The language is deep and very artistic. This is a fact and perhaps the only fact I know about Sesotho as a language. In recent years I have come to know that the dynamics of the language can be very confusing. For example, growing up, the plural of teachers was ‘matichere’ and not ‘litichere’ (or is it the other way round?)

For purposes of this post, I will not venture in what is confusing to me. I shall instead discuss the artistic depth of the Sesotho language. To me, Sesotho seems to be layered, with some layers only accessible to people I would label as “submarines”. At the layers of submarines, the language is rich but far from direct. It is filled with insinuations and innuendos that are presented in a very subtle and delicate manner: to give the speaker total deniability (if needs be).

So what makes the language rich at those layers? In my opinion, it is a combination use of riddles, deliberate distortions of words, and, of course, the manner of articulation. And the latter is important! I have seen individuals prepare to fight to the death (‘ho loana ea khumamela’) for being called ‘ngoetsi/makoti’ (daughter-in-law). This, at a superficial level, may seem strange unless one recognises that the reaction was due to an invocation of a deeper meaning to the word; the word is a distortion much like ‘mokhoenyana’ (son-in-law) is, but I shan’t elaborate on them. Instead I will choose a neutral word like ‘majakane’.

Majakane is a distortion of the expression ‘ba ja, ba ikana’ (they eat and vow). This word to many (land-dwellers) is accepted as an alternative word for referring to the elite, the affluent, etc. To an extend, in the context of today’s world, the interpretation is valid. However, the historical origins of the word suggest to me that the word was “coined up” to jeer at the Christians (after Christianity was introduced). The reason for this was that the ‘newly converted’, aside from publicly making a vow before eating to live by Christ loving ways, they were overly critical of the non-converts. In their interactions with them, there was no element of humility— since they thought they were better, as they had seen the light! In a nutshell, the word originated as a response to this behaviour and for this reason, it was deliberately loaded, with what I term, the double ‘dees’: disdain and defiance. Defiance because if the utterers were overt about their disdain, they would have suffered the fully wrath of the law, since Moshoeshoe believed in peace. So, by using ‘majakane’, the burden of the proof lied with majakane to convince anyone that the reference is pregnant with any other meaning, other than ‘they pray before eating’.

With the above, I hope I have illustrated my point. Sesotho is a language of depth and one has to always establish whether they are on land or sea. If at sea, above or under? Whatever the case, I think one is better assuming he/she is deep under swimming with the sharks. But this becomes a very bad and dangerous habit….ask me I know!