We recently connected with Catrice Jackson and have shared our conversation below.

Catrice, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

About ten years ago, I was seeking meaning and purpose in my life. I craved the end of relentless hustling to meet other people’s expectations of what it means to be successful. I desperately wanted to escape the rat race. In one of my most frustrating and hopeless moments, I decided to stop focusing on success, and instead, I unleashed my significance. I tapped into my innate desires, passion, and gifts and asked for divine guidance to seek my destiny. I started to listen to the whispers of Spirit, paid attention to the synchronicities in my life, connected the dots, and released everyone else’s ideas about success. I began to move through life with deliberate intention, conviction, and belief while staying true to myself.

Once I shifted my energy and focus to my significance, my life and business began to flourish and thrive. I was able to be significant by doing meaningful work, and the financial and emotional success I once craved came naturally and abundantly. As James Baldwin said, “It took many years of vomiting up all the filth I’d been taught about myself, and half-believed, before I was able to walk on the earth as though I had a right to be here.” My shift brought me so much prosperity that I wrote a book called Unleash Your Significance: How to Activate The Audacity to Be All You Are Destined to Be. And I still practice what I teach in that book.

Catrice, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I mentioned connecting the dots as I focused on my significance, and doing so also led me to my true name. First, one of my favorite Audre Lorde quotations has long been: “If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.” Second, the process of unleashing my significance included defining my core values. My primary core value is authenticity; being consistently true to myself is essential to my purpose and joy. Third, in recent years, my family and I have started celebrating Kwanzaa, a seven-day ritualistic celebration of African principles rooted in acknowledging and honoring ancestral traditions. One of my favorites of the seven principles is Kujichagulia, which means to define and name ourselves and to create and speak for ourselves.
Lorde’s words, my primary core value of authenticity, and the principle of Kujichagulia inspired me to choose a meaningful African name that speaks to the soul of who I am. Choosing who you are, who you will be, and how you want to be remembered is powerfully empowering. It is a legacy-creation action. Choosing the name I will be remembered for while reclaiming my African roots allows me to define myself for myself.

I AM excited and grateful to be Nyalla MKale UKwazi, Beautiful Wise Ancestor.
Nyalla (Nye-Ah-lah) = Beautiful
MKale (Em-Kah-Lay) = Ancestor
UKwazi (Ooo-Kwah-Zee) = Wise

This is MY name, because:
I AM beautiful light. I AM a daughter of the most high. I AM a wise, prophetic soul. I AM love in motion. I come from lands where African Queens ruled. I am an artist, activist, and freedom fighter. I have majestic magic in my DNA. I AM Cameroonian and Nigerian. I AM a matriarch. I AM a generational curse breaker, magic maker, and legacy creator. I AM a queen mother. I AM deep and powerful, like the ocean. I AM limitless, like the universe. I AM warm and bright, like the sun. I AM royalty.
I choose to define myself for myself and refuse to answer to what I am NOT. I choose to name myself to release my greatness from the grips of white terrorism. I choose to create for myself and not beg for a seat at anyone’s table. I choose to speak for myself and to tell and write my own story and legacy because the hunter will NOT tell my story. I AM whatever I say I AM. I will be whatever I choose to be.
I AM unwavering. I AM unapologetic. I AM unbothered.

I AM unbossed. I AM unbought. I AM self-determined to be great, significant, limitless, and remarkable. I will be a beautiful and wise ancestor whose seeds can summon when they need me. I AM a queen.

I AM Nyalla MKale UKwazi.

I am grateful and pleased to be HER.

By becoming Nyalla MKale UKwazi, I am now a singer, songwriter, and recording artist performing under the stage name Nyalla Mkale Ukwazi.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My grandmother used to say, “A dream delayed is not a dream denied,” but I didn’t understand what she meant until about a year ago. Now, I truly appreciate her words from the perspective of dusting off a lifelong dream and breathing life back into it.
Throughout my childhood and early adulthood, I had one big dream: to sing professionally as a celebrity-level singer. In the summer of 1990, I was preparing to submit my audition materials to the then-popular singing competition TV show Star Search. It was the back-in-the-day version of shows like American Idol and The Voice. But then, in August of 1991, I became pregnant with my only child, and I put my dream on the shelf. I never stopped singing, however! I sang every chance I got while focusing on being a great mother, my most important role.

Since then, I’ve pursued and accomplished all my other goals, including raising my son and becoming a grandmother; earning degrees in nursing, a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice, and a master’s degree in human services and counseling; writing fifteen best-selling books; and becoming an international speaker. And while I’m grateful for all my experiences, I decided in 2022 to not let the music die with me when I take my last breath. I was so serious about reviving my dream to sing that I built a recording studio in my basement and released my debut single, “Dilemma,” on September 27, 2023.

Now, I fully understand that dreams delayed—even for thirty-two years! —are not denied. At the seasoned age of fifty-three, sharing my music and singing voice with the world is something I do for me and for those who love Nyalla Mkale Ukwazi. That is the motivation driving my new journey as a singer, songwriter, and recording artist: to not let the music die with me and to not waste any of my divine gifts.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative?

It wasn’t always true, but now I’m glad my dream of singing was delayed! I have more maturity and wisdom and am more firmly anchored in my core values and authenticity. As a bright-eyed and naive young woman of twenty-one, I might have gotten trapped in a recording contract that didn’t serve my highest good. I might have altered who I am to fit in and lost my sense of integrity and authenticity to make it in the music industry. Today, I get to compose music at my pace and on my terms, and I own the masters and publishing rights. I get to create what feels right and good for my soul. I get to express what’s inside of me and use my voice to inspire and empower according to my own plan and purpose. And as a seasoned woman, I get to make music from personal experiences of joy and pain that I had not yet experienced when I was younger. This is the most rewarding aspect of being a creative artist, and sometimes our time is not God’s time. I believe right now is the time my creator had planned for me to use my gift of voice. It was hard to trust the process, but I’m glad I did. I’m glad I didn’t give up on myself or my dream.

Five years ago, I wouldn’t have considered myself an artist. But when I reflect on my greatest gifts and how I use them to be of service to humanity, I’ve always been creative and artistic. And I’m so thrilled to be a musical artist, a recording artist. Music has always been life for me, and today I’m finally living my big dream, not for fame or fortune, but for the love of music and the ministry of inspiration through song. There are so many rewarding aspects of this dream being actualized: I’m doing it on my terms, with my integrity and authenticity intact; I’m doing it as an act of Kujichagulia under a stage name that honors my ancestors; I’m doing it by creating what matters to me and brings me joy; and I’m leaving a generational-wealth legacy for my descendants.

I’m grateful to be Nyalla Mkale Ukwazi (Beautiful Wise Ancestor), a singer, songwriter, and recording artist. And I thank God that although my dream was delayed, it was not denied. Never give up on your dreams!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.nyallaukwazi.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nyallaukwazi/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nyallaukwazi
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/NyallaUkwazi
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nyallaukwazi
• Other: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/0SaKBRL6zj0OLeb5Dt5Ijv Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/nyallaukwazi Tidal: https://listen.tidal.com/artist/41763070 Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/nyalla-mkale-ukwazi/1705456524

Image Credits
Photographer: Charles Beason