why? Well because I am bandwidth sensitive but also because ordinary voice doesn’t necessarily benefit much from high sample rates (or at least this is what you get if you follow debates related to podcasting for developing worlds). Ok back to the point 😉 ! In my adventure I came across speex and I must say, I am so in love with it. It truly seems to be something that one must consider just check out how it compares with other codecs by following this link http://www.speex.org/comparison/. What is also very interesting is the modesty attached to the comparison as captured by a disclaimer which basically says the results should be taken with a grain of salt!

The only issue I have at the moment is that speex is not supported by audacity. Thus after file creation one has to encode the files to .ogg files at the command line. This all translates to not being able to kill two birds with one stone which is not good because I certainly believe in killing two birds with one stone (just as a side issue I have been provided this link by Richard as part of dissuading me into such a believe). But when it comes down to it, I suppose my issue is not even an issue because at one point or the other one might need to convert files for Asterisk using command line utilities like SoX, “the Swiss Army knife of sound processing programs”. So when all has been said and done, I think I shall be a speex fan and not fanatic 😉

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Mbeki Ts'ela-ts'oeu (Adieu)

In Sesotho, we have a saying “ha ho tjaka tlhoka-koli”, which means that even the best have their faults. Mbeki while indeed he might have had his faults, I believe in him. And not because he is a man born of a Mosotho woman but because of his African dream! A dream he reiterated in his resignation speech that “Africa and Africans will not and must not be the wretched of the earth in perpetuity”. Therefore despite all his faults, I hope at the very least that all will regard his legacy to be this wonderful dream that is worth realising.

So Mbeki, son of the African soil, adieu, adieu, adieu!

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Peace, Moshoeshoe’s sister:"Khotso, khaitseli ea Moshoeshoe"

Today I was sent the Morija’s art festival programme by one of my lovely aunts, PK. In perusing it, I learnt that this year’s theme is “Khotso, khaitseli ea Moshoeshoe”. To those who followed my last few blogs, you would probably appreciate how exciting I think the theme is! Not exciting because it has Moshoeshoe in it but because one cannot over estimate the value of peace and therefore the importance to strive for peaceful existence. Now for a full appreciation of the theme, I have taken the liberty of cut-and-pasting it below (there was no copyright attached to it so I assumed it is share alike, with fully attribution to Morija Arts & Cultural Festival) :

” “Khotso, khaitseli ea Moshoeshoe”, which at one time was aptly rendered by Dr. Mosebi Damane as “Peace, the Mother of Nations”. Peace is not the preservation of the status quo, or a quietness borne of fear or apathy. Peace is not a mere lack of conflict. It is rather a dynamic process of give and take, of respectful listening and sharing of opinions, of constructively engaging with one another and seeking viable solutions to the challenges that face us as families, communities, churches, organisations and as a nation.

Peace nourishes and encourages our creativity and dynamism as a people, it protects and secures the hard work and assets that we have built up, and it is always willing to learn and help others in the process.”

Note: This year the festival runs from 1st – 5th October and whilst I won’t be able to attend I urge all to attend. It is absolutely worth it :- .)

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Encore: 3 additional facts about Moshoeshoe I

When I started the series I wasn’t aware that there were five Fridays in August! But because I believe a promise made is a promise to be kept, I decided there should be a part 5. Problem is, I don’t know how to make it fit with my initial structure. (Yes, there was structure: from sunrise to sunset!)

After much thought, I decided my encore should entail me furnishing you with 3 interesting facts about Moshoeshoe.

  1. He protested to his father’s estrangement by living his father’s land and building his own kraal which he named Qhobosheane (translated: Fortress). His father due to Moshoeshoe’s (then called Lepoqo) growing popularity felt threatned by him (and perhaps with good reason for the young Moshoeshoe as previously stated was something else! But at that point of his life, he was a changed man and unfortunately his father couldn’t recognise that change in him. ) I shan’t really delibarate on the irony in the naming of his kraal, that in itself is an exercise that perhaps deserves a proper psychological analysis (centred on ‘father issues’).
  2. Much as he downplayed his victory in a battle with Cathcart, he gave Sir George Cathcart a beating he could never forget. It is after the beating that he decided to send him a letter in which he declared himself a British subject. A letter that perhaps helped Cathcart to save face and withdraw with his integrity intact; for he had claimed that he was going to teach the insolent Moshoeshoe a lesson he could never forget but instead fate decided he was the one in need of the lesson 😈 !
  3. Closer to his sunset, Moshoeshoe was both a divorcee and a married man. He was divorced by his senior wife, ‘Mamohato on religious grounds. She said polygamy was against God. This is interesting to me because divorce in those days was unheard of.
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Departmental Seminar

I was presenting today in the departmental seminar. I was rather anxious to get it over and done with. So I “persuaded” Mos to allow me to go first. I think I didn’t do that badly except that I was fast and at times unable to articulate myself 🙁 . Consequently, I failed to explain the architecure of the service. Further, I didn’t really provide enough details on the types of questions that can be answered by the ontology underconstructions. That is, I failed to communicate what will constitute the competency questions of the ontology, thus the type of queries it would handle.

