As waka singer, Queen Salawa Abeni, plans to release another
album, she speaks on the nature of a sickness that has kept her off the
musical arena in the past few years.
About four years ago when Waka Queen, Salawa Abeni, was still very
sick, fuji creator, Sikiru Ayinde Barrister, went to see her in her
house. As soon as the woman who was in a deep pain saw him, she
struggled to say, “Alhaji, am I going to die now?”
Trust
Barrister. In his characteristic life-is-good inspiring candour, he
tried to rekindle her hope and assured her that she still had many
beautiful years ahead of her.
But just imagine how nature can
play a fast game on any mortal. Today, the Barrister that was
prophesying longevity into Abeni’s life is no more. The waka singer
recalled this encounter in Lagos on Friday when she was narrating the
difficult experience she went through in the past five years when she
went from one hospital to the other, trying to get healing for a
sickness that started as a general weakness of the body.
She
says, “Yes, my one and only daddy Barrister! I paid a tribute to him in
this album. May his gentle soul rest in perfect peace. Dr. Barrister
used to call me Omo baba e – daughter of his father. He asked me to send
my house address and he came with five members of his band. He talked
to me and made a strong statement, saying, Omo to maa sin Alhaji oni ku
loju wa. (The child who will bury Alhaji will not die young.) It is
unfortunate that he could not witness my recovery,” she says.
Enthusiastically
noting that the tough days are over, she is now returning with a new
album which, although she declined to give its title, can best be called
‘Testimony’, based on its contents.
She says, “I just finished
work on the album. I was out of the scene for some time due to the
sickness but I’m telling you that I’m fully back on stage. I just
finished work on the album last week Saturday. In the album, I first
sang about my sickness. People have said a lot of things like, ‘She has a
stroke’, ‘She is now paralysed ‘and all sorts of things. Instead of
answering them one after the other, I have decided to put everything in
the album to let people know that I am a human being. It is true that I
fell sick, but God has taken control. I thank God I have survived.”
But
there are indications that she still needs some time to fully
recuperate. According to her, during the five days she recorded the
songs, she only went to the studio in the morning. The reason, according
her, is that once it was afternoon, she got stressed up. She adds that
she recorded with all the members of her band.
On how the ordeal
started, she explains that in the first week of her sickness, she felt a
bit of tiredness and she called her doctor to check her blood pressure.
“The
doctor said my BP was up and I needed some rest. After four days, I was
discharged from the hospital and, two days after, the headache
persisted. After some days, I went for another check-heck up in
England. Although the doctors discovered nothing, I was still very
weak. I later went to Paris, France and stayed there for two weeks. When
they did not discover anything major, other than the fact that I was
weak, I returned to Nigeria.”
She adds that the doctors eventually told her that the stress she suffered had developed into hypertension.
Acknowledging
that Lagos State Government supported her when the she was sick, she
gave kudos to her 96-year-old mum who, she notes, took care of her. She
had lost her father in 1990, when she was 23.
Salawa assures her fans that she will not disappoint them now that she is back on her feet.
She
notes, “My sickness pushed me a little backward but by the special
grace of God, I will re-gain all I have lost. My lovely fans at home and
abroad have been calling me and contacting me on Facebook and Twitter
asking, ‘Alhaja what happened?’ I am using this opportunity to thank
them and urge them to continue to support me.”
Born in 1961, Salawa started singing very early, when she was in the primary school – which she never started until she was 13.
Although
the contemporary waka music was created by Batili Alake, it was the
exploits of Salawa that popularised it, especially beyond Nigerian
shores. While she has had her own share of some of the tell-tales that
trail celebrities – including marital ones – she has proved that talent
is a big thing when discovered and put to proper use.
Her fans will always remember some of her hits that include Indian Waka and Experience.
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