Ujola NoMeya is the title Nyon’emhlophe picked for both a song and the project it sits on. Few titles sound as much like chatter at a family gathering.
In South African street lingo, “jola” means “to date” or “spend time with someone”; hence, “Ujola NoMeya” is just a declaration about who is seeing whom. That sounds like the kind of line neighbors say over a fence before the whole neighborhood knows. It adds a really human, snoopy charm to the title.
The first thing you notice is the decision to call this record after the whole body of work. That’s what artists do when they want one idea to define everything around it. The notion here is a relationship that people talk about out loud, a topic that practically all listeners have an opinion on.
The name is also really personal. Having a person’s name in the title makes the album appear like there is a genuine figure behind it, someone real that the vocalist is addressing, taunting, or defending. Whoever Meya is in the story, the title makes you inquisitive enough to want to know.
This is the kind of issue for a Friday night with friends, when the conversation turns to who is dating whom, and will it endure? Many will smile, knowing their own business.
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