The one thing Khadijah wants to say to people dealing with detractors is “Hou Jou Mooi”.
The directive is also the name of the actress and singer’s new musical feature with Pequenogang.
Already doing numbers on YouTube and TikTok and recently requested by Metro FM’s Moozlie, the bilingual Gqom banger is a feel-good track for the ‘girlies’ ahead of Khadijah’s feature on Showtime 837’s ‘Askies’.
If Khadijah looks familiar but not necessarily from the realm of music, it’s because the multitalent has been steadily making a name for herself in film.
Khadijah’s film credits include ‘Ompata’, ‘#LANDoftheBRAVEfilm’ and a starring role as Namibia’s legendary hitchhiking ghost bride in ‘The B2 Passage’.
In a world where artists are alternately told to pick a lane or diversify their portfolio, Khadijah is an actress, singer, DJ, performance poet, rapper, corporate copywriter and a mother intent on doing it all.
“I know that there’ve been comments under the table saying: What does she really do? Is she a singer? Is she a rapper? Does she DJ? Like, can she decide?,” Khadijah says.
“Not that I think that it’s necessarily anyone’s business, but I understand the confusion. For some people, this is a job. It puts bread on the table. Whereas for me, I just need to get it out. I need to express myself,” she says.
“It’s not that I’m not serious about my art. I just think I look at it differently. For me, it’s not a means to an end. It’s a means for expression.”
Khadijah’s ability to express herself stems from being a really shy and quiet kid. Growing up in the 90s, the artist struggled with being perceived outside of her family unit.
However, within the safety of her own home, Khadijah came alive.
“I used to watch a lot of television as a child. I remember being three or four years old, watching ‘Will You Be There’ by Michael Jackson and thinking: ‘I want to be like that’,” Khadijah says.
“That’s my first memory. Then came Britney Spears. I would go into my room, close the door and pretend to be a performer in front of the mirror.
“Because I was such a shy child, that was my space to not be shy. I was building these characters. Then came the MTV era. So I’m a child writing about ‘Hey, DJ in the club!’. And I’ve never been to a club. But I was writing music.”
Later, at Orban Primary School, Khadijah joined a music class where they’d dance and perform a song every Friday.
“Everywhere else, I was super shy. But in those spaces, it was my time to shine. It was like that wasn’t Khadijah. That was the character,” she says. “Maybe because I was so awkward, my brain told me that, to fit in, you have to be a performer. So I think that’s why I was so drawn to it.”
In high school, at Windhoek High and Windhoek Gymnasium, Khadijah started belly dancing with Sascha Olivier-Sampson and danced with her from age 14 to 20.
“After seeing performers on television, Sascha showed me what a real-life performer is. I learned a lot of my stage presence from her,” Khadijah says.
“I’ve always been a stage child. I was a dancer, a debater, Model United Nations. Anything that had to do with the stage, where I was able to be on a mic, I was there.”
Over a decade in the Namibian arts and entertainment scene, Khadijah has been eclectic in her offerings.
After learning dance and performing with Olivier-Sampson, Khadijah met Playshis the Poet, who introduced her to Spoken Word, where she became a regular at the legendary Warehouse Theatre.
Soon, the artist met The Deck Geeks, who taught her to DJ, and she credits Drag Night Namibia with giving her original music and various alter egos a stage.
“In building that relationship with The Deck Geeks, that’s when my music career started because they were producing and I could sing,” Khadijah says.
She is intentional about naming the artists who guided, encouraged, supported or inspired her.
“I couldn’t do anything that I’ve done thus far, if it wasn’t for other people. People have pushed me, taken me out of my comfort zone and celebrated me in times where I couldn’t celebrate myself,” Khadijah says. “For some reason, Ali’s face just pops up. AliThatDude was such a cheerleader, even when you were super wack.”
More recently, Khadijah’s most frequent collaborator is Nino Pequeno (Roger Rafael). The artists have worked together across film and music in ‘Ompata’, ‘The B2 Passage’, on Khadijah’s track ‘Every Day’ and on ‘Hou Jou Mooi’, which Nino produced.
Nino also directed the music video, which features a slew of Namibian creatives and beauties such as Akoune, Bella Batista, Rossy, Thamirah, Roche, Dame Geisha Mercury, Gigi Has Arrived, Miss Mavis Dash, as well as Lize Ehlers, who Khadijah reveres as “Coloured Excellence”.
Khadijah and Nino met after he watched ‘#LANDoftheBRAVEfilm’ and then slid into her Twitter direct messages to invite her to be in ‘Ompata’.
“I think the reason we work so well together is because we’re both weirdos. He’s also a DJ and a creative director and an actor and a rapper. He’s also an explorer,” says Khadijah.“His DJ tag is Tamos Junto and when he says ‘we are together’, he means it. It’s nice to find a person who sees you, and who respects your talent.”
Joining forces for ‘Hou Jou Mooi’, it’s clear that the duo’s creative chemistry is on another level.
“A week after Nino sent me the beat, we went to the best studio I’ve ever seen, Gazza’s studio. I felt like such a superstar there,” Khadijah says. “Gazza wasn’t there, but we were in his studio. Put that in the article!”
As ‘Hou Jou Mooi’ continues to beguile local and South African audiences, Khadijah, who raps in Afrikaans and English on the track, hopes it will encourage women to stand tall in the face of any negativity.
“‘Hou Jou Mooi’ is an Afrikaans saying that basically says: People are watching you. People are gonna have opinions about you. So give them something to look at. Don’t dim your light,” says Khadijah.
This goes double if you come from a community that isn’t always reflected in mainstream media.
“I’m a coloured girl and I’m representing a culture which isn’t often represented within the entertainment space,” says Khadijah.
“I keep remembering little Khadijah. All she saw was Britney Spears or Christina. She didn’t see a girl that had curls like hers. She didn’t see a girl with a different kind of skin colour. She didn’t hear this accent,” she says.
“I just want a little coloured girl to feel represented. I think that’s what keeps bringing me back to the industry. And why,when I do a movie, or a song, I embrace the culture so hard.”
Despite the growing success of ‘Hou Jou Mooi’, Khadijah isn’t sure she’ll always be in the entertainment industry. She wants to spend more time with her daughter, further her studies and maybe even have more children.
That doesn’t mean having a song earn more than 100 000 views while being featured in over 3 000 videos on Tik Tok and boasting more than 18 000 views on YouTube isn’t awesome.
“I think as artists, there can be a lot of imposter syndrome and self-sabotage. Feelings of maybe I’m not good enough. Maybe this just isn’t for me,” Khadijah says.
“Then things like this happen and it takes me back to that little girl. I always felt like I had to create these characters and pretend to fit in,” she says.
“I don’t need to pretend anymore.”
Follow Khadijah on TikTok, Instagram, Apple, Spotify and YouTube.
– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com
