Doja Cat’s ethnicity is mixed; she has both African and Jewish-American ethnic roots while her nationality is American. Doja Cat is of Jewish extraction from her mother’s side and she shares her father’s South African Zulu heritage.
She is a professional American musician born Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini to her parents, Dumisani Dlamini and Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer. The 28-year-old has been in the American music scene since 2012, but her rise to fame came around 2018 after the release of her album, Hot Pink. While she is of American nationality, her true identity and roots have a more interesting outlook.
What Is Doja Cat Ethnicity?
Doja Cat has mixed ethnicity; having a Jewish heritage from her mom, Ashkenazi’s side while having a South African roots from the Zulu tribe on her father’s side. Her Zulu heritage sees her come from one of the most dominant tribes in the Southern part of Africa. Her dad is originally from Durban, South Africa. At the same time, she revealed that she is from California in the USA, where she was born and raised, which means she is American by nationality.
| Key Facts | Ethnicity and Nationality | Parental Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| Ethnicity | Mixed (Jewish-American and South African) | Mother: Jewish-American Father: South African |
| Nationality | American | Born in Los Angeles, California, USA |
Where Are Doja Cat’s Parents From?
As indicated, the parents of Doja Cat are Dumisani Dlamini and Deborah Elizabeth Sawyer. While her father is from South Africa and is of Zulu extraction, her mother is an American who is also Jewish. With the foregoing, her father is black while her mother is Caucasian.
Despite their separate nationalities and ethnic backgrounds, Dlamini and Sawyer first met in the 1990s in the United States, where Sawyer lived while Dlamini was working there. The pair fell in love, and on February 27, 1995, they got married. Unfortunately, they encountered some issues in their marriage that led to their separation on October 14, 1995, only 15 months after they got married.
A few days after the divorce, on October 21, 1995, his daughter, Amala Ratna Zandile Dlamini, who is now famous as Doja Cat, was born. Because of the divorce of her parents, the rapper was brought up by her mother and grandmother without the involvement of her father in her life. Her mother mainly introduced her and encouraged her to follow her musical career.
Doja Cat Does Not Have A Strong Relationship with Her Father
Although her father is also into the entertainment business, he did not contribute to his daughter’s career path. According to Dlamini and Doja Cats, the two have never met as he separated from her mother even before birth. That said, Doja Cats revealed that when she was 13, she had always wanted to meet her father, but as time progressed, something changed.
Dlamini, on his part, revealed that he was also looking forward to meeting his daughter. After her parents separated, her father moved back to his home country of South Africa, hoping that Sawyer and their two kids would join him. The paths of her parents did not cross again as her father remained in Africa, where he continued pursuing his career as a musician and actor.
Twenty-seven years after the split, it was reported that Deborah Sawyer had filed divorce papers to have the marriage formally ended. In her filing, Sawyer requested that the marriage be ended on the grounds of irreconcilable differences. She did not want either of them to receive spousal support. Dumisani Dlamini indicated that he was looking forward to meeting his daughter.
But all efforts proved abortive, mainly because the company that manages her and runs the entertainment affairs has been blocking him and refusing him access to her because they want to create a story to make things happen. On her part, Doja revealed that he has always been in the background, encouraging and commenting on her posts on Instagram.
Did Doja Cat’s Ethnicity Influence Her Career?
Although it is unclear if Doja Cat’s ethnicity influenced her career path, it is known that she has been influenced by the people around her. The rapper spent some period of her childhood with her Jewish grandmother, who was an architect and a painter. This has had a huge impact on her creativity.
More so, her mother enrolled her in performance art schools. Her mother always listened to music when Doja was a little girl, which sparked her interest. Her father is a musician and actor known for his role in the 1992 film Sarafina, alongside Whoopi Goldberg and Leleti Khumalo.
While he was not necessarily in her life, she might have inherited his creative side, but he did not have a direct influence on her. It was much later in her life that she knew he was into different things, including dancing.