Return of DJ Abrantee- the daily diary!

DAY TWO and DAY THREE

We wake up early. I join Abrantee as he starts to assemble the equipment. He struggles to use his left hand, turning the knobs on the console and testing the dials….against a silent background.

I sit and watch him in fascination, helping out occasionally to lift items or move some things around. I can see he is very happy to be engaged in some challenging activity.

He runs his fingers on some knobs on the console and then swirls back and forth one of the twin turn-tables. He looks up towards the ceiling, and struggles to remember things he was once a master of.

He switches on the console. He does not like the sound being delivered by the old speakers.

I observe his every move. He starts downloading songs from his laptop onto the console. The new system is working.

By the time we retire, however, Abrantee is, obviously, unhappy with some things.

I am knackered. I don’t even bother ask to him the source of his bother. I suspect it must be something about the equipment.

I shall wait until the following day to find out.

DAY THREE
I wake up a bit late.
Abrantee has left the house. I am told he went out with May7ven.

They call me from Westend Music in the West End of London. They are buying additional items including 2 brand new sophisticated loud speakers and a few other accessories.

They soon return home and start to add the new items to the set-up in the sitting room that has already been converted into a temporary studio.

He is fully equipped now- headphone, microphone, and full range of equipment. He powers it. Colorful lights of flash from the console with the sweet sound of music blasting from the speakers.

I am staring at a new Abrantee. He is transfixed, completely focused on what he is doing. He fiddles with numerous controls, obviously trying to mix songs with his one functioning left hand. He is struggling. I feel some pity for him but I also know that the last thing he wants is the offer from anyone to help.

It takes a little while, but the more he fiddles with the onions the better the beats resounding in the room. I can make out a combination of Afrobeats, R and B, Amapiaso, and Highlife beats.

Then ‘Ashake’ happens. It is a scene straight out of the book of miracles.
I have always known that Abrantee loves the music of the great Nigerian musical giant, Ashake. Ashake’s music is in the air. Abrantee raises his hands up in the air and is soon gyrating to the grinding beats, a happy smile dancing on his face. His head and arms are swaying and swinging from side to side in steady rhythm to the beats.

Abrantee is in Cloud Nine. It is a picture of the great Ghanaian-born, UK’s number One Black Radio music presenter and DJ that the world has not seen in 7 years.

Recall that Abrantee’s speech is monosyllabic – one laboured-word after another with a long pause in between. He cannot string two words together without a huge pause, like a severe stammerer.

‘Go’, ‘Come’, ‘Excellent’, ‘Yes’, ‘No’, Happy’, ‘Dad’ (that’s what he calls me), ‘May7ven’ (she has been the closest person to him in the past 7 years and probably in his life now). Every time he opens his mouth to speak, those are about the extent of his vocabulary and communication after 6 years of intensive daily speech therapy.

Unless you know him very well, and closely too, it is impossible to have any meaningful conversation with him.

So, I am watching Abrantee on the DJ console as Ashake’s masterpiece’ of a song, ‘Peace be upon you’ starts to play. That’s when it happens – ‘The Miracle’.

(Continued tomorrow)

Dr. Olusegun Odegbami MON, OLY, AFNIIA, FNIS