Dana speaks to Kaya Creator’s Corner about the season of loss that shaped her sixth studio album
Katlego Sekhu
She’s been called one of South Africa’s most fearless musical storytellers, and this week the industry made it official. Simphiwe Dana picked up the Gallo Renaissance Award, presented at the 5th annual Basadi in Music Awards at the Joburg Theatre.
DJ Fresh and Thato caught up with Dana on Kaya Creator’s Corner, digging into her creative process, her sixth studio album MOYA, and the season of grief that shaped it.
Dana has spent two decades singing mostly in isiXhosa, building a career that has never asked permission to be understood. True to form, she released MOYA without warning, no countdown, and no rollout.
Asked whether working through such personal material felt cathartic or made the pain sharper, she was direct about what grief actually costs a person who refuses to face it.
“Grief is something that will never leave you. But facing it, it helps you compartmentalise it and to prevent those huge outbursts of emotion, untethered emotion,” she said. “Because what we mostly do is that we swallow our grief, because it is too hard to face it. And I was one of those.”
As the firstborn in her family, Dana explained she carried the responsibility of staying composed for her siblings, even as it hollowed her out.
“I had to be quite strong for my siblings as the firstborn at home. So I could not cry. I had to be strong, and make sure that my mom was laid to rest in a manner befitting of her position in my life, in all of our lives,” she said. “So for a long time, because I was swallowing the pain, it was sucking me dry. I lost so much weight. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t talk. But I wasn’t crying, until one day something compelled me to go to my studio.”
The conversation shifted to stoicism carried by African women, mothers and grandmothers who rarely allow themselves to grieve openly.
“You’re allowed to be selfish. Let it fall apart. We can’t be the only ones holding the world up,” she said. “It’s okay to be selfish, at least this month, Women’s Month. Allow yourself to be selfish. You are allowed to not carry the burden and always be the one who’s keeping everything together.”
She traced that shift back to turning 40, before her mother passed, when she began to let go of a role she had held since childhood.
“I was a parentified firstborn girl child. I went off the tangent and I was like, I don’t want, I want to be a child. I’ve never had to be a child,” she said. “So now I do not care. If it falls apart, it falls apart. For now, I need myself for myself.”
To hear the full conversation, listen to the Kaya Breakfast podcast.
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