NATIVE Exclusive: Nakhane & Moonchild Sanelly Want To Talk About Sexual Politics
"Being an artist is like being a priest, I take it very seriously"
Women have always talked about sex amongst themselves. In art, that’s no different, and it’s a conversation that’s getting louder in Africa’s notoriously conservative society, from authors honouring the sex lives of African women to female music artists holding a mirror to the more cruel experiences on the spectrum. However, society still responds with outrage whenever women openly talk about their sexual relations with recent examples such as Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion’s “WAP” birthing a movement and becoming a talking point on social media timelines. In this same vein, in Africa, women are leading a similar revolution around their sexual politics.
Several women frontrunners in Afropop, from Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage to Ghana’s Amaarae, are stepping on the necks of misogyny and societal chagrin through the execution of empowering and affirming lyrics. In a world that vilifies, silences, and marginalises women who engage in owning their own sexual agency, we need more women with huge platforms that are tell the daily, mundane, and majestic sexual stories of African women.
It is this double standard that South African artists, Nakhane and Moonchild Sanelly set out to discuss on their latest collaboration, “Tell Me Your Politik.” The single, with Nakhane as headliner and featuring guest contributions from Moonchild Sanelly and Nile Rodgers, is a mutually charged political and sexual number that prospective lovers be ideologically aligned before partaking in sexual trysts. Fierce, urgent and defiantly lacking subtlety, Nakhane and their collaborators are resolute in the idea that sex is a political act.
Moonchild Sanelly is a powerhouse of female sexuality, independence, and dominance, and as such, collaborating with her was an obvious choice for the empowering number. “I wanted to create something that would keep me interested. I wanted to make something that was not only looking at sound, but also as a non-binary person to see and play with muscle because the last album everything was really soft, flowing and feminine and I loved that but with anything that I do, I do it and I’m done,” Nakhane shares with the NATIVE, a few weeks after the song’s release.
The accompanying video also sees Nakhane in their directorial debut. Taking inspiration from the 1999 French army film ‘Beau Travail’, the world formed and exhibited in the video is aggressive and brutalist and appropriately reflective of the track’s political themes. Together, Moonchild Sanelly and Nakhane offer a deeper emotional palette into a topic that is typically criticised for its reinforced misogyny against women and non-binary people. The song couldn’t be more timely.
Ahead of their forthcoming project, we caught up with Nakhane and Moonchild Sanelly about the collaboration, the idea behind the record as well as forthcoming projects they both have.
Our conversation which follows below has been lightly edited for clarity.
NATIVE: Hey Moonchild and Nakhane, how are you both doing?
Moonchild: I’m awesome, thank you. It’s been going good. Just got back from tour and I’ve just been working on singles for December and South African summer and yeah I’m good really.
Nakhane: I’m good, I’ve been sleeping really well. I’m just excited that I’m doing this now. Yeah, it has been four years since my last project.
So how would you both describe the music you make?
Nakhane: I think about this question a lot because I’ve been in this industry for so long and I should have a quick answer for it. I think it’s because we live in a time where genres have really become quite difficult to define. I’ve always said that I make pop music and I mean it in the sense that, pop music is centred on making music for the popular world, for the public, so what that means to you differs from person to person. I’ve always wanted to make it on my own terms which is what I’ve done with the project I’ve been working on.
Moonchild: Music is like an art piece, like what does it say to you? How does it speak to you? I just play a lot, think it and write as I go. I know what my theme is but I don’t know what genre it’s gonna come through.
Nakhane: I don’t know if many musicians actually think that way. Some things are not easily described, music or any kind of art. I think the more you describe it, the thinner it becomes. You take something away from it by describing it and killing it away, instead of enjoying it for what it is.
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Let’s talk about the new single “Tell Me Your Politik.” The entire track is a call to action demanding that prospective lovers be ideologically aligned before partaking in sexual trysts. What inspired you both to talk about the orgasm gap that women and men face? What inspired that conversation?
