{"id":195283,"date":"2021-07-16T17:05:16","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T15:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/the-village-pope-has-passed-remembering-tsepo-tshola-lesothos-musical-giant\/"},"modified":"2021-07-16T17:05:16","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T15:05:16","slug":"the-village-pope-has-passed-remembering-tsepo-tshola-lesothos-musical-giant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/the-village-pope-has-passed-remembering-tsepo-tshola-lesothos-musical-giant\/","title":{"rendered":"The Village Pope has passed: remembering Tsepo Tshola, Lesotho’s musical giant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIt\u2019s the love of what I\u2019m doing that\u2019s kept me in the business,\u201d declared<\/a> singer and composer Tsepo Tshola, who passed away<\/a> in Lesotho on July 15, aged 68. <\/p>\n

Tshola had been in showbiz for over half a century: a career that stretched from Sesotho roots and popular music in the 1970s, through international tours and collaborations, to his most recent identity as an inspiring gospel singer, and the co-founder of independent music label Killer Joe.<\/p>\n

What characterised his work was a passionate desire to tell it as he saw it, whether that was about the evils of racism in the early days of his career, or the dangers of addiction and, more recently, the need for self-reliance.<\/p>\n

His righteous preaching earned him the soubriquet of The Village Pope, but was also a family legacy. <\/p>\n

The young artist<\/h2>\n

Tshola was born on 15 August 1953 in Teyateyaneng in Lesotho<\/a>, a small, mountainous and landlocked country surrounded by its larger neighbour, South Africa. His father was a preacher and church organiser and his mother a chorister. He first honed his rich baritone in a church choir.<\/p>\n

As a teenager, he joined the pop band Lesotho Blue Diamonds. Later, he hooked up with Anti-Antiques, formed by guitarist \u201cCaptain\u201d Frank Leepa<\/a>. The two first got talking in the streets, he recalled<\/a>: \u201cIt was God\u2019s doing. I was looking for a match \u2013 so one of us had a match and the other had a cigarette: \u2018Sure, man, let\u2019s share.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n

They also shared opinions about music, and although Anti-Antiques already had a vocalist \u2013 and was definitely not earning enough to support two \u2013 Leepa\u2019s dream of forming a super-group, and Tshola\u2019s striking voice, ensured his membership.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Detail from the album cover for Nothing Can Beat the Truth (2010)<\/span> CCP Records\/EMI<\/span><\/span> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tshola goes on:<\/p>\n

\n

I remember the first time I heard my voice on the radio. I was walking the streets and it was playing from a radio in a shop. I jumped for joy \u2013 and jumped straight into some water. I spent the time after that looking for cardboard to put into my shoes, because they had no soles.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In that insecure, erratic environment of the nascent Lesotho modern music scene, Anti-Antiques morphed into a second incarnation of Leepa\u2019s band Uhuru. A small but relatively successful 1976 tour of South Africa crashed and burned when \u201cwe were banned for singing Africa Shall Unite<\/em>\u201d. South Africa\u2019s apartheid<\/a> rulers did not tolerate the song\u2019s Pan African liberation politics. Leepa\u2019s fourth band, Sankomota<\/a>, was founded in the mid-1970s.<\/p>\n

Sankomoto<\/h2>\n

Tshola sang with that incarnation of Sankomota for some time in Lesotho, but by the mid-1980s he was working more widely too. He eventually accepted an invitation from jazz trumpeter Hugh Masekela<\/a> to record the albums Techno-Bush<\/em> and Waiting for the Rain in Botswana<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Sankomota had recorded their widely acclaimed self-titled debut album<\/a> in Lesotho in 1983, with an international release the following year. The music combined Sesotho<\/a> musical roots with sharply contemporary musicianship and a stirring liberation message. <\/p>\n