Cobhams Asuquo: The Nigerian singer who hated his own voice

Cobhams Asuquo is now one of Nigeria’s leading musical figures for both his production and his singing, but he started his career behind the scenes because he didn’t like the sound of his own voice.

Asuquo’s tone is serious and measured when he explains that he doesn’t like his own voice, almost as if he were describing someone else. That discomfort with what he now shows his fans around the world was the main reason he spent the first 13 years of his music career producing some of Africa’s biggest stars, he told the BBC.

Asuquo, 41, has worked with a number of Afro music stars, including Asa, on his 2007 hit album of the same name. As for his own music, which is a mix of soul, gospel, RnB and Afropop, his hits include singles like We Plenti, One Hit and Ordinary People.

He is eloquent and lucid when he talks about his love of music, but on the subject of his discomfort with his voice, he loses some of his fluency and cannot fully explain it.

He even goes so far as to use the word “hated”, and then falls asleep.

“There was something about that that just didn’t sit right with me,” he says thoughtfully.

It is a sentiment that is backed up by your best friend.

“He has always said that,” Muyiwa Oyinlola agreed, but added that Asuquo has always had an uncanny ability to imitate other people’s voices.

In his school days at the prestigious King’s College in Lagos, Mr Oyinlola remembers that Asuquo, who is blind, had a radio recorder to help him in his classes. He used to record teachers on it, but not always for educational purposes.

“He would just make a mess and imitate all the teachers and all the teachers at home,” recalls Mr. Oyinlola fondly, describing Asuquo as “the life of the party.”

It’s that gregarious part of her personality that Asuquo wants to show her fans more of as she prepares to release a new album later this year and marks 20 years in the industry.

Most of his tracks to date are on the soulful side, as opposed to club bangers.

The new record, which will feature Afrobeats stars like Ladipoe and Bella Shmurda, will be accompanied by more performances, which he describes as “much more energetic” and full of dance.

He says he finally started singing when he realized there were things he could do with his voice that other people couldn’t.

But getting on stage is not an easy thing for Asuquo.

“I get stage fright all the time. I’ve never been on stage without being nervous. Never,” he says, a note of humor in his tone.

He even jokes that as he prepares to face the crowd, he sometimes swears to himself that he will never go through the torture of another performance again.

He sounds animated as he explains what he does to calm his nerves, including jumping in place and praying.

At the mention of prayer and faith, Asuquo becomes cerebral and true passion emerges. He describes an almost trance-like state when he actually begins the performance: “Sometimes it’s hard to get me off stage,” he says. “I’m in my zone.”

Asuquo, who describes himself as a deeply spiritual person, says conversations with God played a key role in his decision to dedicate his life’s work to music, after trying the law.

Despite his current fame, Asuquo has not always had such a warm reception in the Nigerian music industry.

Blind from birth, early in his career he faced discrimination. He recalls an incident when an artist did not want him to produce his music.

“He was an A-list artist who is still very relevant today in the Nigerian music space, and we had a session booked and he was supposed to walk in with the rest of his band.”

The artist never appeared.

“I was in the studio and I waited for eight hours.”

Asuquo later learned that the musician in question was uncomfortable working with a blind producer on his band’s next single.

But these types of incidents are not the ones Asuquo likes to dwell on.

“I kind of felt like [it was] his lost.

“I pretty much moved on and that’s my general disposition.”

Before entering the world of music full time, Asuquo also faced closed doors in his attempt to study at an American university. He had a scholarship and everything was arranged, recalls his friend.

“At the last minute, I think it was pulled.”

The university was concerned that “a blind person from a developing country” would not be able to cope. Although it was a difficult period for Asuquo, according to his disposition, he ignored it and moved on, says Oyinlola.

Asuquo attributes her positive attitude to her upbringing.

“I am who I am because of the kind of love my family showed me.”

Though they sometimes didn’t know how to navigate the “unfamiliar terrain of raising a blind child, I feel like they did everything they knew how to do at the time,” she says.

Faced with the challenge of not being able to attend school until he was 10, Asuquo said his family made an intentional effort to treat him like any other child and created a sense of “normalcy.”

His parents taught him that being blind was just another descriptive adjective, like being “light or dark in complexion”, or tall or “not so tall”.

Asuquo learned to play the piano by ear on a small toy instrument at a young age. A friend gave him his sister’s toy piano, but he warned Asuquo never to play it outside because her sister didn’t want to give the instrument away, even though she didn’t play it herself.

His fond childhood memories propel him into his work as Nigeria’s first national UNICEF ambassador in 15 years.

Any problem related to children’s rights or the rights of disabled children is a symptom of the country’s leadership problem, says Asuquo, lamenting the shortage of “honest and responsible” leaders in the country.

He thinks his background can help him in his quest to improve the lot of Nigerian children, saying that music can be “a very important tool for social change, for social justice, [and] for social reengineering”.