WHAT happens when a theatrically-trained musician who loves Afro-jazz and pop decides to make original music? You get someone called Majola (pictured).
This young man has performed around the world on ships for Royal Caribbean Productions.
He has also worked with Joburg Theatre on community development and in 2012 staged his own musical.
It was called Isini, which means “gender”. It is set in pre-colonial South Africa in the former Transkei and deals with Christian and African patriarchy and what happens when the two cultures meet. The musical also addresses one of his Majola’s main passions which is the normalisation and acceptance of homosexuality.
Being openly gay, Majola wants to right many of the wrongs that happened to him during his youth and the fact that in many cultures homosexuality is taboo. These issues are also addressed on his debut album, Boetie/Sissy, which he has released on iTunes.
The album is a fine fusion of dramatically inspired musicals and Afro-soul, a hint of jazz and a liner of R&B/pop. That the man is talented, there is no doubt.
His story is also not very different to many young gay men growing up in this country.
“I realised I was gay at age 10 when I was growing up in King Williams Town. The choir leader told me I must be careful not to land up like those men on the Felicia Mabuza-Suttle show. That was a slap in the face for me and it was also the first time I realised that I was gay.”
“It was very difficult being different and trying to prove I am not, being called stabane (derogatory term for “gay). I was also slapped by some guy for being gay. At the same time I was so church-driven. I eventually came out in grade 10. I had to deal with self-acceptance which was a process of guilt, shame, loneliness and self-love.”
The album is being released digitally through a British company called Africori who discovered him through the internet. Majola had posted a song called Kyalami on YouTube and the company saw it and offered him a distribution deal.
Going back to the album, which for a debut and self-produced and financed offering is of a high standard, Majola says the story is an autobiographical narrative.
“Growing up gay, you live lies, but when you accept yourself it is so important to find the truth and I have to do that with my songs. When I sing about gay issues I contextualise it as a human thing and not as a cultural thing per se.
“On the album I fuse soul music, choral, jazz and classical. It is not a sound for radio, which puts me in a difficult position.”
However, he would not have it any other way in terms of his music. There are 13 tracks on the album and four interludes.
The album opens with a quote from Judge Edwin Cameron.
“The concept is that I am telling my story and am being tried in a court room for being gay. On some of the tracks there are anecdotes about my love lost or found and then at the end I am sentenced to life imprisonment. Basically, whether I am sentenced or not, I am free because I have accepted my truth. “The album ends with my song Kyalami, which means I have come home.”
He says that it is great that South Africa is so progressive when it comes to homosexuality. But he is concerned about the attitude of other countries on the continent.
But he is communicating his message through his music.
“I hope I don’t sound angry in my songs. I hope I sound vulnerable.”