Through his music, Benjamin Jephta seeks to redefine coloured people's identity and questions the racial identity that was imposed by the apartheid government.
Jephta is not only a composer and a jazz musician but also an academic who studied at the University of Cape Town and later earned a master’s degree in the US. He is currently working as a lecturer in Jazz Studies and Film Composition at the University of Witwatersrand.
In his career as a musician, he has worked with many artists, such as the legendary Hugh Masikela, Sibongile Khumalo, whom he said helped mould him as an artist.
Jephta’s latest album, ‘Born Coloured, Not Born Free’ explores transformation, the coloured identity, the coloured and black relationship and the coloured mentality.
He said his aim was to inspire and create a sense of hope, empowerment, and unity in the South African experience, rather than alienate it with a radical political approach.
"The title of the album can be viewed as a controversial one in the SA context, however, I am trying to say I was born in post apartheid but still subscribe to the term given to us by the colonial regime. So although we are free, we are basically still not free from the racial classification given to us by apartheid, which seeks to suppress our African identity and separate us from the rest of the black population of South Africa," said Jephta.
He said the album is thought provoking and doesn't provide answers but calls upon people, especially coloured people, to redefine themselves and also to rethink the way they engage with society.
Commenting about the album, “The Hoodshed”, he said: "I'd be interested to know what the controversy was. I find the concept of separating your identity between those classifications interesting. African first, politically black, and culturally coloured - I think it hints at something really fundamental. Hip-hop regards this kind of self-discovery as vital to our engagement with the world. Salute for contributing to the discussion."
Jephta who is from Mitchells Plain has performed both nationally and internationally and has multiple award nominations and wins, including the Mail & Guardian 200 Young South Africans List recipient and the prestigious Standard Bank Young Artist for Jazz award in 2017.
Benjamin regularly sessions with various South African hip-hop and pop artists, as as well as on TV programmes including “The Voice SA”, “Dancing with the Stars SA” and musical directs the ‘late night’ show “The Bantu Hour” on SABC 2. After graduating from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute in Boston, USA, with a Masters degree, he moved and lived in New York City, where he has since performed with Danilo Perez,Terri Lynne Carrington, Jason Palmer, and Dianne Reeves, among many others,