from Hacker News

The deadly accordion wars of Lesotho

by Sujan on 5/1/22, 4:59 PM with 18 comments

• by photochemsyn on 5/3/22, 5:46 PM

  This one buries the lead: Now, though, the murders are not just over accordion music. Rival Famo groups also battle for control of the lucrative illegal gold mines in South Africa where many of their followers work.

  "The deadly gold wars of Lesotho" would probably have been a more accurate title. There seems to be politician and police involvement as well. So it's fair to guess that this is really a struggle over economic power in an area where there's no independent judiciary and police and politicians are involved in the cash flow generated by the 'illegal' mining activity.

  It's also the BBC, the state propaganda organ of the UK, comparable to Russia's RT, and so they don't mention the interesting and relevant fact that the major foreign outfits mining in Lesotho are UK firms, and they're probably pulling most of the profits out of an impoverished country, paying kickbacks to the politicians, good 'ol colonial extraction style:

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mining_industry_of_Lesotho

  But no, says the BBC it's about the music. Come on, now. It's more like cartel drug wars on the Mexican border, yes, they have narco-music too, but nobody claims that's what they're fighting over.

• by alkaloid on 5/4/22, 2:54 PM

  What a travesty of exploitation that has occurred on most of the African continent.

  Beautiful land, beautiful people, exploited for labour and commerce for centuries.

  That bill is going to come due at some point. In the meantime, the people suffer.

• by AlanYx on 5/3/22, 4:59 PM

  >"They come to a house looking for you - and you are not there. And they kill the wife, they kill the children, eliminate everybody in the family. Villages and villages are orphanages, because of Famo music," says one of its original promoters, Sebonomoea Ramainoane.

  There's got to be more to this than what's in the article. Does anyone have more information about what's going on? The article briefly mentions connections to gold mines and politicians as possible aggravating factors, but some of it seems so petty, like this:

  >"When you are on the radio, you have to make sure that every day you play all the groups. If you leave one out, they say: 'You don't like us.' Then they shoot you."

• by nradov on 5/3/22, 5:07 PM

  There are ongoing smaller scale cycles of violence and retribution in parts of the US driven by rap diss tracks posted on social media.

  https://www.firstcoastnews.com/article/entertainment/music/y...

  https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/criminal-justice/ct-chic...