One of Namibia’s leading Kwaito stars, Morocky Mbwaluh, aka The Dogg, recently published his autobiography titled,Ther Dogg: Untold Story. As part of the reading culture campaign launched by the New Era Publication Corporation (NEPC) in conjunction with the Minister of Education, Honourable Dawid Namwandi, Artlife is serialising this autobiography each Friday.
For entertainment, Max and I would sometimes steal a few dollars from Auntie Taati’s purse to go and play games at entertainment centres in the neighbourhood. From my uncle, I stole some of his tapes and I would record radio music over them. So, as she rightly puts it, you could come across an original tape of perhaps Dolam Kids, but the music on it would be MC Lyte or Da Brat. This was around 1997 and 1998, during my Grade 8 to 9 years of secondary school. At this stage, I was not really into writing my own lyrics or composing my own music. Artists such as MC Lyte, Da Brat, the late Tupac Shakur and Notorious B.I.G, and, at a later stage, LL Cool J became an influence. The first artist whose lyrics I copied and tried singing was MC Lyte. Since I first listened to Tupac, his influence remained with me and, to date, I still draw some inspiration from him.
In 1999, when I was in Grade 10, the family thought it best to place me in the Augustineum Boys Hostel – a move I welcomed. At that time at Augustineum, teachers were not serious and learners were not serious about schooling either. This school felt like a university: learners came to class only when they felt like it. There was no real sense of obligation to obey the rules. Coming to the hostel may have been good at that point but I met a lot of friends there, some of whom had a negative influence.
The hostel also negatively impacted my studies and basically appeared to be an environment that was not study-friendly. When I look back, I think I would have performed better academically, had I remained a day scholar and not moved into the boarding house. Considering that this was the time my interest in music grew, my focus was diverted greatly from books to activities that were not relevant to my education.
In the end, it was not surprising to find myself chucked out of the boarding house owing to my naughty behaviour, and occasional stealing of other people’s belongings, including shoes, clothes, etc. For a period of about six months after being chased out of the hostel, I could not bring myself to tell my family the unfortunate news. So, I had to hustle for food and other necessities during this time. My clothes and other possessions remained in my friend, Patrao’s locker. I haven’t seen him in a long while now, and I am told he is working for the army or navy in the UK. He was quite understanding. At first, I was taking chances by coming in the hostel at night and sneaking in to sleep, but as fate would have it, the hostel authorities conducted roll calls and I would be exposed.
At the time, I still believed that telling my family about this issue was not an option. So, I remained strong, and with my boys hustling together with me, there was always something to eat. At times, I would have to rush off to the single quarters with the few dollars I scored to go and get a meal. Vetkoek would usually complement kapana (roasted meat). When I downed this with the traditionally brewed oshikundu, my day was made and, for that time, hunger was out of the way. Inasmuch as the hostel authorities and the powers that be tried to nail me, they failed to keep me from sleeping in the hostel. Realising that I risked being caught sneaking into the rooms,
I would patiently wait for everybody to go to bed, climb the walls and get a mattress. The corridors, just under the stairs, was where I would sleep.
In the morning, I had to wake up earlier than everybody else, return the mattress and blankets I’d used and bath before heading to school. In this way, at school I still looked fresh and clean. To everybody else, I was still attending school from the hostel of Augustineum Secondary, despite the hostel dismissal.
It was bound to happen. My cousin, the late Kiljon Kalambi, somehow managed to bring the news of my expulsion from the hostel and my self-styled exile to my aunt and the family in Khomasdal. At this point, I could easily have been the naughtiest child in the family. Drama was my main companion during those days. Uncle Vilho was alerted to my situation at school and, as usual, he knew only one way of teaching discipline. This was in the school principal’s office and corporal punishment was inevitable.
My uncle learnt of my expulsion from the hostel three months after everybody else knew and he came to the school with a sjambok.
He whipped me with it. During this time, I was writing my exams. I am not proud to say his, but for some reason, I retaliated and hit him back. I still regret this, although I felt I was older and perhaps another form of punishment would have been more appropriate. It’s also worth mentioning that I was shy and could not stand the girls looking at me being whipped. He wanted me to attend school in the North, at Oshigambo High School, but this did not materialise. Looking back, I think it would have been good to go back to the North though. The family thought it best to place me under the care of Uncle Natangwe, the firstborn of my granny, Meme Niilonga Ester Vilho. He had a small house in Grysblock, with only one bedroom, a kitchen and a toilet but not living room.
I had a tendency to be naughty in class and study at home. At some point, I think in Grade 10, I scored 99 per cent in a mathematics test and I was called to the principal’s office to explain. When I got about 97 per cent in a business studies test, teachers were urged to watch me closely. There was this belief that I was copying from books during class tests. At this time, I was staying at Uncle Natangwe’s place.
The small house was shared by five people, including myself, and I used to sleep in the kitchen. When I got home, since I had no friends in the area and didn’t even greet my neighbours, I would just take a mattress to the kitchen and read. Magano was based in South Africa at this point, and she sent me advanced textbooks that really helped a lot, especially the physical science and mathematics boos. My sister is a keen believer in education, and I am not surprised she still wishes for me to go back to university to study.
It was during my stay with Uncle Natangwe that my passion for music grew and I started writing lyrics. In fact, some of the tracks from my first album were written during this period of my life. At that stage, I was not recording or composing music in the studios yet. My music career was limited to performances at school during talent shows, beauty pageants or whatever social event there was.
It was during these days when Amasilkies was born. I needed a partner on stage. Joe Basson was a classmate and he was doing gospel music at the time. Joe was a hard-working classmate who normally went home straight after school. We were not really the best of friends since we did not spent so much time together after school. We had our rehearsal and took time to prepare for performances. Joe came up with the name ‘’Amasilkies’’ and I liked it instantly: it had this kwaito feel I appreciated. Kwaito was big, although we were into hip hop at the time. If I am not mistaken, when I met Jossy Joss, it was during the Amasilkies era.
With Amasilkies, we tried to reach new heights and wanted to enter the Namibian Music Makers competition. That was when the likes of Willie Mbuende were on top of their game in the music industry. Willie was always on national television and was tasked with registering artists for the National Music Makers Competition. He was someone to look up to.
Myself and Joe wanted to enter the song Onayena No. 9 and Willie refused us. He told us that we did not make the grade. Knowing him as an established musician, this really broke my heart, but it never killed my spirit.
Amasilkies came to an end when we went our separate ways. Joe went on to study video editing and production, while I went to university. As fate would have it, Joe did the whole production on my very first video, which was Onayena No.9.(To be continued next Friday)