MUSIC , SPIRITISM AND ITS CONSEQUENCES 1.
Howdy! Hope you keeping safe and doing great?
A lot has been happening on the news lately. On the front burner is the untimely demise of George Floyd (Gentle giant) in Minneapolis, Minnesota (U.S.A), the raped students of two of Nigeria's institution. We were also woken to the rude shock of the demise of Majek Fashek.
My concentration will be limited to the reggae icon, Majek Fashek who died just three days ago. A lot of revelations have been coming forth from several angles about what led to his death. To some, Majek developed a strong liking for drugs when he found himself in America while his craft was booming and was the songs you hear being played on radio stations both in Nigeria and abroad.
Majek Fashek in his heyday (Photo credit Naira Forum)
After that, Majek got involved in spiritism which resulted in his sudden rise to fame but which unfortunately, led to his eventual downfall. This second school of thought stuck with me and I intend to dwell on it a little.
Majek Fashek without doubt was a gifted musician before everything changed. I recalled while still young, I listened a lot to his song entitled Send Down the Rain and the So Long, Too Long tune.
Majekodunmi Ifakiisheke (Majek Fashek) was born on March 1949 to an Ijesha father and an Edo mother. While his parents seperated, he lived with his mother in Benin city and was a member of the white garment church where he learnt to play musical instruments and especially the guitar which is one of the musical totems of most reggae musicians.
He soon developed in music and was a member of the musical group Jastix, a contemporary of mandators whom he performed together with. When the group disbanded, he pursued a solo musical career.
His music prowess became the talk of town when Prisoner of Conscience was released to much acclaim in April of 1988. The track that did the magic was Send Down The Rain. It was said that whenever he performed the song, there will always be a downpour. This alone is enough proof that there is more to the song that meets the eye.
As it is with most talented music stars, the need to stay at the top of their game led many of them into seeking higher powers that either give them complete lyrics to songs or ultimately see to it that whatever song came out of their lips become so popular and irresistible to their listeners.
What most artiste fail to realise is that nothing goes for nothing. There are certain rules to be maintained if such music icons are to remain at the top.
These rules most times are very difficult to maintain or keep. Failure to keep to those rules will result in serious life threatening nightmares, hallucinations and irrational behaviour.
A different version of Majek (Photo credit, Too Xclusive ).
In the case of our music icon, it is hallucinations and irrational behaviour fueled by the use of hard drugs to suppress the infiltration of this implacable spirits who must get more than double for every supposed "gift(s)" they have bequeathed to their victim, that led to his downfall and ultimately, his demise.
Despite all these mistakes, Majek is still one reggae musical icon aside Bob Marley that I respect so much. But however a man is good, there will always be one shortcoming that may threaten to limit their shinning.
I will drop my pen here. What I have done here is to do a little scratching of the surface of a large body of essay which I hope do finish and publish in the coming weeks. I hope you enjoy this little offering? Let me know what you think in the comment section. Thank you very much.
I still remain yours truly, Julius Topohozin.
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