Cape Town-based singer-songwriter Jabulile Majola's identity is something he has spent much of his life trying to understand.
His latest album, Ipasi, released on September 11,2026, continues a story that began with his 2025 solo EP Isitifiketi. The two titles, which refer to an identity document and a certificate, reflect different stages of Majola’s life and the questions that have followed him from childhood into adulthood.
Majola was born Jabulani Majola in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal. Three days after his birth, his biological mother disappeared from his life.
He never knew her face, voice, or history. The one connection he had was her name, Jabulile, which he later adopted as his own artistic name.
“I write music telling stories of how it was growing up, and the different things that shaped the way in which I think and imagine,” Majola has said in interviews.
His childhood was spent in Greytown, KwaZulu-Natal, where he was raised by a Christian pastor in a children’s home alongside 26 other children.
Music became part of that environment early on. He grew up listening to Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Paul Simon’s Graceland, Simphiwe Dana, Hugh Masekela and Ringo Madlingozi. His experience in the church also introduced him to communal singing, call-and-response, and the use of music as part of worship. But the first music he chose for himself was not folk.
Majola started writing rap at around 10 years old after becoming interested in Kwaito and South African hip-hop artists including Zola 7 and ProKid.
For the next 16 years, hip-hop was his main musical language. He recorded music in rural studios around Greytown and used rap to explore his faith, upbringing, and questions about where he fitted into the world.
His relationship with the acoustic guitar was different. His older brother, who played guitar, tried to teach him the instrument, but Majola resisted. At the time, he wanted to become an urban artist rather than a folk singer. That changed in his twenties.
After finishing high school, Majola moved to Cape Town, where he encountered the work of artists such as Bon Iver, Leonard Cohen and Ben Howard.
In 2022, at 26, he began playing acoustic guitar seriously and moved towards the stripped-back sound that has since become associated with his music. The change also gave him a different way of writing.
His move into folk and alternative music began attracting attention online. In 2023, videos of Majola performing acoustic covers on TikTok gained traction, including his version of Bon Iver’s Skinny Love. His first original single, Woza Mntana, brought further attention from artists including Samthing Soweto, Sun-El Musician and Bongeziwe Mabandla.
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Then came Isitifiketi in 2025. The seven-track EP was named after a birth certificate, a document that formally introduces a person to society.
Among its songs was Isineke, which Majola wrote during a difficult period in his marriage to his wife, Pauline. The project earned him a SAMA nomination for Best African Adult Contemporary Album.
Ipasi takes the story further. The 11-track album looks beyond the document that establishes a person’s identity and into the more complicated question of discovering who that person is.
Produced with Ross Dorkin, the album retains Majola’s acoustic guitar at its centre while bringing in brass, cello and indie-rock elements.
The songs are largely performed in isiZulu, with Majola drawing on the language, culture and experiences that have shaped him. The album moves through subjects including unemployment, marriage, religion, faith and hope.
Speaking about his relationship with his Zulu identity, Majola has acknowledged that belonging to a culture does not mean knowing everything about it.
“I embrace being Zulu because it’s how I came into this world,” he said during an album listening session. “I learned how to speak isiZulu; I learned the culture… But because this is who I am, there are still so many things I don’t know about it.”
That uncertainty is part of what makes Ipasi a continuation rather than a conclusion. Majola has already performed at venues and events including the Kirstenbosch Summer Sunset Concerts, where he shared the stage with Vusi Mahlasela, and the Cape Town International Jazz Festival.
His current Ipasi National Tour takes the album into more intimate venues across South Africa, including Gallery on Produce in Gqeberha, House 87 in East London, Emperors Palace in Johannesburg, the Homecoming Centre and Guga S’Thebe in Cape Town, and The Playhouse Company in Durban.
The performances are designed around the same intimacy found in his recordings, allowing the songs and stories to sit at the centre of the experience.
For an artist whose music has been shaped by questions of family, faith, language and belonging, Ipasi continues a story that is still being written.
The identity document in the album title may suggest something official and permanent, but Majola’s music leaves room for uncertainty.
He is still working out who he is, where he comes from, and what parts of that history he wants to carry forward. This time, he is doing it through song.
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