“My dad was working so hard. I remember him passing out and then the ambulance coming to take him. He got out of the ambulance, came back home, said “I’m okay” and “I have to work”. Back then, he had several jobs. Every job under the sun. My dad’s an engineer so he’d be doing anything computer-related, graphic design, we painted walls if we had to. Anything possible for us to have food or money, we were doing. 

“My parents came here from Ghana as refugees with nothing. They literally dodged bullets so my siblings could have a place to stay, grow, and achieve things. There was a military coup [in Ghana] – the military wanted to overthrow the government with violence. My dad was in the air force. He didn’t want to use violence to end the government; he wanted to find more democratic means. They didn’t like that. So anybody who was against overthrowing the government in the army had to be arrested and executed. He was going to be executed, but my family found a way to escape. 

“I was born here but my sister was born [in Ghana]. They escaped to Nigeria, where my brother was born, and they ended up in London with our papers to get to Toronto. The day that we were supposed to move, they said “You can’t move here, your refugee papers are invalid.” We were like “Where are we supposed to go?” And we ended up in Vancouver through a church program at UBC.

“It was tough; growing up I moved around 12, 13 times. My first week of high school went from worrying about being on the football team to not knowing where we were going to stay the next day. It just made us focus on our priorities. What [could] I do to get out of this? To me, it was focusing on my schoolwork and my passion, music–trying to find a way to make that a career for myself but also to help support my family.

“It just felt like a “fight or flight moment” a lot of the time. It was very, very challenging but I lived in a family where no matter what, you work hard and find a way to get through everything. It taught us about perseverance and not fearing the worst. If anything bad happened, we’d overcome it.

“If you really think about it, we were “homeless” – but we weren’t homeless. We had several situations like that but we always found a roof over our heads. The challenges brought us together and made us stronger. It was a lot of moving, but still, I wouldn’t change anything. And [when] we found our own place, we moved on from there. It’s always those moments where you think all is lost or there’s nothing that can be done where you find out exactly how strong you are.

“I learned that worrying is useless. If we’re constantly in situations that are difficult, we need to find a solution. Instead of being afraid, I would focus on not letting the situation take us down. The reason I could do that is because my mom and dad were able to do that coming to Canada. So to me, if they can do that, then there’s nothing – financially, finding work, health-wise – we [couldn’t] overcome. This was ingrained in my mind since I was a child.

“At my elementary school, we’d have music classes every Thursday. My music teacher would play everything – The Beatles, different genres I never would’ve been introduced to if I wasn’t in that classroom. I also had a wonderful third grade teacher who read books with different voices and characters and whatnot. It made me really excited about the idea of creativity and storytelling. I’m into acting, music…that sort of stuff. It really taught me how influential telling stories can be. From that point on, I wanted to be able to tell my story or experience things in my life worth telling to people. I was always an adventurous kid. I wanted to express that through song and my imagination.

“Right now, I’m working on a big music album. I’m pretty eclectic but this project is a mix of hip hop – I use natural instruments, primal sounds, sounds of nature – RnB, soul, all mixed together. My music is a journal or my reflection of what I see happening in the world or my experiences.”