Expressive: Simphiwe Dana on stage with projections of her late mother in the background. Part of the inspiration for ‘Moya’ was healing after her death. Photo: Arthur Dlamini
“For a while I felt like I’d lost myself and I needed direction. Because I didn’t have my mom to turn to, I turned to God which led me to my ancestors”
Through African spirituality, daughter of the Eastern Cape Simphiwe Dana has been able to find refuge and rediscover purpose after loss.
“As much as my mom raised me a Christian from my late teens, I had diverged from that and wanted something more rooted in who I am,” says the singer-songwriter.
“But I had never surrendered myself completely into African spirituality. When I was trying to find myself, that part of me came through quite aggressively.
“And, through that, I could commune with my mom, even though she’s in a different place now. Most importantly, I found my place within that kind of spirituality; I found a home,” Dana says.
Dealing with the loss of a loved one is traumatic and is accompanied by feelings of shock, anger, disbelief, sadness and guilt. Sometimes the toughest part of healing, of processing those emotions, is re-imagining a world without that person.
That was the reality for the award-winning musician, who has spent the past two years rediscovering the meaning of life after her mother died in 2021. Brought up in a Christian home, Dana discovered the importance of African spirituality in her teens and both faiths have given her comfort in her sorrow.
“After my mom’s passing, I needed solace. I had lost my anchor, someone who set me on the right path, who restored me and got me to remember who I am — in many ways, my comfort. For a while, I felt like I’d lost myself and I needed direction. Because I didn’t have my mom to turn to, I turned to God, which led me to my ancestors,” shares the 43-year-old.
One of the other ways the musician dealt with the loss of her mother is through music and the curation of her performance Moya, first staged last year. Moya, meaning “spirit” in English, is a musical production which reflects on the healing power of music while exploring spirituality through sound.
“The stage is a very divine place. For me, when I’m on stage, I’m communing with God; the stage is a very sacred space for me. It’s like being in church and, in a way, I’m ministering based on my experiences and how I got through it,” Dana says.
Dana says Moya — which she describes as a “healing circle” — was born as a form of therapy where she could purge her emotions and unearth a place to store grief, even though it is “everlasting”.
According to Covid-19 Online Resource and News Portal, there have been more than 100 000 deaths in South Africa since the first case was reported in March 2020. It was also the effects of the pandemic that created the necessity for Moya for Dana, who emphasises the need for spaces that allow people to grieve the losses they suffered.
“Covid has brought us to our knees. We couldn’t confide in each other because everyone was already overburdened. The gravity of the loss for everyone was so great that we became numbed and we didn’t give ourselves space to mourn. Every day it was something else.
“We need to reclaim all that time we lost to process our emotions. Moya stands in that space. It’s a healing circle where you’re allowed to feel, grieve, be angry and cry because only through that will you be able to let go of those emotions,” she says.
Being vulnerable isn’t out of the ordinary for Dana. Her music has been inspired by the challenging experiences she’s faced over the years. Her songs, while tackling subjects such as equality, love and family, have also reflected on distress and loss.
An example is the car crash the Afro-soul artist was involved in more than a decade ago en route to Vereeniging in Gauteng. She was eight months pregnant at the time.
Dana sustained serious injuries and was left with a scar on her right cheek that later required surgery.
Just four months after the collision, the musician separated from her partner, leaving her a single mother of two.
This change, loss and near-death experience was channelled into The One Love Movement on her Bantu Biko Street album, released in 2006.
“I had to go through a process of restructuring how I see myself. My music came from a sense of loss, including my relationship, and wanting a deeper connection. I tapped into my spirit and into my ancestors a lot more. I could feel myself healing in the studio and being given songs by spirit,” she shares.
Getting into the spirit: Simphiwe Dana performs in ‘Moya’, which the singer-songwriter describes as a ‘healing circle’. Photos: Arthur Dlamini
And it’s that practice of looking inward that made South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko such a key piece in the 2006 project. He was the driving force of the Black Consciousness Movement in the late 1960s, which emphasised the importance of raising self-awareness, initiating a social, political and cultural awakening among black citizens.
It’s that critical understanding of the power of self that’s driven much of Dana’s political activism through song, often addressing issues of injustice, inequality and a critical evaluation of South African leaders.
Creative director and choreographer of Moya, Gregory Maqoma, has worked on numerous projects with the musician. He shares that the performance is indicative of her personal, spiritual and musical life.
“There’s been turbulence in her career. Some beautiful but some heartbreaking, including the loss of her mother. There was a moment where the music was getting lost and what she managed to do with this project was to recollect everything, centralising herself, her voice, mind, music and offering. What she’s presenting now is Simphiwe at her best,” he explains.
Some of the tumultuous times Dana has faced have played out in public, such as her legal struggles with former fiancé Leshoto Itsweng in 2019 and 2020, after an alleged domestic violence dispute.
She opened up about her sexuality in November 2020 by announcing her engagement to opera singer Pumeza Matshikiza on Twitter.
In tweets accompanied by a picture of her with Matshikiza posted on 5 November 2020, the artist said, “I know coming out means Africa will block me. But, after a lot of thinking, I’m okay with it. I’m marrying a woman and I’ve never been happier.”