Nakhane: Real life experiences inspired that conversation. Truly, I kept on thinking about experiences that I’d had with people I was sleeping with that I thought, “God if I had known this is who you are, before I had slept with you, I would never even have started talking to you.” I think that as much as sex is fun, it’s still an exchange of energies. I’ve spent too much of my time in this world hating myself, so why don’t I do this thing that I really enjoy with people that don’t make the world feel like shit.
In Africa, we are taught to shy away from sex, especially as women. What inspired you both to speak audaciously about women and our bodies?
Moonchild: After I lost my virginity, I wrote about sex like crazy. It’s not something I thought about like that, it was really just what I felt and it was sex. I guess now it’s just my experience, growing and knowing people so I don’t think I decided like that.
Nakhane: Exactly, what you said, “I don’t think I decided.” I think it’s one of those things where your subject matter chooses you, it’s your obsession, it’s the things that you’re thinking about in your waking and dreaming life and they’re going to come whether you know it or not. Sometimes you write something and it’s only years later you go “Oh! So this is what this meant.” I know it’s crazy when you literally listen to your song and something is happening that you wrote a long time ago, it was like a prophecy.
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Nakhane, this song is also a departure from your earlier singles in terms of the sound direction. You’re typically more pop-leaning but this fuses a lot of South African Gqom and Kwaito, was this deliberate in any way? Will we see you experimenting more with these sounds?
Nakhane: I wanted to make something louder, harder and more intense, something I could perform. It’s just also a promise I made to myself when I was in my twenties, that I’ll always write a piece of work that feels up tempo and related to dance music because dance music is such a pivotal part of our culture. I wanted to create something that would keep me interested. I wanted to make something that was not only looking at sound, but also represented me as a non-binary person, to see and play with different sides of me. On the last album, everything was really soft, flowing and feminine and I loved that but with anything that I do, I do it and I’m done because I don’t ever want to do it again. So, I wanted to go to the other side and see what this is like, to play with it and use masculinity because honestly the connotations are masculine.
What more do you both think can be done to level the playing field for women and men in sex and relationships?
Moonchild: I mean for people that are older, it’s just about empowering them actually but for kids, there’s a lot of work to be done in changing how they think and see themselves, starting with confidence and body positivity which is a very big thing in my music. I know I usually sneak in some silvers in but I didn’t this time. So, it’s like you’re writing for your future-self thinking you’re writing for your young self. Literally, because that’s all I listen to, I only listen to myself when I go through stuff and it’s only my friends that made me realise, when you go through something you listen to a song you’ve already spoken about, so it’s like you’re writing for what you needed when you were younger, and at the same time writing for your future self.
Nakhane: I guess it’s a reminder because we have everything we need , except to remind ourselves that we have everything we need but the world is set up to make us think that we need things from outside that we need this product or this person or whatever but it’s all there you know, we just need to remind ourselves. And I think we’re lucky as artists if we’re aware that we have the capacity to write those truths for ourselves. I’ve always said that being an artist is like being a priest, I take it very seriously.
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What advice do you wish you knew as a young girl growing up?
Moonchild: I grew up with a very vocal mother, I was allowed to share my feelings and because I was touring outside already from primary school I was exposed to my country more than my friends, adults or people around me, so I was already allowed to dream big. I would want every young girl growing up to be as vocal and confident as possible.
Will there be more collaborations to look out for? Maybe a joint EP or project?
Nakhane: Well I don’t know what I’m allowed to talk about but a project is on the way. It’s very good, I’m really proud of it. It’s been late for a long long time. It’s everything that I want it to be and I worked with some incredible artists like Moonchild. I feel really blessed that the world is finally going here while I’ve been cooking up and I’m making a short film!
And what’s next for you both individually?
Nakhane: Well I’m making a film and I’ve got a project coming up. I’ll be on tour next year. I’ll be performing at the YQ Gallery as well. I’m just living my life and making good things.
Moonchild: Well my album just dropped June, July this year. And I’ll be recording the rest of my project next year in February and touring I guess as well.
Watch the video for “Tell Me Your Politik” here.
