On her new EP, ‘All The Things,’ the Dutch-South African artist reflects on exile, belonging, motherhood, and the cities that continue to shape her sense of self.
Tšeliso MonahengTšelisoMonahengJohannesburg-Based Southern Africa Correspondent
The Dutch–South African artist gathers the emotional threads she has been exploring over the past year into a single, intimate body of work on her new EP.by Aka Dre
On the day we connect with Joya Mooi, Johannesburg is in the grip of a wave of marches billed as anti-illegal immigration, though in practice targeted at anyone who doesn't look South African, itself a contentious proposition for a people whose connections are scattered across Southern Africa.
As unfortunate as the timing is, the unrest has once again brought to the fore urgent questions about who belongs, who doesn't, and who gets to decide. These are questions the artist has wrestled with, in one form or another, across a career spanning five studio albums, four EPs — the latest of which is All The Things (2026) — and multiple singles stretching back to 2010.
"I just resonate with places where there's a real way of connecting to each other. The reason I come to Joburg every year is because of the conversations I have with people. I experience the same thing in London and in Mexico City. I landed in Amsterdam by way of my parents, who moved to the Netherlands, and I've built a home here. It really isn't one of the best places for random conversations with people, which is funny. I love it here. But I truly view Joburg as my second home. Spiritually, it's the place I need to be to feel fulfilled, to feel seen, and to see others as well," she says.
Mooi was born to a Motswana freedom fighter father who joined the ANC at 17 and ultimately took up the armed struggle in Angola, where he met her Dutch mother, a medical doctor and activist who provided medical care and relayed information about the political situation back home. That foundational layer — of exile and liberation, of making homes in different places — is one she keeps returning to in her work.
Her connection to the history of struggle in Southern Africa runs deep. Countries like Lesotho, Eswatini, Botswana, Zambia, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Angola were strategic entry and exit points for the ANC and its armed wing, Umkhonto weSizwe, providing bases from which the fight against apartheid was waged both within and beyond South Africa's borders. For Mooi, these histories are a lived reality.
"It has been the starting point for everything: how I view myself, how I view my identity, how I see my parents, and how I can see them for who they really are. They met in exile, in a situation where, honestly, I don't think people should be having children. But I am a creative because of their choices. I really wanted to use my voice to try to understand what happened to them, what happened politically. My father joined the ANC at 17 because he believed the whole system was wrong, but also because he felt he had no place in his own household. Having my own family has taught me a great deal about home and belonging."
“I feel like letting go is the real thread running through this EP," says Joya Mooi.by Aka Dre
She couldn't make music for two whole years after graduating. Having studied jazz at the ArtEZ Conservatorium — a discipline she both reveres and struggles with — she found herself over-analyzing everything, which led to creative paralysis. "I grew up in a household filled with music, but I really struggled when I was studying it. I didn't feel free enough to make things my own; I still felt the need to sing, move, and write in a certain way. And because jazz standards are held in this kind of sacred chamber, it was hard for me to create anything within that realm on my own terms," she explains.
But jazz has informed the way she approaches her music, an organic blend rooted in Neo-Soul and hip-hop influences. The threads that are found on some of her earliest works, like 2010’s Hard Melk, continue to find resonance all these years later.
"Every time I release an album, I get super stressed. There's so much more intention and gravity. I try to stay away from albums at this point because they give me anxiety," she says, laughing.
It's the weight of having to present a coherent, unified set of ideas. "For me, an album should have a specific beginning and end. It should resonate on different levels, but still be one story, one thing that ties everything together," she adds.
Having grown up with classic records like Janet Jackson's The Velvet Rope, she understandably has high benchmarks. The EP format, by contrast, offers her freedom and room to experiment.
Her latest, All The Things, is striking in how it maintains a coherent sound despite drawing on a range of producers, like South African duo Easy Freak, SirBastien, and Mooi herself. The collection was born from a session with Easy Freak during a visit to Johannesburg, and grew into the funky, five-track work she eventually released.
"I had a coaching session with Nile Rodgers two years ago, and he told me I should have an open mind when entering a session. I was like, I hear you, but I just can't. I'm really particular about the sounds I like and the stories I gravitate towards. Whenever I enter a studio, I already have an idea of what I want to create that day. With the EP, I almost knew what I was making beforehand, I really like curating that way. I may be an overthinker," she confesses.
And yet, life intervened in the most beautiful of ways when she discovered that she was pregnant with her first child last year. "I told myself: hey, I know you're a planner, but you have to let things go. You have to give in to what's coming, give in to life and new experiences. I feel like letting go is the real thread running through this EP."
