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| Image credit: BBC |
Anita Jaxson features in this week's episode of This is Africa on BBC Radio's Africa focused flagship show hosted by DJ Edu. On the show, Anita shares details about her musical journey so far, her influences and an upcoming book.
Anita started singing at a young age. "I started singing at the age of 12, I could not sing at all, but my mom discovered that I was very passionate about music so she often called me into her room, and make me sing Adele's someone like you." she says.
She almost quit music entirely and we would have never heard about her music, if it wasn't for Poptain. "There was a time when I decided to drop music because, the people I was working with, mismanaged me. So, It kind of demeaned my spirit. I decided to go work at an IT company and then Poptain came to my office one day. He was like; you are talented, your voice needs to be heard. I feel like he was my guardian angel, he came to rescue me."
Anita Jaxson's first ever song recorded was a feature on Poptain's Duffle bag. "My first release was Duffle Bag with Poptain, I was featuring on his song and from there we did Fire, my song."
She launched her career with the chat topping, Unonzani featuring Jah Master. "Sometimes, I would actually hear the song playing on the road, when I was in the house." she says about Unonzani's success. "I actually enjoyed working with Jah Master, he is so energetic.
She started off her music career preforming dancehall songs but felt a part of her was missing in the music she made, so she switched to a more singing, emotion expressing Amapiano genre. "Let's say 80% of the people in Zimbabwe love dancehall." she says "People used to call me Badgyal, so I started doing Dancehall but I felt like there was a part of me that was missing. This year, I decided to change and start doing Amapiano, which is like more me because, you get to express your vocals, you get to hear your sound, there is more emotion in it, I released High On Your Love. I was like; we have nothing to lose, let's try and see. Everybody kept on saying to me; this is you, get rid of the Badgyal dancehall."
Anita Jaxson is also an author, with an upcoming book about albinism and child marriages titled Screams for help. She uses writing and creativity as a form of therapy. "I was in a terrible car accident in 2017, which left me very depressed. I've actually got 5 screws in my leg. I couldn't even bath myself, I couldn't go to the toilet by myself, I always needed assistance. Writing that book really helped me, it was like therapy, it was like medication." My story is about albinism and child marriage, I chose child marriage because it's a social ill we face this side a lot, like in Zimbabwe." she says
Anita Jaxson also addresses myriads of problems affecting the youth of today, and how they are all hungry for change. "I wrote a song titled Numb when I started my career and for me, it was sort of a prayer to God. Because, if you listen to the lyrics... So many social ills that we are facing especially here in Africa; drug abuse.. so much unemployment... Fortunately, the youth are hungry for change. I see that there is a shift due to social media, we get to expose these things that are taking place, I m very happy, I know we have a long way to go but the fact that there is progress, we are taking one step at a time."