Featured Image Credits/Israel Ajayi
Shekhinah Returns With Surprise Album, ‘Less Trouble’
The South African R&B star is at her most assertive on her first album in four years.
South African R&B and Pop singer Shekhinah has released a new surprise album titled ‘Less Trouble.’ The Durban star, who had been quiet for most of the year, took to social media shortly before midnight to share the new album’s cover, synopsis, and tracklist, simply stating, ‘If you’re seeing this my album LESS TROUBLE is out now at Midnight,’ in an Instagram caption.
The soulful singer first began teasing ‘Less Trouble,’ her first album in over four years, about a year ago when she released its lead single “Risk,” a bouncy Afropop-inspired collab with Ghanaian star MOLIY. A few months after the release of “Risk,” she put out “Steady,” a dreamy pop number that suggested that something bigger was on the horizon. But then it was largely radio silence about a project until its surprise arrival at midnight.
If 2021’s ‘Trouble In Paradise’ represented a coming-of-age for Shekhinah, subsisting some of the dreamy, youthful exuberance of her debut album for more measured musings on themes like heartbreak and grief, ‘Less Trouble’ finds her at her most assertive, writing and singing with the acuity of someone who is grown, decisive and discerning. The delicate opener “Break Up Season” sets the tone for the rest of the album as she shows little tolerance for shady behaviour and toxic patterns.
Other standout cuts on the album like “Bare Minimum,” a sombre collab with fellow South African award-winning singer lordkez, the ethereal, in-your-face interlude “New Casanova,” and the percussive “What Are We,” where Shekhinah contemplates the nature of a relationship but ultimately demands all or nothing, all drive home a part of the album’s synopsis, which reads ‘A BOOK ON MORE HEARTBREAK BUT LESS HEARTACHE.’
Shekhinah invites a couple of new collaborators on ‘Less Trouble,’ featuring the aforementioned MOLIY and lordkez as well as multi-instrumentalist Mars Baby and Young Stunna across the album’s 11 tracks. Mpilo Shabangu handled the majority of the album’s production, while other producers like Michael Morare, her longtime collaborator, Mthintheki Mzizi, and Vuyo also contributed to the album.
Listen to ‘Less Trouble’ here.
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The NATIVE’s First Impressions Of Amaarae’s ‘Black Star’
‘Black Star’ marks another evolutionary arc for Amaarae, and The NATIVE team offer our thoughts after a...
Change has always been a constant theme in any discussion about the career of Ghanaian-American star, Amaarae. Since she emerged as a singular voice in the late 2010s, she has evolved from a sirenic Afropop-adjacent singer into a Punk-Pop firestarter with minimal fuss. ‘Fountain Baby,’ her 2023 sophomore album, was a sweeping departure from the lilting melodies and shapeshifing cadences of the hypnotic ‘The Angel You Don’t Know,’ emphasizing her commitment to charting new courses with her music.
In the lead-up to her new album, ‘Black Star,’ she has wholly embraced a Pop aesthetic and sheen that was reflected on the album’s promotional singles, “S.M.O.” and “Girlie-Pop!.” Now that the album has arrived, the singer has advised listeners not to go in expecting a continuation of the soundscape on ‘Fountain Baby.’ As keen followers of Amaarae’s career from its start, we are sure that ‘Black Star’ marks another evolutionary arc for her, and we offer our thoughts after a few listens.
WHAT WERE YOUR EXPECTATIONS OF AMAARAE GOING INTO THIS ALBUM?
Kemnachi: I had zero doubts that she would impress me again. Amaarae always comes correct. She is audacious with her choices, taking creative risks most artists would not dare to imagine, and somehow rendering them seamless, deliberate, and effortless. Her music has a way of enveloping me: it’s fluid, slightly dangerous, and yet irresistibly sensual. Every project feels like an immersive world she has curated down to the finest detail. With ‘Black Star,’ I knew it was not going to be a mere collection of songs but another meticulously constructed realm.
Bamise: I expected something fun, genre-bending, and sonically diverse in the fashion that Amaarae’s music typically is. I may have taken the album title a bit too literally, though, because listening made me realise I had an eye out for some Pan-African statements or something to spark discourse on African identity, but I didn’t quite catch any of that.
