Lesotho's Famo music: from shepherd songs to gang wars

"MASERU, Lesotho Puseletso Seema is musical royalty in the tiny African mountain kingdom of Lesotho, where she's known as "the Queen of Famo" - a popular genre of pastoral accordion music beloved by the country's people, the Basotho. But for all her fame, she never got rich, and the 77-year-old grandmother's living conditions these days are far from regal. She resides in a small, run-down home along a dusty road in the rural"

""Famo music is a music that is like jazz in other countries, it's the genre most known in Lesotho," she explains. "It's a music that is emotionally connected, you can express your happiness, sadness, all your feelings." Journalist Motsamai Mokotjo, who has written on the topic, explains famo this way: "In essence it's engraved in folk law, you know, it's poetry fused with the accordion.""

Puseletso Seema is a 77-year-old Lesotho musician known as the 'Queen of Famo' who became the first woman to break into a male-dominated famo scene. Famo is a pastoral accordion genre that expresses emotions and Basotho history, likened to jazz or hip hop for its expressive, poetic quality. Seema grew up poor with no schooling, worked as a shepherd because her family had no son, and began singing in the fields. She now lives in a run-down rural home without electricity, struggles with health and coughing, and has not gained wealth despite national fame.

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