On the positive side I can take today’s seminar as a dress rehearsal for SATNAC. The question then that remains is whether with unfamiliar faces I would be able to slow down a bit and articulate myself better. That remains to be seen but I am an optimist 🙂

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Part 4: Reasons to be in awe of Moshoeshoe I

I have read very little literature about Moshoeshoe (a fact I regret and intend to remedy soon 😉 ). However, from the oral stories I have heard, these are some of the reasons I am in absolute awe of the founder of the Basotho nation:

  • He recognised that it takes just one person to have faith in an individual for that individual to transform into a respectable being. For him, that one person was his grandfather Peete, who seemed to have kept faith in Moshoeshoe despite his ‘delinquency’ that amounted at best of time to ‘terrorism’. When Peete was eaten by the cannibals, to everyone’s surprise, he refused a proposal to have them killed. He said by killing them, they also become killers. So instead he requested that the cannibals be brought to him to perform a cleansing ceremony on them so that his beloved grandfather could rest in perfect peace. In addition to the ceremony, he gave them land to farm for they said they ate men out of poverty.

  • He understood that his role was to serve his people. In negotiating the British protection, he is quoted as saying: “nkukeng le nta tsa kobo ea ka empa le ntlohelle sechaba sa ka hore ke se buse”. (Translation: ‘take me for all that I am together with lice of my blanket but interfere not with my people for I shall remain their leader’). To me this total submission, is indeed what allowed us (the commoners) to continue with raids or whatever unneighbourly shenanigans we got ourselves into without being aware of the repercussions. Moshoeshoe took all the venom for us and as it stands, we still have a land of our own even though we lost much of it 🙁 .

  • He took to heart what it means to rule with the heart and made sure that any foreigner in his land will be treated with dignity.

  • He believed that the only noble cause to fight for is peace. Indeed this is what earned him the diplomat title! He used to say: “o tla nketsang ha e hahe motse. Motse ho hauoa oa morapeli.” (What-will-you-do-to-me is not an attitude for building a home or a nation. The building is based on principles of prayer and/or negotiation).

  • When he died, he died a contented man for he lived to be the great leader that he thought he was destined to be. But most importantly because he believed that in aswering the call of destiny, he put love first! (This is a very neutral interpretation on my part. There are some who believe that this was Moshoeshoe’s pronouncement of Christianity. But there are others who disagree with this. To me this is neither here or there, for me what is important is the significance in celebrating Moshoeshoe’s day on the day he died, 11th March )

I could go on and on; however, the important thing is that Moshoeshoe was not perfect, but he made an effort to leave by principles that were anchored in love. And to me, that is sufficient! It doesn’t really matter to me that he refused to be converted into Christianity, for religion alone is not what defines a person. A person is defined by his/her values and principles. To me, religion is what helps the person to hold on to those values and principles especially in those difficult times when hating seems more like an option!

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Part 3: Moshoeshoe I, one of the untold stories

This is one of the an untold story of how I believe Moshoeshoe cemented his power. It is a story about Moshoeshoe and his brother Makhabane. Although I am not sure who between the brothers was older, I think Makhabane was senior to Moshoeshoe by virtue of his mother being senior to Moshoeshoe’s mother. (In Sesotho: ‘Makhabane ke mora oa ntlo e kholo’). That said, the story goes as follows:

Moshoeshoe got a report that his brother will be attacked. Trusting the sources of his information, he immediately went to his brother’s ‘land’ to warn him and also offer him reinforcement. In response to Moshoeshoe, Makhabane sat on a rock and said: “Ka ‘Mamamile, Maanya ha a tlatsoe e se noka!”. (Translated: ‘I swear by my mother, ‘Mamamile, that my army, Maanya, is not a river that depends on streams for supply!’)

After such a response, Moshoeshoe left to go to his own land. And not long after this, Makhabane sent a messenger to Moshoeshoe seeking reinforcement. When Moshoeshoe heard this, he found a rock to sit on and said: “Ka ‘Mamamile, Maanya ha a tlatsoe e se noka!” The rest as they say, its history, Makhabane died in that battle!

