10 minutes with local taste makers

When I met him for the first time, Windhoek's resident vice dealer was seated on a daybed overlooking the city skyline, with a Hansa Draught and wearing patchwork jeans. Instantly likeable!

Like most music odysseys, Tumi’s journey to becoming a brilliant DJ began as a child. Growing up in the capital, his first recollection of making music is singing in the church choir. Tumi would fool around on the drums, and later become the teenager that demanded the aux cable when hanging out with friends. So eager was he to share newfound songs, that it eventually became his career.

Completing his final years of high school in South Africa, all it took was a hop, skip and convincing his mother to study sound engineering in Cape Town. Tumi was torn between this path and marketing. Yet, in his soul he knew that if he were to choose the latter, he would spend the rest of his life wondering “what if.” He has a natural knack for marketing in any way, particularly market research, which he took upon himself during a stint in Johannesburg, a city so utterly intertwined with its music culture.

After exploring the melting pot of southern African music and fashion, telling anyone that would listen about the talent in Namibia, and gaining invaluable exposure in the house and techno scene, the wunderkind returned home. And ever since, he has been on a personal and professional journey of shouting from the decks “Namibia is here, and our music is phenomenal!”

Not all sound engineers are DJs, but arguably the best DJs are also sound engineers. The qualification equipped Tumi with the know-how to problem-solve without the crowd so much as missing a beat, and broadened his portfolio to include producing music for a roster of talented musicians and friends. Perhaps the one thing he could not problemsolve with a pair of pliers and fine-tuned ear, was the momentous adventure to reach his gig at this year’s BARHP festival.

This fashionable, talented and utterly open-hearted disk jockey is holding the door for the next generation.

Tumi was set to hit the stage at around 6pm on the Saturday of the weekend festival. The first mechanical difficulty sent his ride back to Okahandja. The second car breakdown had Tumi hitch-hiking to the Spitzkoppe turn-off, where his phone battery died, leaving the DJ stranded next to a road sign. Thanks to the workings of the universe, Tumi managed to hitch another lift with kind-hearted tourists and made his time slot with merely 40 minutes to spare.

“Everything that happened leading up to it was released during that set”, says the DJ of his two hours of crowd-pleasing boogie, proving once again how your craft can be your escape and special form of meditation.

He is one of the masterminds behind the increasingly popular Amis Day Club, which regularly sees Windhoek’s ubercool youth jam to soul, r&b and hip hop beats on a Sunday. In the foreseeable future Tumi is set to release not only his debut EP, but also a clothing line. He is bent on claiming his stake in the international festival scene, but he is not venturing into it alone. This fashionable, talented and utterly open-hearted disk jockey is holding the door for the next generation. Everywhere he goes, Tumi will have a flash drive filled with Namibian music, and a mouthful of hype about his homeland’s undeniable collective talent.

Charene Labuschagne

Art Direction: Charene Labuschagne

Wardrobe: Tumi Mohamed

KARIN’S ANTIQUES & COLLECTABLES

This photoshoot was created in collaboration with Karin’s Antiques & Collectables Owner Marcel de Kock and his mother Karin de Kock buy antiques and collectables from anywhere in Namibia.

Grüner Kranz complex, Macadam Street, Windhoek

Mondays - Fridays 09:00 - 17:00, Saturdays 09:00 - 13:00