Baariek Losper was still in primary school when he learnt the importance of dropping to the ground when the gunfire started.
Childhood in Manenberg, he recalls, meant ducking bullets on the way home from Red Rover Primary and having gangsters put pressure on you to sell drugs to your classmates.
“As a child growing up in that you have to constantly remind yourself that this isn’t the life you want,” says Baariek, 27, who now stays in Athlone. “You have to tweak your mind into thinking that you will get out of this and that you will not become a gangster.”
A child who doesn’t have to grow up in Manenberg is a lucky child, he says.
Drugs, crime, and sex gnaw away at innocence, and their ready availability can be hard to resist for young people with few options in a poor and violent neighbourhood.
But Baariek did resist. When he got home in the afternoons, the songs of his father, Riedwaan, and gran, Inshaaf, would carry him away to somewhere else, somewhere better. His father would perform at variety shows and he took his son to musicals – that’s how Baariek fell in love with music.
Baariek won a 2008 music competition on the KykNET show, Joltyd, which the late Taliep Petersen used to present.
After that he formed a duo with his sister, Inshaaf, and they toured the country with various artists.
In 2013 he was approached by a musical company to go on a Michael Jackson tribute tour to Spain for five years. He performed in Monaco and France and grew his curly hair to mimic the music icon.
“People were stunned that I could impersonate him, and I quickly had to learn the way he sings and moves.”
His favourite song is Michael Jackson’s Heal the World, which he will be performing at his first and solo show, a Michael Jackson tribute, at the Blackpool Hall in Salt River, on Saturday November 16.
His dream is to perform on bigger stages in South Africa in the near future.
“My advice to fellow youth is to push hard to achieve your goals. There will be obstacles along the way, but don’t ever give up on your dream.”
Tickets can be bought from Baariek Losper. For more information, call him at 073 159 7612.