Lead singer of local house music group Shana has dumped his father’s surname after discovering that he did not follow the isiZulu culture when he married his mother.
You might have known him as Shota in the past, which is a clan name of Mdabe, his previous surname. He is now referring to himself as Shoba, which is his mother’s surname.
The singer, who rose to fame with his house hit song, uyangichomela around 2012, now refers to himself as Mnqobi Shoba.
Shoba had taken some time off from the entertainment industry to sort out his personal issues, and is now making a clean comeback, having dealt with Christian/cultural issues.
The issues entailed trying to wrestle with contradictions between his faith and his culture, as someone who grew up as a Christian.
To make his intention known, Shoba this weekend joined his longtime friend and brother, Nkosinathi Maphumulo, popularly known as Black Coffee, performing at the Madison Square Gardens in New York.
Speaking to Sunday World about the reason behind his name-change and the changing of his surname from Mdabe to Shoba, he said he grew up in Ntuzuma, KwaZulu-Natal, and was raised as a Christian. When he came of age, Shoba took a conscious decision to settle down and start a family with the love of his life, Phumeza Shoba.
“After I made that decision, it was when everything took a turn for the worst. I was so desperate to find the answers of why my life was spiralling out of control instead of blossoming. Being raised a Christian, I did not really believe in the cultural way of doing things. I was referred to three soothsayers to consult. They all told me one common thing,” said Shoba.
All the three different soothsayers told him he needed to sort out his issue regarding his surname, instructing him go back and ask his father whether he had married his mother according to the correct traditional customs.
Shoba’s mother at the time of this conundrum had already passed on. He was told by the soothsayers that when such stuff happens, he needed to go back home and find out more about the importance of his cultural roots.
He then returned home to ask his father if he and his late mother had followed the correct cultural customs in keeping with tradition and custom when couples married.
“I was told that marriage is not only about paying lobola and having a ceremony; it is also about the wife having an ‘acceptance ceremony by the groom’s family’. When I asked my father if he observed custom regarding my mother, he said he could not remember. That was when I knew that I did not belong there and had to go back – and now I use my mother’s surname.”
During that phase of his life, Shoba had already paid lobola for his wife. They had a white wedding. But then he realised that his wife went through the same trauma with her family.
“I had to be introduced to my mother’s ancestors informing them that I was back home. I then had to let go of Shota, which I had built for the longest time, and did the whole surname change which took almost a year to be finalised at the department of home affairs,“ explained Shoba.
Being friends with Black Coffee for almost 31 years, he confided in him about internal turmoil that he was battling. Black Coffee supported him, giving him the space he needed.
“Everyone gave me space because these cultural things take time to dissipate. Now the storm is over; things are in place. Nathi (Black Coffee) said to me it was about time to make my comeback. I’m still doing dance music, but it’s a bit different.”
Shoba said black people deal with these types of issues differently, and for public figures it is always embarrassing, and this brings a lot of stress.
“Sometimes it is good not to announce your next move, which is exactly what I did. I shut the door completely and dealt with my issues without announcing what I was doing and now is the time to explain what was happening to me at the time.”
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