Boluwatife: Amaarae has largely delivered throughout her career, so I knew she was going to come correct again. She’s one of those forward-thinking artists who take the kind of risks most others wouldn’t, but she always manages to make it work. She’s proven to be a musical omnivore who constantly meshes her wide-ranging influences into something new, fluid, icy, and more often than not, sensual. I knew ‘Black Star’ wasn’t going to be any different.
WHAT SONGS STOOD OUT ON THE FIRST LISTEN?
Wale: I liked “Girlie-Pop!.” I feel like it captures Amaarae’s vision of pushing Afropop into the future. She’s also really grown comfortable with music and lyricism and will not dumb down her message for anybody. The instrumental for “Girlie-Pop!” is also a wonder; it’s so dense, but there are pockets for Amaarae to be emotive about her feelings. Top song!
Daniel Akins: I need to hear “B2B” at the next rave I’m at. Amaarae is in her Dance era, and I’m here for it. Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2” with PinkPantheress is the collaboration I knew I needed, and I’m glad they finally linked up. It’s a clear standout on the project; their ethereal style complements each other.
Shina: “B2B” was the one that did it for me. That is my favourite track on the project. The number of times I ran it back was unhealthy for a first listen. It was also really fun to catch the Don Toliver “Best You Had” sample. I need to hear this outside!
HOW WELL YOU THINK THE GUEST APPEARANCES ENHANCED THE LISTENING EXPERIENCE?
Israel: The guest features on Black Star aren’t mere flexes. They’re strategic, theatrical, and sometimes emotionally resonant. They enhance, yes, but they do so on Amaarae’s terms. A standout for me was PinkPantheress on “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2.” The tradeoff is that a few songs feel like dazzling cameos rather than an integrated conversation, yet overall they enhance the album’s drama, texture, and bravado with precision.
Daniel Banjoko: Everyone showed up and delivered, no weak links here. Instead of just guest spots, they felt like vital pieces of a bigger puzzle. Charlie Wilson on “Dream Scenario” nailed his part especially, making the track sound exactly like its name promises.
Moore: The guest appearances on ‘Black Star’ feel very intentional; each one enhances the album’s world without overshadowing Amaarae’s vision. PinkPantheress’s signature airy delivery meshes with Amaarae’s experimental pop sound. Naomi Campbell’s commanding voice on “ms60” is an unexpected but powerful addition, adding drama to the track. Each feature feels carefully chosen.
WHAT SONG IS THE BIGGEST SKIP?
Bamise: Not to be a party pooper, but I don’t get the PinkPantheress collab, “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2.” It feels like a PinkPantheress song with less pop in it, and just borrows the title of the iconic Soulja Boy song but has no other similarities. It’s between that and “ms60.” For me, the chorus of that sounds like something I’ve heard from Amaarae before, and I doubt its absence would have diminished the album.
Shina: I feel like biggest skip is a strong word for a solid project, but if I have to pick a song to skip, it’ll be “ms60.” I think it’s easily forgettable.
Wale: It’s hard to single out a song that stuck out to me, but hearing Naomi Campbell on “ms60” threw me off. It’s just too contrived to bear for me.
WHAT SONG HAS THE BIGGEST HIT POTENTIAL?
Boluwatife: My gut answer would probably be “She Is My Drug,” just because of how she beautifully reworks the melodies from Cher’s “Believe.” DJ remixes of this song could go crazy. But if I were to think a bit more logically, TikTok would probably lap up “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2.”
Daniel Banjoko: “Kiss Me Thru the Phone pt 2” goes crazy. Amaarae and PinkPantheress are the perfect match. This collab feels like it was destined to happen, and it delivers in full. Honestly, I can’t believe it took this long, and now I just need more tracks from these two, ASAP.
Moore: “Kiss Me Thru The Phone pt 2” has the biggest hit potential on the album. The song has a nostalgic, sad party girl vibe that makes it appealing, and it’s also catchy and well-produced. PinkPantheress consistently performs well on platforms like TikTok, and her fanbase overlaps in a really interesting way with Amaarae’s. The collaboration feels organic and exciting, and will likely create a lot of buzz.