Photo: Arthur Dlamini
It’s safe to say Dana wears her heart on her sleeve, using songs to express her inner thoughts and emotions. Mayine (“let it rain” in English), off 2010’s Kulture Noir, demonstrates her emotional vulnerability. Haunting, heartbreaking and showing off her lyrical prowess in Xhosa, the melodies show the musical gift that has continued to make Dana a unique artist with a distinctive spiritual sound.
The Eastern Cape-born musician’s career was ignited by the release of her debut album Zandisile in 2004, which earned her a South African Music Award for Newcomer of the Year in 2005. Her soulful and authentic sound, infused with Xhosa culture, has contributed to the success of her 19-year career in entertainment.
It was around the release of her debut album that her relationship with Maqoma was established. The choreographer was invited to attend a private listening session of Zandisile, where he says he instantly connected with the music.
“She was just starting her career as a musician and composer. This was about 21 years ago and a friend of ours invited both of us into a sitting to listen to her demo album which featured Ndiredi.
“I connected with her music right away and I knew she was destined for greatness. I felt there was a unique sound that followed her throughout her career.
“I then invited her to collaborate with me on my project Exit/Exist in 2011 that won both of us an award,” shares the Soweto-born Maqoma.
Reflecting on the start of Dana’s career, which inspired elements of Moya, Maqoma says in creating the movement for Ndiredi it was essential to highlight what a seminal moment the song was in her career.
“Ndiredi is a ballad. You would think there would be many bodies moving on stage but we treat it with so much gentleness because it was a key moment in her career where she connected with the public.
“It was that song that opened doors for her to be celebrated worldwide and, for me, I wanted to create an intimate moment for her and the audience to tap into each other’s synergies,” he explains.
An intimate moment in the “healing circle” is when Dana is alone on stage with visuals of her late mother projected on the screen behind her. In this heartfelt part of Moya, Maqoma shares it was imperative for him to keep the sacredness of this encounter by allowing the musician to be alone with her mother on stage.
“Simphiwe’s music is already movement personified — when you are listening your soul moves.
“In conceptualising the work, it was critical to be truthful to the feeling that the music was generating. There are moments where I create the feeling of rain, amplifying the idea of rain by bringing bodies.
“The choreography and the visuals are an extension of the songs and her story. Not to add anything that’s different but rather storytelling in those moments where it’s needed, where more clarity is required for the audience to tap into the story,” says Maqoma.
Getting into the spirit: Simphiwe Dana performs in ‘Moya’, which the singer-songwriter describes as a ‘healing circle’. Photos: Arthur Dlamini
The award-winning choreographer says it was important for him to personalise the meaning of loss and grief. Reflecting on past experiences to draw inspiration was necessary for the movement on stage to be truthful and not “a gimmick”.
Apart from providing a platform to grieve, the performance is driven by Afrocentrism and the need to highlight black culture in fashion and hairstyles.
“It’s a celebration of how we’ve insisted on being great in the many unique ways that are within our power. I wanted this to be a part of celebrating our identity — who we were and who we have become.
“All of these people that I’ve known throughout my career, whose work I’ve loved and used in the past, I wanted to bring in to celebrate South African culture today that is rooted in our Afrocentric style,” Dana says.
Costume designer and head stylist for Moya, Mpumi Ntintili-Sinxoto was mindful of this when sourcing designers to feature in the performance. Ntintili-Sinxoto, who grew up with the singer, recounts childhood memories with Dana, who had always dreamed of being a singer but later found herself studying international technology.
“I’ve known Simphiwe from when I was a kid. We spent some time together in Mthatha. It’s funny because I always wanted to do fashion and she always wanted to sing. But she just didn’t see how it would be a viable career. I went back to old pictures of us in high school to look at her then and now,” she says.
Ntintili-Sinxoto, who’s worked on Netflix projects such as Jiva! and has been a fashion editor for publications such as True Love, reveals she played on the term “moya” as spirit when styling the costumes for the show. The garments are metaphoric representations of the joys and hardships of life.
“In the first segment, I start very clean with white. There are visuals that go along with that but, in terms of the fabrication, I tried to play with laces and very flowy fabrics.
“I looked back to church dresses, little girl dresses and what those looked like. They had doily cutouts, lace, flowy fabrics — that’s what we used to dress up and go to church in. I think that’s where I started it and then I went into more neutral tones to transition.
“A couple of black outfits, that are more structured, symbolise strength and vulnerability,” she says.
Moya is a performance but it’s also a sermon where Dana breaks the bread of her own grief, sharing it with the audience which congregates in unity of loss and hardship, through song, with the purpose of offering healing and restoration of hope, something the artist says has been the foundation of her sound.
Dana expresses that she hopes audiences attending the performance will “leave with a sense of peace having emptied themselves out of all of angst”.
“Music plays an important role when it comes to soothing your demons. It has carried me through a lot. When I felt like a breakdown was coming, something drew me to the studio. It was almost as if I was being called to take all of that pain and put it into a song that will be part of my therapy,” says Dana.
Photo: Arthur Dlamini
Directed by dancer and producer Gregory Maqoma, Moya will take place at the Joburg Theatre from Friday 3 March to Sunday 5 March. Ticket prices start at R350. To purchase click here.