Doja Cat opens up on first South Africa trip with Jennifer Hudson

Doja Cat has spoken publicly about her first visit to South Africa, the country her father comes from. Briefly News reported that the rapper discussed the trip during an appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show.

A trip with emotional weight

The singer, born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, travelled to the country as a headliner on Global Citizen’s Move Afrika tour, held earlier in 2026. According to Briefly News, the tour began in Rwanda before she travelled south. She described the visit as amazing, but also “nerve-wracking” given her family history.

Her father is Dumisani Dlamini, a Durban-born actor and dancer of Zulu descent. He is best known as Crocodile in the 1992 musical film Sarafina!, which starred Whoopi Goldberg. He met her mother while touring the United States with the stage version of the production, and went back to South Africa when Doja Cat was a baby. Her mother raised her and her brother in Los Angeles and New York City.

Not everything about the visit was heavy. Doja Cat laughed as she described a safari, calling the warthogs adorably skittish. She also spoke about seeing rhinos, and about a “grandpa elephant with a younger elephant teaching him how to be a man”, a sight that clearly stayed with her.

Family meetings and a disputed account

Despite the distance between her and her father, Doja Cat was able to meet relatives on his side of the family. Briefly News described this as a meaningful step, given how little contact she had with that part of her heritage while growing up.

She did not, however, see her father. The report says Doja Cat claimed he gave reasons for not coming to her show. Dlamini’s version is different: he maintains that he did get to the Pretoria concert but was stopped by security at the entrance. According to Briefly News, the two accounts still conflict and the relationship remains strained. Neither version has been independently confirmed in the report.

The Hudson interview went beyond the South African leg of the tour. Doja Cat also spoke about her mental health and about being raised with little connection to her South African roots.

Another career milestone

Separately, Briefly News noted that Doja Cat recently became the first female rapper to have ten songs that have each passed a billion streams on Spotify.

This story is based on reporting by Briefly News.