Shepherd-turned-singer Mixes Lesotho Folk Music With Techno, Rap

That has enabled him to captivate audiences outside his native Lesotho, including in venues in Paris, Oslo, and Cape Town. He has just been signed to record an EP (extended play record) by a South African label.

“Performing on world stages, playing big festivals in France, in London, and other places – it’s really interesting to see that whole … concoction materialising,” Mochaoa told Reuters in an interview.

His stage character, Morena Leraba, is an enigmatic shepherd meant to serve, he said, as a representation of Mochaoa’s village roots growing up herding sheep in Lesotho, a tiny, high-altitude country tucked inside a South African mountain range.

The character often narrates traditional stories, but his use of thumping, syncopated dance beats and electro sounds, and his coarse rapping voice, give them a cosmopolitan edge.