FIGHTING ODDITIES OF LIFE
While I shouldn’t-because I can’t-claim authority to her history, the trajectory of Alhaja Salawa Ibiwumi Abeni’s life voyage is, however, an open book accessible to the public being a public personality since adolscence in the early 70s. My opinion on this woman is that she was heavily exploited by the system in which she found herself as a result of her prodigious musical talent discovered and marketed when she could hardly make a distinction between dream and reality. Any other thing said or written about her is an appendage. However, Salawa has accepted those painful experiences as necessary ingredients needed to be strong on the battlefield which this life symbolises. Perhaps, if her road had been platted in gold since she released her successful debut elpee in 1976 with equally successful follow-up albums, exhuberance would have stolen the glorious future she enjoys today. She would probably have slid into the dungeon of oblivion. Haven’t we seen kid stars who failed to shine beyond breakfast? Haven’t we also seen those who shone beyond breakfast but eclipsed just before lunch? This must have informed Salawa’s consistent calmness during her reminiscence moments. I can’t sincerely claim to be a strong fan of her genre because I enjoyed the late Alhaja Batile Alake better, but her doggedness to take her destiny into her hand, reportedly single-handedly funding education of her children, warmed her into my heart as a role model to ladies who voluntarily tie their destiny to that of another sex. She ensured that her children have formal education she had not. But happily, Salawa has fought illiteracy now featuring on radio and television shows where she speaks English language, which one, who didn’t study beyond primary school in Epe Waterside, shouldn’t be at home with. She doesn’t only speak, she does with good, tolerable diction that speaks good of the quality of tutorials she went through. Even when she occasionally misses her tenses, she does with calmness and promptly corrects herself. A duet with her son, her massive Big Sheff was impressive appearing on stage like the guy’s girl friend. Undoubtedly, Big Sheff is the fruit of Salawa Abeni’s hard work on stage and in studios. Here is wishing waka queen many more years of performance. And sound health too. Amin.