Question of interest: why did Moshoeshoe let his brother die? There is the obvious response, Moshoeshoe was a man of principle, he did offer to help but was snubbed blah blah! Indeed he was a man of principle but my thesis is he was aware that with Makhabane alive his rise to power and greatness might not be possible. Makhabane being senior, protocol allowed that at anytime he could go into Moshoeshoe’s land and take over. With that in mind and being the Mokoena 1 he is, he merely seized the opportunity!

Whatever my thesis is, make no doubt, I am in awe of Moshoeshoe and I shall in the next posting give my reasons. And yes, I have no problems with the fact that Moshoeshoe thought ‘Maanya anya koana’ 😳 (to hell with Maanya)! For I think one should always accept help when it is offered or at the very least be polite in refusing the help.

  1. Remember that Bakuena by nature make excellent businessmen and/or politicians, so it was easy to rationalise the death of his brother to be but a means to an end. In any case, lets not forget the ‘ever- talked- about’ rivalry that exists between siblings of different households (‘bana ba sethepung’)! ↩
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Part 2: Moshoeshoe I’s meeting with Chief Mohlomi

The role of initiation in the past was to transform boys and girls into responsible men and women with a strong sense of duty to serve both their family and community. As I understand, Moshoeshoe indeed came out of initiation transformed although not necessarily clear about how he will ‘serve’ his family and community. But this is not at all surprising since wisdom comes with age. His grandfather Peete (who obviously had lived long enough to have gained wisdom) decided to take him to see Chief Mohlomi, a man often referred as a sage and the greatest healer of his time.

When Chief Mohlomi met Moshoshoe (then called Lepoqo or Letlama) he embraced (or hugged) him in a manner only fitting for a great leader. In addition, he gave Moshoeshoe an earring (in those days the ‘great men’ put earrings as a symbol of power… ). This surprised many since Moshoeshoe was but a son of a minor chief. However, coming from Chief Mohlomi this was interpreted as a prophecy that Moshoeshoe will in the future be a leader of note.

In this meeting, Moshoeshoe asked Mohlomi the secret of great leadership. He posed his question in the following manner: “setlhare sa ho haha motse ke se fe?” (non literal translation: what is the medicine for building a formidable ’empire’?) . To this question, the great sage responded by saying there is no such medicine, the only true medicine is the heart. (“Motse ha o hauoe ka setlhare, sethlare ke pelo”). Chief Mohlomi went on to give Moshoeshoe the following commandments centred on using the heart to rule (I will try to explain them a bit but my interpretation might not be that good :():

  1. O ba rate – love them: this is obvious I hope 🙂 ! Love breeds compassion and generosity. Further, love promotes peace—for even fight when governed by love it is not just a mere fight; it is an exercise of seeking understanding. Consider, for example, fights between parents and their children.
  2. O ba tsebe – know them: In knowing the people, the sage was alluding to the importance of appreciating that all individuals are different and necessarily need to be treated as such. As far as Mohlomi was concerned, this appreciation was fundamental in a establishing true justice. For example, fining a rich man six cows might seem like a slap on the wrist while to a poor man that might be a different story all together!
  3. O ba nyalle – marry for them: Ok, let me start by saying those were the days when polygomy was official not unofficially endorsed with a clause: ‘be discreet’! That said, I will try to delicately deconstruct this ‘commandment’. First it is important to remember that at the heart of Chief Mohlomi’s advice to Moshoeshoe was promotion of peace (and love of course). So using this as a premise for peace, by marrying for his people Moshoeshoe would in a sense be uniting them since marriage unites families. Following this advice, Moshoeshoe married well over a hundred women from different clans and tribes. (By the way, I am well aware that this might come as shock to others but I have been reliably told that the figure is probably a very modest estimate.) So how did he handle having so many wives? Well in the spirit of delicacy I will answer by posing yet another question. If in every society not all men are rich, and to marry a man needs to pay ‘lobola’; how can each man have a wife? Alternatively put, how does one expect a poor man to get married?

    a) Marry for them because as the Chief you are indeed the richest man in the land.
    b) Let them not have wives of their own and deal with the inevitability of them trespassing into other men’s territories, i.e. “ho kena ts’imomg tsa banna ba bang”.
    c) None of the above.

  4. Balimo ba hao u ba hopole kamehla – remember your ancestors always: The idea embodied in this statement is that one has to believe in a greater power than themselves. As a result one has to constantly be grateful for their existance.

The above are the core commandments given to Moshoeshoe by Chief Mohlomi. And, it is safe to say that Moshoeshoe indeed worked hard to make these ‘commandments’ his principles of leadership and his continuous growth. Consequently, he was nothing like the ‘boy’ he was before initiation; a boy that believed a great deal in his own strength (due to strong physique).