Najuah

THE NAJUAH STORY

Sometimes I feel like Jules and I wandered to get to wandering. Maybe…there was a bit of stumbling. A journey that began with our parents. There is so much to say about them. Where they have been, the dusty roads of Uganda they have walked to get us to where we are now. Two Ugandans who met, fell in love and began to dream. We are thankful because in those dreams they had they let us have our own dreams.

Our father shows us every time we visit the motherland, home, where he was born. “Right here”, he says as he points to the earth nestled between a canopy of banana trees. “This is where I started, this is where your father was born”. Our mother, born in the city of Kampala. How they met, that’s another story.

OUR JOURNEY

Our journey to where we are now has been built on the power of dreams and pure faith. We grew up in a small town, London Ontario. It’s here where we began our sweet love affair with music. There wasn’t much to do London other than explore the depths of our imagination and tune into the radio. Music became life, a second skin that painted a soundtrack that would forever shape our lives.

As children we grew up listening to songs of the motherland. You could also often hear Rock & Roll and R & B classics blaring from our balcony on warm summer nights. Many friendships were made, the music brought us together. Sometimes hearts were broken and it’s the songs that seemed to mend them. As children we were fortunate enough partake in all forms of art, whether it be dance, music lessons or visual expression. One could say, all though we didn’t know back then, these experiences were an open doorway that would lead us to a life expressed through art.


OUR INSPIRATION

We often get asked how we got started…what led us to where we are now? I can’t give you an exact answer because the road to where you’re going is never clear-cut. I will say things kept happening to get us into this, so I think we chose it but I also feel it chose us. It’s not something either of us necessarily could foresee. It wasn’t something we set out to do at a young age. It kind of became something that we truly believe we’re meant to do.

WHY NAJUAH

How did we come up with the name? Why Najuah? Najuah is the combination of both the first two letters of our middle names NA and the first two letters of our first names JU & HA (reversed). We later found out as people would hear about us or at shows that it meant something more. I remember after one show we did a man came up to us. He said “do you know what your names means in Swahili?” “No”, we said. He said “ it means patience”, smiled and wished us well. We thought yes indeed, all good things require patience and nothing worth having happens over night. We also found out that our name also means “success” in Arabic and “constellation” in Hebrew. Jules and I are sort of hippie-like, so communicating with the stars, the whole mystical vibe, it seemed fitting. Did we choose the name or did it choose us?! So maybe this is all part of the plan, only the stars know. What Jules has always said and I agree because Jules knows! Is that when you are trying to create something you must have a sense of patience, definitely something that holds true to who we are as well.

THE SONGS

The songs that live within us are the melodies we share with our ancestors. We are the essence of where our parents have been and those stories echo in our hearts. When you think of life and see where you are now…what a journey. Jules born in Kenya and me, I was born in Zimbabwe. How far we wandered to find the right beat and the rhythm that would carry our dreams and the belief that anything truly is possible.

OUR HOPE

We hope together with you, we can push the limits and live the many possibilities that this life can gift you with. We will wander until we get there. We will wander with you, until you feel the magic that this life has to offer.

I believe if you just stand up and go, life will open up for you.
– Tina Turner



BLOG POSTS
Bookings, Questions & Inquiries