Letter from Limpopo: Thabiso Sekhula remembers when she looked forward to growing up and getting married so her name could be read on the radio
The comeback of the century has got to be the Limpopo wedding music scene. An anthem of my childhood.
There’s a saying that goes ”Lenyalo ke Lerole” – a wedding is only a wedding when there’s dust. It sounds crazy but even in the dust lies such beautiful stories.
If there’s no dust at a Limpopo wedding, just know the guests hated every minute. We express our happiness with choreographed steps and jumps that lift the dust and link our happiness over the newlyweds to the skies and the ancestors.
And clearly the tourism department in Limpopo knew of this secret weapon when they organised ambassadors for the Africa Travel Indaba.
They booked Pleasure tsa Manyalo, the woman who has brought wedding music back, to perform at the indaba – a performance which has been seen in multiple countries around the world.
Pleasure has single-handedly brought Sepedi wedding music back into the mainstream. Her songs rival amapiano and hip hop for prominence on local radio stations and, even crazier, in social media trends.
When we were kids, wedding content was the ultimate entertainment on Saturdays. The wedding show on Thobela fm would start very early in the morning at 8.05; my mother would blast the volume loud and wake us all so we could clean.
The announcer, Moloko Mashamaite, would be ululating on our radio and all the radios on the street, almost creating a live broadcast into all our homes. Once you’ve heard it, you can never forget how his show started. On the show, he would announce who was getting married that Saturday, where, and who was invited.
It was the highest honour to have your wedding announced on the radio. We aspired to grow up and get married so our names could be read on the radio.
For a while while growing up, it seems life got so hard I stopped hearing wedding announcements on the radio.
But decades later, music has brought it all back again. The wedding songs coming out of Limpopo are creating a phenomenon. They are played at graduations, taverns, travel indabas and even inside taxis. The words are cheeky and send us into instant happiness and giggles.
The songs, which are mostly in Sepedi, have sparked a fire on social media, allowing them to travel further than just a Sepedi audience.
One song from the groom’s perspective is “Dilo stofong”or “Put things on the stove” – a saying for “I have found the one, gather the aunts, let them start cooking for the wedding feast”.
Another song called ”Wa ka ke Johny” means: “I have chosen Johny, the same Johny with the red shoes, Johny with the gap tooth, Johny is my man”. And the current banger playing everywhere by Pleasure is “Ke Lorile”. A club favourite, it means, “I had a dream you put a ring on my finger”.
Those who don’t understand the words will have no trouble understanding the happiness in the videos posted with the music; the dance moves alone can capture any audience. It’s contagious and uniquely Limpopo and so grossly romantic, it would make even a cynic want to get married.
Photo from Pleasure’s Instagram page