OVERALL FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Wale: There is a very visceral quality to how Amaarae expresses desire that I don’t hear very often in a lot of music. It’s abstracted and warped in futuristic textures, but it’s very profoundly human, and it’s always great to hear that even as she advances the sonics of her delivery. I do, however, have an issue with the thematic scope of ‘Black Star.’ I thought there would be overt references to her experiences of navigating her Ghanaian identity, but those references are limited to samples and interpolations. It’s still an incisive listen and a triumph for finding ways to advance music from Africa.
Bamise: It’s Amaarae; she can never go wrong. But for me, this is the album that excites me the least from her catalogue. Other than how bass-heavy some songs on the album are, like “S.M.O.” and “She Is My Drug” among others, it feels similar to other projects I’ve heard from her in a way that’s not exactly refreshing or mind-bending. I may have gotten spoiled by how diverse and eclectic Amaarae’s music tends to be, but I wanted more from her. I expected more gangster, Hip-Hop Amaarae. Thematically, I didn’t get anything that gives the Black Star of Ghana, or black stars are ruling the world. Will I listen again and enjoy every bit of it still, though? Yes, I will.
Shina: So first off, this is a solid body of work. I love the fact that Amaarae stuck with the Dance, Electro-Pop route she was going with throughout the album. The features also played their part, adding their unique touches to each record. I would say, though, a feature I would’ve loved to hear on this project is 070Shake. I think she would have been perfect on “100DRUM,” but we don’t always get what we want, do we? Thematically, I think Amaarae could’ve leaned heavily on her Ghanaian heritage, seeing as the title and cover of the album are a nod to that. Maybe Amaarae just wants us to dance, and that’s what I’m just gonna do, and you should too.
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Tems Partners With Hennessy For Leading Vibe Initiative
Launching in Lagos, Nigeria, this event pioneered by Tems marks the beginning of a continent-wide movement to...
In July, Tems announced the Leading Vibe Initiative (LVI) to support women in music and the creative space on their journey to make a mark in their fields and create space for other women in those industries. Born from Tems’ journey as a self-taught artist with a focus on driving change, the initiative offers training, mentorship, industry access, and community for women in music in Africa.
After a rigorous selection process for its inaugural cohort, Hennessy will join the two-time Grammy Award-winning star to celebrate the launch of the Leading Vibe (LVI) Initiative in Lagos, Nigeria. Held from August 8 to 9, 2025, the two-day event is the beginning of a bold new chapter in Hennessy’s long-standing commitment to music and culture in Africa.
“I’m excited to partner with Hennessy in bringing this initiative to life, supporting talented young women in music as they find their voices, embrace their power, and shape the future of the industry across Africa and beyond,” Tems said about the partnership.
The Leading Vibe Initiative aims to champion the next generation of female artists, producers, songwriters, and music professionals, increasing representation within all areas of music across the continent and beyond.
With Hennessy as lead partner, this ambitious program kicks off with an immersive event in Lagos featuring curated workshops, networking moments, and panel discussions led by top-tier talent from across the global and African music industries.
“Her vision, talent, and purpose align deeply with Hennessy’s legacy of championing those who push boundaries and redefine the world around them. We’re honored to support the Leading Vibe Initiative and to continue empowering African communities and cultures,” said Vincent Montalescot, Hennessy Global Chief Marketing Officer.
Hennessy’s partnership with Tems builds on the brand’s decades-long history of supporting music and artistic expression globally and on the continent. From Hip-Hop to Afrobeats, Hennessy continues to stand beside the artists and communities that shape culture.
In Africa, the Maison has deepened its commitment through meaningful initiatives like In the Paint and now, with the Leading Vibe Initiative, is taking a focused step toward amplifying women’s voices in music. With the Lagos launch as a powerful first step, the Leading Vibe Initiative will expand across Africa and globally, creating a cross-continental network of empowered women ready to shape the future of African music.
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