zoe modiga gives us a natural high with “lengoma”

You’ll often see the word “transcendent” used to describe the music of South African singer-songwriter and producer Zoë Modiga and it’s a fitting descriptor. Her music is rooted in jazz, African oral traditions, and soul music, and it preserves and pushes forward the very African tradition of storytelling through rousing song.

“Lengoma,” which literally means “song” in her native tongue Xhosa, is the 2019 AFROPUNK Joburg performer’s first single from her forthcoming album and features Urban Village singer and multi-instrumentalist Tubatsi Mpho Moloi. Directed by Onkabetse Mtshweni, the video for the song finds the South African beauty on a metaphorical journey of self-acceptance; dancing and communing with nature in the wilderness alongside other Black women.

Modiga describes “Lengoma” as “a song for healing, for dancing and a song for all people.”