Song writer/music producer per excellence Cobhams Asuquo is one man everyone
needs to listen to!
CEO/ Head of Productions of CAMP (Cobhams Asuquo Music
Productions), he was responsible for Asa's highly acclaimed international album
ASA and has graced countless artists sleeve credits as producer and
writer.
In this revealing piece, Cobham talks about his life as a blind
man and the awesome lessons he's learnt being blind.
I’m a dreamer, and
fortunately for me, a lot of things I have dreamt about in my life have come
true. I believe strongly that one of the strong elements that fuel my very
strong sense of imagination and my ability to dream is the gift of blindness.
And I’m going to share with you, a couple of things that I have leant and a
couple of life lessons that could be invaluable to you as well that I have
learnt from Blindness.
So to start with, I will state the obvious fact
that I was born blind. No one else in my family of six children is blind.
There’s no known cause. No links. No explanation. Just the reality that I cannot
see with my eyes.
I was born and raise in the other side of the military
barracks. I lived in a small block of 18 two bedroom flats. I shared a flat with
my two parents, my three siblings and whatever stray pet came out way at a time.
As well as my father’s Honda Roadmaster 180 Motorcycle, which slept in the
living room with me and my siblings for fear that one of its mirrors might be
stolen by morning
In my neighborhood there were always something to look
forward to. My mornings were characterized by news of whose pumping machine had
been stolen by morning or squabbles between neighbours over who had eaten their
chicken. Actually some people try to resolve the chicken situation by tying to
attach a piece of red things on their chicken legs. I don’t know how well it
works…
Now, blindness does not have any physical, psychological or social
meaning. Since I’ve never experienced sight, I wasn’t aware that I was without
sight. And so, I indulged in the innocence of young boyhood. I ran downstairs,
jumped over gutters, played hard. Fought even harder. And got into any
imaginable trouble that a Skinny young child could get into.
On a number
of Occasions, I ran into walls. Ran into people. Ran into furniture’s so hard
that that observers will shake their head and say in Pidgin
English:
‘Person wey we dey feel sorry for, e no dey feel sorry for
himself.’
Of course my response to such a rebuke was to scurry off and
catch up with my friends and hide whatever stray bruises I had sustained away
from my mother’s disapproving eyes.
Initially, scoffed at other people’s
well meaning concern and pity, because I do not understand what the force was
all about. As I grew older and I gained more understanding of the intricacies of
living as a sightless person in a world designed for sighted people, I was faced
with the looming possibility of failure in my life. But what I actually
considered to be much worse was people were ready to excuse my failure because
of my disability. Which brings me to my first lesson.
Do not Excuse
Failure, for any reason on any account
When I turned 10, I was enrolled in a
Primary Boarding School for the Blind. Fast forward to graduation day, teachers
and other well wishers were giving us advice on going into the outside world. We
were forwarned that we would come across people who be genuinely mean to us.
People will snatch away our guide canes, pull out our typewriter ribbons, not
give us the correct change, and generally just take advantage of us because we
are blind.
And from my experience, and I’m sure most of you must have
discovered, not all public opinion is correct opinion.
So, I personally
decided that I didn’t want to want to worry myself about Guide Cane Snatchers,
Ribbon Type writer thieves, and the likes. I decided not to take that advice. I
don’t know if it was conscious, but decided to just trust. I figured that there
was so many unfortunate things in life that has happened to you regardless of
whether or not you were blind. So, why should I heap on an extra burden of worry
on myself just because I’m blind.
This is my second lesson, and it’s a
tough one, to Trust.
I have learnt this from blindness to trust. Sometimes,
even when I have no reason to.
Now, as a child I was quite a Kid to
have fun with and play little pranks on. My older brother taught me how to jump
over open street gutters so anytime I was walking with friends and they inform
me that we were approaching a gutter, I would jump – No questions asked.
Pretty soon, I discovered that my friends were telling me to jump even
when there were no gutters. Just so they could have a laugh. But even after I
found out, I still continued to jump. I chose to trust them because quite
honestly, staying out of the smelly sewage gutters was very very important to
me.
Now some people might ask. Can’t a person be too trusting? But I
think trust has no expiration date. Blindness has taught me to keep trusting. To
keep hoping. To keep believing. And by the way in case you haven’t heard,
technology came along, thankfully. And not only did it take the rhythms from the
typewriter, it also took away the typewriters themselves and replaced them with
computers and screen readers.
And as for my guide cane story, I’ve yet to
meet one friend of mine whose had their white canes snatched from
them.
As a matter of fact, at some point I got too desperate and I went
ahead in my first year in the University to buy myself a Mercedes Benz Wagon. It
broke down on the first day I bought it. And I remember my friend, we were
trying to change the tire, and anyone who called me I will say, you know what,
I’m having a little car trouble. And thankfully, we can afford better cars and I
have a faithful driver, and he’s under the watchful eyes of my wife. So no guide
cane ‘stealers’ and all of that.
Be blind to be focused
Now some time
ago, my wife and I, we walked into a duty free shop at an Airport. We wanted to
buy a bottle of water. Before I knew it, she had stopped by to browse through a
magazine, had picked up a book… seemingly normal actions for her but I found it
quite alarming.
Now, here we were. We went in to buy an item but ended up
browsing for other stuffs. And that was when it hit me. Sight, sometimes, is a
distraction. Now, I have to say that when my wife goes shopping, no matter how
good her intentions are to purchase only the items on her list, she somehow
manages to come home with extras.
Good Deals! She will like to call them.
She knows a lot about good deals, and sales and half sales. And I have to say my
wife is a fantastic wonderful woman.
Now don’t get me wrong, sight is a
precious gift. But on your way to your destination, what you see, can also be a
big distraction from your goal. So, I have learnt that you have to be blind in
order to be focused. Focus is blindness in a sense. Im sure you can relate to
this because you have been focused on your goal and attained your successes by
being blind to several things in your life.
Now, we live in a culture
that esteems sight over blindness. And associates blindness with weakness. Yet,
blindness in all of its weakness, I have drawn some key strength in my life’s
journey.
When I love the veil of childhood innocence, the brutal reality
of blindness stared me in the face. Self pity, and failure loomed over my
shoulder. Some, I’m sure would have excused me if I became a failure. But I
found it more fulfilling to break away from the expectations of mediocrity. To
successfully navigate and negotiate my way through life. Even if it ruffled the
feather of those who genuinely cared about me.
LOOD Naija
