Waji-Mh’s “Sweet Mama” Holds Space for Maternal Love and Memory

Yinka Olatunbosun

Waji-Mh, born O. Jean Isekhure, adds his sultry vocal to create a deeply emotional song that adds to Nigeria’s canon of songs about mothers on his song, “Sweet Mama”. The rising Afrobeats singer-songwriter and R&B artist, recognizes that some topics within the Nigerian music industry require reverence, emotions and honesty. As a tribute to Nigeria’s songwriting tradition about motherhood, “Sweet Mama” released in November 2025, falls into the same lineage of songs as Prince Nico Mbarga’s “Sweet Mother” from 1976, a track embedded within the nation’s consciousness to the point where it is played at celebrations and funerals, and Asa’s introspective “So Beautiful”, which reflects on the relationship between mother and child; and others.

In “Sweet Mama,” Waji-Mh gives a tribute to mothers in a manner that shows his reverence for mothers, due to understanding that mothers have traditionally been celebrated through music. In the intro section, guitars come into play gradually. When vocals start to flow through sound waves to reach the listener’s ears, they have a soft accompaniment that is part of a mellow rhythm dominated by drums. Artistically speaking, it holds significance to Waji-Mh that comes through due to his understanding of releasing tracks like “Forever” and “Believe” to hone his skills. Across his old tracks and now “Sweet Mama,” Waji-Mh appears increasingly committed to songwriting that privileges intimacy, memory, and emotional clarity over chart-chasing move.

What distinguishes “Sweet Mama” from mere homage is how Waji-Mh grounds his devotion in cultural specificity. He opens with “Meh ghi setin mia mi iyemwen”, sung in Edo language of his heritage, which translates to “I will never forget my mother.” This linguistic choice is brilliantly thought out. It shows that some emotions are most accurately expressed in the language of origin and that homage to this profound requires the specific cadences of home. The repetition of “Iye ni Iye (mother, oh mother)” anchors the song in cultural rootedness.

The first verse opens with a blessing as both gratitude and prayer: “God bless the day you were born / God bless the day you brought me to life”. “Thank you for the plenty things you went through to give me a life,” has a conversational tone to it because of the informality that makes the gratitude feel so timely here. It is a man speaking to his mother. The call to “keep her good legacy” and “do those good things she loves to do” appears to elevate the tribute anthemic element into actually being a set of instructions on how to live out the qualities which have been imparted through maternal devotion.

Ultimately, ‘Sweet Mama’ could be said to be an entirely personal yet socially informed sound, a deeply personal tribute to mothers everywhere, both living and dead, that examines the ‘depth’ at which mothers eagerly occupy the place in our emotional infrastructure, which is both highly personal yet universally shared. Waji-Mh, by locating this with the specificity of the Edo language, creates a song that, indeed, reaches into both an intimate and an expansive possibility, one that above all locates the irreplaceable truth about Afropop, no matter its evolution, being that its capacity for grasping emotions not contained in words continues unaltered.